Days after rumors spread across this industrial city that Christians were conducting a mass baptism, hard-line Islamic leaders called for local mosques to create a youth guard to act as moral police and put a quick stop to forced conversions.
They started training early Saturday morning, around 100 young men turning out in a field in Bekasi wearing martial arts uniforms. Leaders stressed that there was no plan to arm them, but they do not shy away from saying they’ll act essentially as thugs.
“We’re doing this because we want to strike fear in the hearts of Christians who behave in such a way,” said Murhali Barda, who heads the local chapter of the Islamic Defenders Front, which pushes for the implementation of Islamic-based laws in Bekasi and other parts of the archipelagic nation. “If they refuse to stop what they’re doing, we’re ready to fight.”
We have recently had some Indonesians in our church family return tthere because they had understood that things were quieter. Let’s pray for them all.
It’s good to have such blatant anti-Christian prejudice exposed on a regular basis. It’s an eye-opnener for the general public. And it’s good for us Christians too, lest we forget, as we so easily do, that violent persecution of our brothers and sisters in Christ is common in many places around the world. Remember East Timor??
David Handy+
The charge of “forced conversions” is common. Christians do charitable works, people come to believe by their example, seek baptism, and their neighbors claim they are “forced” or “paid” to convert.