INDONESIA – Sunday Club case goes to high court
02/08/05
Judge scolds accused, spectators heckle them
With angry hecklers in the West Java courtroom calling them liars, three Indonesian women, accused of trying to convert Muslim children, attempted to defend themselves.
Rebekka Zakaria, Eti Pangesti and Ratna Bangun were questioned about activities and materials used in their Christian education programme for children from a primary school.
The three housewives faced threats from a yelling mob of over 150 Muslim extremists during a court appearance.
The three are evangelical Christians who belong to the Church of David's Camp in Haurgelis, a strongly Islamist area in West Java which is about 2 per cent Christian.
It is alleged that the women were teaching mixed classes of Muslim and Christian children how to read and write. Even worse, they took the children on field trips to parks and swimming pools, and rewarded them with treats such as pencils for memorising Bible verses.
Islamists took over the court before proceedings began and conducted an Islamic worship service. Leaders in the mob also used a megaphone to make a series of speeches, warning the judges that they were willing to shed their own blood for justice if the women were not found guilty or were given a light sentence. View a video of this alarming activity (courtesy of Jubilee Campaign).
"Abuses"
Many of the alleged "abuses" took place during their church's Happy Week earlier this year.
The three women have been held in prison since May, charged under Indonesia's criminal law with using "lies, deception or enticement" to change a child's religion.
Ms Bangun explained that the children prayed, read the Bible, sang and sometimes coloured-in pictures.
In response, Judge Hasby J Tholib said the women should never have allowed Muslim children to attend the programme.
Ms Bangun and Ms Zakaria replied that they had no hidden agenda and had been completely honest with the children's parents, who gave full consent to them attending the programme – though none will come forward to say so now.
Before the hearing ended, the prosecuting attorney announced that the case would be transferred to the High Court, a move that could considerably lengthen the trial.
Violent history
About 10,000 Christians were killed in Indonesia between 1998 and 2003 at the hands of Islamic Jihad Warriors and about 1,000 churches were burnt down by Islamist mobs.
Approximately 100 Christian churches have been closed down in the past five years alone in West Java.
Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world with some 88 per cent of the population Muslim. Christians make up less than 10 per cent of the population.
Radical groups such as Laskar Jihad and Jemaah Islamiyah want a separate Islamic state in the region, and have attacked Christian churches and villages.
Such clashes killed thousands in the eastern Maluku islands in the past few years and thousands more in Central Sulawesi.
Christians helping in Aceh after the Boxing Day tsunami were recently asked to leave for "making Muslims uncomfortable".
(Compass/CFI)