Dangerous days for Christians in Indonesia

Religious liberty is seriously threatened in Indonesia and Christian security is increasingly tenuous, reports the Australian Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission.

Because Indonesia’s president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, depends on Islamist support in parliament, he is reluctant to challenge the issue of increasingly violent Islamic intolerance. Because the ascendant China is courting Indonesia, the US is reluctant to challenge Indonesia over its serious decline in religious liberty.

West Java is a hotbed of militant Islamic fundamentalism where Christians are less than two percent of the population. Last year Muslims there were called to form Islamic paramilitary forces in readiness for jihad. As tensions grow and protection diminishes, Christians in West Java and Papua become increasingly vulnerable.

Islamic zeal and belligerence will escalate as Ramadan progresses during August. A city council has threatened “mass mobilization” against the Christian population, for whom these are dangerous days. Please pray for God's intervention and for divine protection.

You can read the full report here.

Please pray that God will:

• draw his people into prayerful dependence, that they might “wait for him” (Isaiah 30:18) and see his salvation; through it all, may the Indonesian Church -- in grace and by the power of the Holy Spirit – be light, salt and yeast for the glory of God.  
• intervene for the protection of his people and the advance of the gospel in Indonesia. 
• expose the intolerance of Islam, while frustrating the schemes of the wicked (Psalm 146:9).