A church in Mamasa in the West Sulawesi province of Indonesia was burned down during the pre-dawn hours of Sunday, June 27, International Christian Concern reports. No one was in the Toraja Mamasa church building at the time of the arson, and the destruction was discovered as people arrived later in the morning to worship at the Sunday service.
Police in Indonesia have uncovered an Islamist terrorist plot to attack several churches and assassinate a church leader in the country’s Christian-majority province of Papua, Worthy News learned Thursday.
The killings of four Christian farmers underscore mounting Islamic extremism facing Indonesia’s Christian minority, Worthy News established Tuesday.
Four Christian men were beheaded in Indonesia earlier this month, in what is believed to have been an attack by East Indonesia Mujahidin (MIT) Islamic terrorists, Christian Today reports. The horrifying attack was carried out just six months after four Christians were murdered at a Salvation Army outpost in Sigi, Central Sulawesi.
The West Papua Council of Churches urges the United Nations to help end a “humanitarian tragedy” in Indonesia’s Papua region where it says Indonesia’s military kills Christian leaders.
Easter celebrations on Indonesia’s only Christian-majority island were overshadowed by flash floods that killed scores of people and displaced thousands, officials and Christians said.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo pledged to break up a terror network Sunday after two suspected suicide bombers attacked a Catholic Church in the city of Makassar, injuring 14 worshipers.
A Pentecostal church in Yogyakarta, Indonesia has again been granted permission to build a worship center after a previous construction permit (IMB) was revoked by local authorities in 2019, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports. Renewing permission to build a church, the local regent also called for tolerance of other religions in the community.
Two Christian men were flogged by a Sharia law officer Monday for the criminalized offenses of drinking alcohol and gambling in Indonesia’s province of Aceh, the Christian Post reports. Aceh is the only province in Indonesia with the “legal right to apply Islamic law in full.”
Christian survivors of a massive earthquake in heavily Islamic Indonesia urgently need food, blankets, suitable tents, and other essentials, aid workers said Sunday.
Christians in a movement of former Muslims and other believers welcomed a decision by Indonesia’s government to ban an Islamist group that attacked churches and other targets.
Indonesian security forces have detained hardline Islamic leaders with suspected links to terrorism amid concerns among Christians about growing Islamic extremism.
At least four Christians were killed in a suspected Islamic terror attack on the Salvation Army church and service building in Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi province, local Christians told Worthy News early Saturday.
Christians and moderate Muslims in Indonesia fear new tensions after a hardline Islamic cleric returned from exile and held a massive wedding despite the coronavirus pandemic.
A senior Indonesian expert has condemned authorities for removing a mobile phone application that enabled an Indonesian ethnic group to read the Bible in their language.
An American mission pilot flying much-needed coronavirus test kits to a remote village in Indonesia has died in a plane crash, her Christian aviation organization confirmed.
Indonesia’s hardline Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) group broke up a house church meeting in the country’s West Java province, prompting an angry response from the governor. Video footage obtained by Worthy News showed two men bursting into a home Sunday in Cikarang, 48 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of Jakarta, the nation’s capital.
Peter Tumbelaka wasn’t in a hurry to become the pastor of Jakarta’s largest Pentecostal churches where many Muslims convert to Christianity. “I thought I could remain an architect and an engineer. But God had different plans,” the 52-year-old preacher told BosNewsLife in Indonesia’s bustling capital.
The Indonesian Baptist Church of Tlogosari has resorted to legal action in fighting local opposition to the construction of its church house. Referring to pressure being placed on the government to block his church’s legitimate building work, Pastor Wahyudi told Beritasatu.com: “We will continue to fight for this, because if left unchecked it will set a bad precedent for freedom of religion and worship in Semarang.”
The married-father-of-three has come a long way since he nearly blew up a Protestant church in Jakarta. Author Ahmad Quraisy, which isn’t his family name, was a commander of the feared Islamic State of Indonesia (NII), an Indonesian militant group. But the former Islamic terrorist now leads an underground movement in Indonesia converting Muslims to Christianity or, in his words, ‘personal faith in Christ.’