Widodo was welcomed by KWI president Archbishop Ignatius Suharyo of Jakarta, secretary-general Bishop Antonius Subianto Bunjamin of Bandung and 8 other bishops.

"In the meeting, I talked about issues related to the Pancasila [the 5 principles on which the Indonesian state is based) as well as diversity especially in terms of religion, ethnicity, customs and traditions that we must continue to maintain," Widodo later told reporters.

"We must maintain our brotherhood, harmony and unity," he said.

During the meeting that lasted more than an hour, each bishop briefed the president on issues affecting his diocese.

Archbishop Suharyo told UCANEWS that president Widodo's visit was "to build friendship" and had "nothing to do with the presidential election," next year.

General elections in Indonesia are scheduled for April 17, 2019.

For the first time, the president and all the members of the People's Consultative Assembly will be elected on the same day.

Suharyo said, "There was no specific issue raised by the president during the meeting. He just wanted to hear directly from Catholics [about problems they are facing]."

The visit was Widodo's first as president. He had visited the conference's headquarters twice while he was Jakarta's governor from 2012 until 2014.

Suharyo also revealed that Widodo wanted to visit the Vatican.

"If it really happens, then the noble values the Indonesian people live by will be recognized by the international community," he said, referring to diversity and secularism enshrined in the constitution.

Bishop Leo Laba Ladjar of Jayapura said the president stressed the need to maintain diversity "because religious identity has become a big issue, particularly ahead of the presidential election."

Source

ucanews.com

en.antaranews.

vaticannews.

Image: ucanews.com

"We call on each parish and mission station to stay alert ahead of the observance of Holy Week and Easter," said Father Felix Astono Atmojo, vicar-general of Palembang Archdiocese in South Sumatra.

He also called on Catholics to continue building good relations with people from other religious backgrounds.

In Semarang Archdiocese, Vicar General Father Franciscus Xaverius Sukendar Wignyosumarta said the Religious Affairs Ministry's Directorate General for Catholic Community Guidance issued a circular following the church attack, calling on Catholics to stay alert.

"Security in churches must be tightened, and cooperation with police and security personnel must be improved," he said.

Archbishop Anicetus Bongsu Sinaga of Medan in North Sumatra said the church attacks have made Catholics more vigilant.

"But be inclusive, don't create enemies," he said.

The archbishop said the Immaculate Conception of Mary Cathedral Church formed a 12-member security team.

This followed an earlier attack on a priest during Sunday Mass at a church in Medan in August 2016.

According to Maria Theresia Erlien, a parishioner from St. Joseph Church in Matraman, East Jakarta, the call to be on alert should get serious attention.

Four people were killed in a bomb blast at the church on Christmas Eve in 2000.

"Being vigilant is important despite security personnel usually being deployed [for Holy Week]," she said.

Indonesia is the largest Muslim-majority nation in population. Alongside the 87 percent of its population who are Muslim, 10 percent of the population is Christian and 2 percent are Hindu. Discrimination and attacks on religious minorities occur not infrequently.

Source

• ucanews.com.
• catholicnewsagency.com
• Image: asianews.it

They have joined Catholic students who accuse the cleric of insulting Christianity.

They accuse the leader of the Islamic Defenders Front, Rizieq Syihab, of mocking Christians following a sermon on Christmas Day.

He reportedly said, "If God gave birth, then who would be the midwife?"

Angry Catholic students filed a blasphemy complaint the next day.

More than 140 lawyers have supported the case against Syihab.

At a meeting last month at the Catholic students' headquarters in Jakarta, Muslim members of the Interfaith Student Forum and Student Peace Institute, said they also backed the blasphemy case against Syihab.

They said his comments not only hurt Christians but also caused division among Muslims.

"As Muslims we deeply regret [Syihab's comment]," said Slamet Abidin of the Interfaith Student Forum. "He should not have messed with the religious beliefs of others."

"We are determined to help push this through the legal process," he said.

Teaching tolerance

He says the cleric's behaviour damaged the reputation of Islam as a tolerant religion.

The students say remarks like Syihab's will help foster extremism if they're ignored.

The Indonesian Catholic Students Association says police questioned Syihab after the association filed the case against him.

The West Java student chapter of Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia's largest Muslim organisation, has also condemned Syihab's comments.

Indonesia's criminal code on blasphemy carries a sentence of up to five years in prison.

Source:

• Asia Pacific Report
• Image: Jakarta Post

Indonesians abroad also held vigils in cities including Amsterdam, Toronto and Melbourne, Australia.

Months of huge protests against Ahok by Islamic hardliners and the unexpectedly severe sentence have undermined Indonesia's reputation for practicing a moderate form of Islam.

But a strong backlash has also emerged, led by moderate Muslims who worry that conservative Islamists are wrecking Indonesia's tradition of religious tolerance.

While most people in Indonesia practise a moderate form of Islam, the influence of radicals has been growing - particularly after mass protests last year against Ahok which were led by hardliners.

"Islam is different from how the Islamic Defenders Front portrays it," said Mr Mohammad Nuruzzaman, head of strategic research for Ansor, a moderate Muslim youth movement that has been working with the police to break up hardline Muslim gatherings.

Nuruzzaman compared the radical groups to the Indonesian Communist Party, a bogeyman from Indonesia's past.

"The goal of communists and those who support the caliphate are similar - both want all countries in the world to be run under one system," he said.

In another move last week, police in East Java, apparently acting on the urging of moderate Muslims or nationalists, shut down a planned university event featuring Mr Felix Siauw, a Chinese Indonesian convert to Islam who has become a major hardline preacher.

Source

• www.stuff.co.nz
• straitstimes.com
• Image: a.abcnews.com

"It's a challenge for Indonesia's democracy," said Bonar Tigor Naipospos, vice chairman of the executive board of the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace, a research institute in Jakarta.

"It shows to me that Islamization is deepening in society, especially in urban areas and cities," he said.

Baswedan is known to be a moderate Muslim, but attracted criticism when he met publicly with Islamist groups during his campaign.

His team insists he remains a pluralist.

His big margin came as a surprise because opinion polls in the run-up to the election were predicting a dead-heat.

Indonesian social media users likened the election outcome to the shock results of the US presidential vote and the Brexit vote of last year.

The election campaign featured mass rallies led by a hardline Islamist movement, which has strengthened in recent years.

The hardline Islamists said Purnama, a Christian of Chinese descent, insulted a Koranic verse during a campaign speech and have rallied large crowds against him in recent months.

He is now on trial for blasphemy, which he denies.

Religion however was not the only factor in his defeat.

Purnama, known by his nickname Ahok, won popularity for trying to improve traffic-choked, chaotic Jakarta by cleaning up rivers and demolishing red-light districts.

But his combative style and controversial slum clearances sparked some opposition.

Official results by the General Elections Commission of Indonesia will not be released until next week.

Source

• channelnewsasia.com
• bbc.com
• nytimes.com
• newsinfo.inquirer.net
• Image: static.seattimes.com

Peaceful demonstrations supporting Papuan independence were held in several parts on the predominantly Christian Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua.

Thousands of West Papuans marched in the peaceful demonstrations in cities including Jayapura, Yakuhimo, Manokwari, Merauke and Sorong.

Demonstrators were demanding the United Liberation Movement for West Papua be accepted as a member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group.

"We have the right to be a member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group. We are Melanesians, we are not Indonesians," Bazooka Logo, spokesman for the pro-independence National Committee for West Papua, told demonstrators

"We say 'no' to Indonesia. Indonesia is not Melanesia. Indonesia is Malay, which doesn't have the right to be a member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group, but Papua does," Logo said.

44 West Papuans were arrested by Indonesian police during demonstrations.

13 demonstrators were arrested in Merauke, 11 in Jayapura, 5 in Yahukimo and 15 in Kaimana regency.

Father Neles Tebay of the Jayapura Diocese has said that the Catholic Church, in collaboration with all religious leaders, has jointly called for a peaceful dialogue to settle the Papua conflict.

"We will continue to promote dialogue until the formal dialogue between the Indonesian government and the Papuans represented by the United Liberation Movement for West Papua takes place for the sake of a lasting peace," Father Tebay told a meeting of several bishops from Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, April 9.

Source

• ucanews.com
• radionz.co.nz
• Image: jakartaglobe.

"The terrorists have cells everywhere and they are active. We are continuing to pursue them," Sutarman, told reporters in Jakarta.

Since 2000, when improvised bombs disguised as Christmas gifts delivered to churches and clergymen killed 19 people and injured scores more across Indonesia, police have gone on high alert at the festive season.

But officials rarely give such specific warnings like the one issued last week.

Indonesia's small Christian minority has come under increasing pressure in recent years from Islamic extremists, who have forced the closure of churches and protested outside places of worship.

However the minority has not been targeted by a terror attack — a bombing or a shooting — since 2011 when a suicide bomber attacked a church in Solo, Central Java province.

Source

• SBS
• Image: News.com.au

On Thursday, the congregation of the Batak Protestant Church (HKBP) in Taman Sari, Setu district in Bekasi regency, watched the local administration demolish their unfinished church building.

The congregation formed a barrier between their church and the idling bulldozer.

They sang Batak hymns in the afternoon heat, wailing between the verses, as church member Megarenta Sihite shouted at the officers from the Bekasi District Public Order Agency.

"What is our sin, sir?" she screamed. "Is it a sin to pray? Show us where our mistake is. I thought this is a democratic country. Please, Mr. President, we were born here in this country with five religions. We never did anything bad to their houses of worship. Why are they doing this to us?"

Around 2:45 p.m the church building was demolished amid cheers of "Allahu Akbar" ("God is great") from members of the hard-line Taman Sari Islamic People's Forum (FUIT) who had gathered outside the building.

On Friday an Advent church in West Java's city of Tasikmalaya was vandalised by an unknown group early on Friday morning.

Police said that vandals damaged the church walls, gate and construction materials, which were intended to be used during the church's renovation.

On Saturday evening, members of Muslim community groups closed off the Damai Kristus Catholic Church in Tambora, West Jakarta.

The attack took place from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., with dozens of members of the congregation unable to leave, while other congregation members were locked out.

Rev. Matius Widyo said around 20 police officers were guarding the place but did nothing to the people who sealed the church. "They seemed to start to take action only when a fight broke out," he told The Jakarta Post.

On Sunday the congregation of Damai Kristus held their Sunday service protected by the police to prevent another lock out by members of Muslim community groups.

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said that around 50 officers had been deployed to stave off possible conflict with the Joint Forum of Mosque, Mushollah and Koran Reciting Groups (FKM3T) members.

Sources

• Jakarta Post
• Jakarta Globe
• Image The Straits Times

The attack, during which stones and dirt were also hurled, occurred on Thursday as around 100 Christians prepared to hold a service at a church in Bekasi, a city on the outskirts of the capital Jakarta.

"They attacked when the priest started to speak to the congregation. A crowd of 600 people threw bags of urine and dirty water as they tried to push police," a lawyer for the church, Judianto Simanjuntak, told AFP.

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