Reuters can't guess who these unidentified mobs might be -- well, they can't guess till later in the story:
Unidentified mobs vandalised at least two churches near the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, during services and wounded a preacher who tried to stop them, police said on Monday.One local newspaper said four churches were damaged in the incident on Sunday.
Reuters is quick to let us know that Muslims are tolerant and that poverty is the root cause of conflict.
More than 80 percent of Indonesia’s 220 million people are Muslims, and most are tolerant of other religions. But many poor Muslims see minority groups, especially ethnic Chinese Christians, as controlling the country’s economy.
Isn't it odd how there is so often a shadowy, powerful minority oppressing these peaceful Muslims?
Besides, when churches are outlawed, only outlaws will have churches:
The attacks happened at shops that had been turned into churches. We have a report that one priest suffered wounds in the attack,” national police spokesman Inspector General Paiman said.“We are looking into whether these churches had permits and whether this was (provoked) by locals displeased with them.”
A permit would have no doubt made all the difference.
One hopes that Chinese everywhere remember the murder of 600,000 Chinese (described, of course, as "Communists" and "Communist sympathizers" for Western consumption) by Muslim Indonesians in the 1960s. Somehow, it does not seem to me that the apologetics that some Westerners (especially the most soft-minded clerics, who long ago lost their old-time religion and replaced it with the Holy Church of Western Guilt and Self-Flagellation) come quite so easily to Chinese, Christians or not. Ex oriente lux.
I guess this must be an example of that wonderful religious tolerance that islam practices? Is it time to get a can of gasoline and go down to the local mosque?
"Your grandchildren will get their fingers burnt"
Hugh: The Indonesian coup of the 1960's had some important differences from the problems of today. For one thing, in places like Ambon and N. Sulawesi, Muslims were not attacking Christians. Also, while the Chinese certainly were an ethnic target around Medan, Jakarta, and W. Kalimantan, a lot of the worst bloodletting took place in Eastern Java among "indigenous" peoples, whose religion was in fact a syncretic blend of Muslim and Hindu elements.
Also, the intersection of anti-Chinese and anti-Communist vectors in the 1960's was the direct result of Sukarno's encouragement of Beijing's propaganda and inflyence among the considerable ethnic Chinese population of the islands--much to the consternation and anger of anti-Communist Sino-Indonesians.
我希望有機會多談話.
I'm also fed up with the way the media speaks of poverty as the source of resentments, mob actions, etc.
If you read my other post, you'll know that this kind of case increase every year. Many of the "moderate" muslims have re-discovered their religion and become intolerant.
The teribble thing is that The Indonesian government seems to be fearing to those radical minority. The result is many new regulations are passed just to satified them. Nowadays it's become harder to get a permit to build a church. Many Christian preachers were jailed because they preaching gospel to muslims.
And brother Kepha, Muslims DID attack Christians in Ambon and Poso. The number of Christians there are decreasing compare to early 2000. Ambon and Poso used to be a Christian stronghold and the jihadist using any means necessary to weaken the Christian community.
"It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees!"
unbelievable dhimmitued from Reuters !
WOrthy of the BBC!
Are all our news agencies now Islamic apologists too ?
Wonder how the Sydney Morning Herald will spin this story ?
Herman: I appreciate your correction. You wouldn't be Indonesian, would you?
I certainly agree with davo that Reuters has stepped off the kerb and all the rest.
Pity the Dhimmis in Indonesia and everywhere.
Here, here Kepha! Dittoes! Poverty is not the cause of violence. Just consider the poor in India, Africa. Even in Muslim nations, the only time the people, even if they are impoverished, may demostrate or riot is if they are demonstrating against the US or Israel, or demanding the government be more Islamic, and the riots are only directed at dhimmis and/or minority sects of Islam itself (Iraq, Pakistan.) Oppression (usually only imagined anyway)does not cause violence, see the same places.
Violent, hateful, inciting speech causes violence, plain and simple. As Neil Peart says in "Moving Pictures":
They say there are strangers that threaten us
Are immigrants and infidels.
They say there is strangeness too dangerous
In our theaters and bookstore shelves.
Those who know what's best for us
Must rise and save us from ourselves.
Quick to charge, quick to anger.
Slow to understand.
Ignorance, prejudice,
and fear walk hand in hand.
Hugh, those 600,000 Chinese killed by Muslims in Inodnesia has been "overlooked" by the so-called "Justice and Peace" thugs who exist solely to criticize Israel. Just like they "forget" to metion the dozens of other real genocides all over Islamdom.
Kepha--
Could not make out the Chinese, even with the help of my advisers Mr. Wade Giles and Professor Pin Yin. But I'll take a wild guess as to what it means. Could it be that you have quoted the immortal last words of a Chinese writer and poltical activist, uttered in prison just before he was executed in the 1930s: "To-Fu is delicious"? Otherwise, I give up.
Ethnic chinese may be a minority due to the fact that a half million of them have been ethnically cleansed in Indonesia since the 1960s.
It seems often the case that ethnic minorities are more willing to defend themselves than ethnic majorities.
Is this nature;s way of ensuring that species are never entirely wiped out ?
People in the majority are less concerned of appreciating or protecting their freedoms than those in the majority.
In Ancient greece this appeared to be true.
Which genocide is this? Can we have some details please? Where is it cited? When did it happen? Please, post the information or a link - we can't do anything without it.