Release International

Christians in West Java are taking a firm stand against extremist threats and refusing to give in to demands that they stop worshipping.

Islamist hardliners are using fighting talk about the 'Christianisation' of Bekasi, amid rising interfaith tensions in the city.

Hundreds of Muslims celebrating the Islamic New Year's Eve abandoned a street procession to attack a half-built church in West Java.

More than 1,000 Bible college students demonstrated in West Jakarta after local officials evicted them from refuges where they took shelter from attack last year.

Students from the Arastamar Evangelical Theological Seminary face imminent eviction from a campsite where they took refuge last year after a violent raid on their campus.

Two congregations in the Jakarta area are on high alert after their church leaders received bomb threats.

Indonesian Christians are calling on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to stem the tide of Bills and legislation which, they say, are ceding ground to Islamic law.

Two families have been driven from their villages in West Java after they decided to leave Islam and become Christians.

Bible college staff and students who were driven out of their premises in Jakarta by violent protesters ten months ago are a step closer to finding a new home.

Islamist hardliners in Indonesia have announced a fatwa declaring that only a Muslim could be president – much to the alarm of the nation's Christians.

Hundreds of troops were deployed to a Central Maluku province to quell riots which began after a Christian teacher was accused of blasphemy.

Members of a Christian organisation locked in a land row with a private firm in Jakarta are being attacked and threatened by officials sent in to mediate.

Hundreds of Christian students and staff forced to flee their college by violent protesters now have nowhere to go after being asked to leave the campsite where they took refuge.

Hundreds of Christian theology students have been living in tents since a Muslim mob stormed their college in July armed with bamboo spears, acid and Molotov cocktails.

Hardline Islamic groups are wielding ever-increasing influence over Indonesia’s politics, according to a new report.

Local officials and an Islamist mob joined forces to try to pull down part of a church compound – three years after Christians were forced out.

Simmering tensions between Muslims and Christians in Papua are threatening to erupt into violence, according to a report by the International Crisis Group (ICG).

A Christian clothes trader accused of blasphemy by his own relatives after he shared his faith with customers has been freed from jail.

The extent of anti-Christian feeling in Indonesia has been brought into sharp focus by a report documenting church closures.

An Islamist terror network responsible for many crimes against Christians in Central Sulawesi may be resurfacing – via a publishing network.

Islamist radicals are making life increasingly difficult for churches and Christian organisations across Indonesia, forcing many to close.

The mothers of two schoolgirls beheaded in Poso have again shown forgiveness to their daughters' killers – as three extremists begin long jail sentences for their murder.

A new bylaw will require the people of West Sumatra to sit Koranic exams to graduate from school and even to get married -- regardless of their religion.

Eight house churches in a housing complex in West Java received official letters on the same day ordering them to stop meeting.

Each church in the Rancaekek Kencana complex in Bandung was told that private homes should not be used as worship venues.

Top story: Indonesia: Three Islamic militants have been found guilty of beheading three Christian schoolgirls and trying to murder another. They left the heads with the warning: ‘We will murder 100 more Christian teenagers’. Earlier, the Christian parents of the schoolgirls embraced the killers and publicly forgave them. Persecution now is the weekly bulletin of Release International, giving the latest news of the persecuted church.

Persecution Now is the weekly bulletin of Release International, giving the latest news of the persecuted Church. Our top story: Indonesia: two hundred militant Islamists have besieged a Christian school. They burned down school buildings and threatened to bring a crowd of 1,000 people to close the school down. Two Islamist groups are believed to be behind the attack which lasted for three hours. It took 400 police officers to quell the violence. It’s the latest in a series of attacks by militants cleansing Christians from Indonesia and converting them to Islam by force. Additional sources are given in brackets. Further details below and from those sources.

In Indonesia, an Islamic extremist who has admitted to beheading three Christian high school girls has confessed to a string of other murders. He has admitted to killing a church minister; beheading a village chief, shooting a Christian attorney and bombing a church. Lilik Purnomo described his acts of violence as 'a gift' to celebrate the end of Ramadan. That's the top story in Persecution Now, the new weekly news roundup of the persecuted church by Release International.

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