Islamic apologists in the West constantly tell us about how tolerant Islam is, yet all too many Muslims in Muslim-majority countries somehow don’t seem to have gotten the memo.
“Muslims Again Break Up Worship of Church in Indonesia,” Morning Star News, July 17, 2023:
SURABAYA, Indonesia (Morning Star News) – As police looked on, a group of Muslims in North Sumatra Province, Indonesia, on July 2 asked why a church should be present in a Muslim-majority area as they broke up its worship service, a video shows.
The disruption was the second in two months suffered by the Mawar Sharon Church (Gereja Mawar Sharon, GMS) congregation as it met in a café in Setia village, Binjai Kota Sub-District, Binjai, near the provincial capital, Medan.
After demonstrations against the church, a hijab-clad Muslim woman led the disruption of the service, a video on social media shows. Standing next to a police officer, she is seen loudly refusing to allow Christians to worship.
In the video uploaded by permadiaktivis2 on Instagram on July 6 and quoted by Kilat.com., she asks why, in a Muslim-majority area, there must be Christian worship services that she and her Muslim colleagues have the responsibility of continuing to disrupt.
“You the minorities should not always ask to be respected. We must respect each other as the government has regulated it,” she says. “What’s the point of setting the rules, if the rules have to be violated again? We have mediated back and forth, but they were never met – provided, facilitated but not implemented.”
In the commentary section of the post, religious rights activist Permadi Arya, known as Abu Janda, objected to the disruption.
“Suddenly they come screaming in protest, ‘Why are they worshiping in Muslim-majority areas?’” Arya wrote. “Since when are non-Muslim not allowed to worship in a Muslim area?”
Indonesia’s Joint Ministerial Decree of 2006 requires a permit only for worship venues used on a permanent basis, “excluding family places of worship,” Arya wrote, adding that the requirement does not apply to a café or home.
“According to The Joint Decree of the Two Ministers, Chapter 1, Article 3, what needs a permit is the construction of a church,” he wrote. “Holding worship at home, shop-houses and cafes needs no permission.”
Such homes, cafés and shop-houses can be equated with Muslim traditional prayer-rooms (musholla), and since Muslims need no permission for those, Christians should receive equal treatment, he said.
The church’s worship was previously disrupted on May 19, when at least 40 Muslims stopped the midday service at the café….
mike says
Muslims then do not expect the world to respect you on any level
John1 says
Good luck getting a permit to build a church in a Muslim majority country. It may take 25 years going through various committees, and when it’s approved, the Muslims start rioting, and in the name of public safety, the permit is canceled. Want to build a new mosque in a Muslim majority country? Permit approved in a day or two.
gravenimage says
+1
somehistory says
So basically, the mozlum idiot is not following the “rules” because they don’t want Christians to worship. Not following the “rules” by disrupting the service.
“We must respect each other as the government has regulated it,” she says. “What’s the point of setting the rules, if the rules have to be violated again? ”
The “rules” are set: the mozlums are supposed to “respect” the Christians. But they don’t want to and they see the Christians not respecting them by the very holding of a service. So, the mozlum loudmouth admits the mozlums are breaking “violating” the ‘rules.”
Yohanes says
This man Abu Janda is not very favorable among Indonesian Muslims due to his constant support of non Muslims and support of Israel (even CokroTV (which is ‘moderate’) once make video criticizing him for it).
While this guy is Muslim, but he is a very heterodox one (I doubt he does 5 times salah in masjid everyday lol) and often clashes with terrorists and their preachers like Abdul Somad (who is still on YT and ads with him is allowed and having show on TV despite open support for suicide bombing).
Thank you Robert and all for publicizing this. Hopefully stupid leftist media realize, Muslims when majority will do far worse than far right has ever done in history.
gravenimage says
Yohanes, thanks for that background on Abu Janda. He was accused of “cyberterrorism” for posting “Islam is an arrogant religion” on social media in 2021. Ugly stuff.
somehistory says
Yes, thank you, Yohanes, for the added information. Makes it easier for others to understand what is happening there.
I have a Christian friend there whom I have not heard from in many years. I pray she is okay
She used to tell me of things going on. She said she and others were free to preach if they did not go to the homes of mozlums. Sounds now like that might have all changed.
gravenimage says
One of the artists in my portrait group is a Chinese woman whom I found was originally from Indonesia when she recently he went back to visit her sister, who was sadly dying. I gently asked her a couple of questions about what it is like for Chinese–most of whom are not Muslim–in Indonesia now. She just said that they try never to talk about it, so I respected her privacy. But of course this doesn’t sound good.
somehistory says
The friend of mine is Chinese, lived and worked in Japan, and her bosses sent her to the mozlum nation for their firm. I worry for her and the others there. It was hard before, but must be just about intolerable now.
gravenimage says
Indonesia: Muslims storm church, disrupt worship service — ‘You the minorities should not always ask to be respected’
……………………………………
More proof that Indonesia is not a “moderate” Muslim nation.
tim gallagher says
When it comes to Muslims, the tolerance is always one way. In our western societies, we keep treating Muslims well even though they endlessly whinge and whine about how they are not being treated well enough and are victims of that dreaded “islamophobia”. When Muslims gain power anywhere, they treat non-Muslims like shit. islam deserves to receive zero respect, needs to be shut out of all non-Muslim societies because it is surely the most intolerant of ideologies.