Recent Reports of Church Burnings in Indonesia Part of New Propaganda Strategy

Recently, text and phone messages had been received that two Catholic churches and a protestant house of prayer were burned in Poso, which was not true.Is this is part of a strategy to increase the unrest along religious lines in Indonesia?

WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - According to sources with Asia News, some reports of Catholic and Protestant Churches in Indonesia are hoaxes designed to increase religious tension in the country.

Correspondent Mathias Hariyadi reports that phone and text messages had been received by the media regarding the burning of Churches. There are suspicions that these falsified reports were being sent to increase hatred between Christians and Muslims thus bringing about another round of violent clashes between those groups.

Hariyadi stated that Fr. Jimmy Tumbelaka, a priest of the Diocese of Manado, North Sulawesi, has been trying to correct these rumors, particularly among journalists and human rights activists.
Not only are false reports being transmitted, but warnings have also been received. One, in particular, stated that a Pentecostal Church was going to be burned along with a Catholic Church.

Theophilus Bela, an activist for human rights and interreligious dialogue and one of the recipients of the messages, has stated that he is confident this is "orchestrated news."

In the case of the Poso burnings, Fr. Tumbelaka explained that "only the main entrance to the church of Santa Teresa in Poso was burned, not the entire building."

Religious tension has been common in Indonesia generations. It is the third most populated Islamic country in the world and 80 percent of the nations people are Muslim. While other religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Catholicism and Protestantism are officially recognized they are also very highly regulated.

This new propaganda strategy was also be responsible for violent clashes in Ambon, which left seven dead, 65 injured and a great amount of physical damage. After a traffic accident involving a motorcycle taxi driver, who died on the way to the hospital, a text message was circulated stating that the driver was attacked and killed. Word of mouth then escalated an encounter between Christians and Muslims.

-----

Randy Sly is the Associate Editor of Catholic Online and the CEO/Associate Publisher for the Northern Virginia Local Edition of Catholic Online (http://virginia.catholic.org). He is a former Archbishop of the Charismatic Episcopal Church who laid aside that ministry to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church.

---

'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'