Today is Id-ul-Adha, the feast of sacrifice.
One of the most important Islamic festivals of the year, this is the day
when Muslims remember how Abraham almost sacrificed his son, but God intervened
at the last moment to save him. Interestingly,
while the original record
of this incident, in the Bible, identifies the son as
Isaac, Muslims instead hold that it was Ishmael,
the elder brother of Isaac.
All over the world Muslims are commemorating this event
by slaughtering cattle, sheep and goats. Supermarkets
here in Indonesia are offering cows for sale at about £200 and goats for about
£40. Last year in Jakarta alone
some 4,500 cattle and 30,000 goats had their throats cut, but this year the
figure is expected to be lower as Jakartans are reeling from the terrible floods
which have afflicted the capital city recently.
Another difference from last year’s Id-ul-Adha are the
growing sinister threats against Christians, for reports speak of Muslims
intending to sacrifice Christians along with the cattle and goats.
This may be one of the factors which has spurred the Indonesian
government into some mild action on behalf of the beleaguered Christians in the
Malukus region. Since
May 2000 they have been the targets of a genocidal campaign by Islamic extremist
group Laskar Jihad which has killed many thousands and forcibly
converted thousands more to Islam on pain of death.
Now a peace agreement for the Malukus has been signed and yesterday Yusuf
Kala, the Minister for Coordinating the Welfare of the People, who is
responsible for reconciliation, made a hasty visit to Maluku to disarm the
Laskar Jihad fighters so they could not slaughter the Christians on Id-ul-Adha.
The peace agreement in Maluku follows close on the heels
of a similar agreement in Sulawesi on 20 December 2001, another hotspot of
Laskar Jihad anti-Christian violence. This
is welcome news and brings a degree of cautious hope to Indonesian Christians
that the end of their long ordeal may be in sight.
But serious questions remain. In
a country of 13,670 islands spanning 3,000 miles of ocean how can the agreement
be enforced? How can the
authorities ensure that Laskar Jihad, who have rejected the peace agreement, are
forced to give up all their weapons, and not just some?
There are also too many memories for the almost half a million Christian refugees who have fled to safer parts (safer...at the time) of Indonesia. These huge statistics fail to convey the multitude of individual tales of loss and suffering. We heard yesterday of a father and son who went out to work their fields as usual one day. When they failed to return home on time, their family set out to find them.
Find them they did – with their throats cut.
Imagine how the Christians of Poso, Sulawesi, must have waited in dread
as the Laskar Jihad systematically
worked through their villages, firing the churches and Christian homes,
to a current total of 71 villages. Think
of orphaned Christian children in Maluku, who have seen their parents brutally
killed, been kidnapped themselves, and are now being brought up in Muslim
orphanages and taught the Islamic faith. Think
of the refugees who have lost everything they owned and have been living for
months or years in cramped, insanitary conditions and abject poverty.
Now, at this time of change and hope, urgent prayer is needed. Pray with the Christians of Indonesia that the peace agreements will be effective. Pray for the healing of Christians suffering from the trauma of what they have witnessed. Pray that their faith may not fail. Pray for practical help to be given to meet their needs. Barnabas Fund is assisting with food, medicine, start up costs for agricultural projects, and the building of simple wooden houses and churches. Pray that God, who saved Isaac from sacrifice, will intervene to save His people in Indonesia.Pray that Christians around the world would consider what actions they may take in their own nation, that would help the Christians in Indonesia.
From the Directors of the Barnabas Fund
Writing from Jakarta, Indonesia, February 2002
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