Christian Terrorists
Apr 3rd, 2007, in News, by PatungTwelve Christians from Poso face the death penalty for terrorism offences.
The trials of twelve Christian men accused of murdering two Muslims near Poso, Central Sulawesi, have begun at the South Jakarta District Court. The men are charged under both the 2002 Anti-Terrorism law and articles in the criminal code, and face the death penalty if convicted.
The defendants are Harpri Tumonggi alias Api (28), Darman Aja alias Panye (23), Edwin Poima alias Epin (25), Agus Chandra alias Anda (23), Syaiful Ibrahim alias Ipul (22), Erosman Tioki alias Eman (28), Walsus Alpin alias Eje (24). Also being tried separately are Benhard Tompodusu alias Tende (28), Sastra Yudawastu Naser alias Ibo (23), Romi Yanto Parusu alias Romi (19), Fernikson Bontura alias Kenong (20), Jefri Bontura alias Ate (21).
In the aftermath of the executions of Fabianus Tibo, Marinus Riwu and Dominggus da Silva in September 2006 Christians in various parts of the country staged a number of sometimes violent protests, both locally in and around Poso and in towns in Flores such as Atambua. In one such protest on 23rd September 2006 a mob of Christians set up a roadblock on the Trans Sulawesi road and stopped motorists to inspect their identity papers, presumably to find out what religion they were (see KTP Religion). One of the vehicles stopped by the defendants was a cargo van driven by small trader Arham Badaruddin, 40, and his helper Wandi, 25, both of whom hailed from South Sulawesi – these two men were then forced out of the van and beaten to death, over an extended period.
Lead prosecutor Bayu Adhinugroho Arianto told presiding judge Achmad Sobari it was Syaiful Ibrahim alias Ipul’s idea to set up the roadblock to protest the executions of Fabianus Tibo, Marinus Riwu and Dominggus da Silva on September 22nd 2006.
Judge Achmad Sobari adjourned the hearing until April 12th, at which time the court will begin hearing from 10 witnesses called by the prosecution. antara
“Witnesses tell court of Christian rampage in Indonesia” says an Antara headline of April 27th 2007. antara Witness Daniel Bandue told the court in Jakarta that he watched helplessly as the gang of Christian terrorists stormed into his house and dragged away the two Muslims trying to hide.
26th July 2007. Five of the accused were sentenced to 8 years prison, two men to 14 years, and ten men to 12 years. republika antara
21 Comments on “Christian Terrorists”
-
Let’s just hope that the judges can give a proper trial for the defendants. Let’s put aside religions, both Christianity and Islam are not wrong, in fact they’re never wrong. It’s the people who claim themselves as religious people are the ones who use their religions as tools to justify what they do. Indonesia is a plural society, and it will always be. Let’s just live in a harmony.
-
Dimp says:
I think the government need to show that there will be no preferential treatment for any terrorists regardless what religion, race, connection they have. I am for capital punishment, if it is justified. I just don’t understand why Hasanuddin only get 20 years for beheading 3 innocent people.
-
Naga says:
Why label this article ‘Christian Terrorists’?
They aren’t terrorists, they were just defending their faith.
-
Hi Naga,
When they start killing innocent victims then they are terrorists. Defending one’s faith does not mean that you can kill people.
-
Karina says:
Hi Dimp,
I like your statement ” Defending one’s faith does not mean that you can kill people”. I wish those Muslim radicals in Indonesia share the same point of view. I wish the government dares to be strict with them. Sigh… -
Hi Karina,
I am just tired of people justifying ones actions just because they are of the same background (religion, race, ideology) and adopting a double standard for the same actions done by people with different background.
Whether you are moslems, Christians, Buddhists, or whatever, if you kill innocent people insinuating terror to the people then you are a terrorist, simple as that.
-
Sputjam says:
Muslims go around saying they believe in the one God, but perform ritual worship around a stone. Christians go around saying they beleive in the one god but worship a man. You cannot expect these two groups to behave rationally. Satan have made bad deeds/ritual worship seem pleasant to them. God has taken the light and made them wander in the dark. Deaf, dumb and blind, they wander around without guidance.
-
Julita says:
Sputjam:
Christians go around saying they beleive in the one god but worship a man.
You seem to know a little bit of something and use it a case for your discussion. That ‘but worship a man’ you meant ‘Jesus’. Read the Bible properly you will read that in the same Bible you got “beleive in the one god” , that one God were talking about was also in public saying ‘This is my Son…………..’ I tell you, you don’t have to believe but you have no say this to those who believe.
Sputjam:
God has taken the light and made them wander in the dark. Deaf, dumb and blind, they wander around without guidance.
Heh, good to know, you believe in a ‘god’ afterall ‘God has taken the light’, who is this one god taking the light from His creation?
Do you also that we have a guidance, not deaf, dimb and blind. The Holy Father is the only ‘one’ person I know who gives his guidance to his entire followers.
In all a very good discussion, many people are spiritual and this proof to be beneficial to their mental and physical health. Let have their believe don’t use it for kiling each other. I just wonder if the Indonesian Christians stop their killing would the Indonesian Moslem stop it too?
-
Wow wow, same act, different punishment, different news coverage. I wonder what makes it different?
You seem to know a little bit of something and use it a case for your discussion. That ‘but worship a man’ you meant ‘Jesus’. Read the Bible properly you will read that in the same Bible you got “beleive in the one god” , that one God were talking about was also in public saying ‘This is my Son”¦”¦”¦”¦..’ I tell you, you don’t have to believe but you have no say this to those who believe.
Don’t use bible logic to explain to people who use common logic. That is what most Christians do, trying to tell people by doing those stuff. If it doesn’t work, there are two posibilities, first, the listener doesn’t understand, second your method is definitely wrong. Most of the time, it is the second one.
If it doesnt work, then change your way, after all, you can still, pray.
-
Janma says:
So why the hell are amrozy and bloody imam samudera still alive and kicking? How come only Christian terrorists get the death penalty and no mercy!
-
Orgindo, I was merely telling Sputjam (“Christians go around saying they beleive in the one god but worship a man”) that the ‘man’ Christians are worshipping, according to God he is His Son. What is the problem?
-
Danny says:
It will never END. Stop it and lets live in harmony, race, religion, cast, whatever, it’s not a matter!
Just try make peace (try LITTLE bit harder) and WORLD will honour you! -
Justinian says:
Dear writers,
Before any of you go and begin to try to explain what is going on in Indonesia it is important for you to know the history of Indonesia and Islam.
Indonesia was a country established to further the violent religion of Islam, which dictates that its word be spread by the sword. Before any of you try to deny that fact, realize that Mohammad murdered his first wife’s family so that he could secure Mecca. The Koran itself was not written by Mohammad, as Mohammad himself was unable to read or write, thus condemning him Hell for all eternity. Mohammad actually invented Islam to stop fighting among Arab tribes so that he could easier line his pockets and they could attempt to conquer the Byzantine Empire and loot the wealth that was held there. Islam seeks nothing more than to destroy all other cultures and supplant it with its own. Its whole attitude of free worship for other religions is an outright lie, as when the took control of the city of Jerusalem from the Byzantine Empire they, scrawled across the wall of The Temple of Solomon that, “God would never debase Himself as to have his Son spring forth from the loins of a woman”.
As for Indonesia itself it has a long history of religious prosecutions against the Christian inhabitants of the eastern islands. The government has employed Muslim death squads to subdue predominantly Christian provinces since its violent breakaway from its Dutch colonizers. In 1975 with Suharto’s invasion of East Timor, they were used to put 250,000 Roman Catholics to death. Now there is the farcical judicial system that allows a mass murderer like Abu Bakir Bashir who masterminded the Bali and Jakarta bombings, but is going to put two men to death for attempting to thwart a violent religion based solely on killing and the acquisition of personal wealth. -
Enigmatic says:
Janma Says:
April 5th, 2007 at 10:11 am
So why the hell are amrozy and bloody imam samudera still alive and kicking? How come only Christian terrorists get the death penalty and no mercy!that’ because the duo (or trio) are not terrorists. they are defenders of Islam and they do so by killing those infidels and non-believers ie those australian kangaroos. they deserve martyrdom not the death sentence.
-
Amrozi, Samudra, and Mukhlas have not been executed because of a legal technicality that saw the process extend into Ramadan.
Patience is a virtue, they say. The execution of these three mass murderers will happen, keep the faith!
-
Andy says:
Justinian, you have spoken the truest words on this forum for a long while. Hear Hear…
-
Patience is a virtue, they say.
yeah, well whatzizname… (jabber help?) said Patience is a minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue…
-
Kameshe says:
God made us all. So quit thinking you are better than anyone else. Cause God will let you know you’re not. Get off your ego and act like a human being. Even God gave us freedom of choice on things including what religion to follow. And before you start griping about what someone else does, you should look in the mirror first.
The sooner we start trying to get along and quit trying to control other people’s ways of living, as long as it’s not violent, the sooner we will have the kind of place we all really want to live in. We should be helping each other, not controlling or hurting each other. And it all starts with you. -
Minority says:
It’s not only Indonesia, all over the world, many claimed to have defended their faith thus okay then to kill people. So stupid, if you think you can defend your faith, thus, your God, shouldn’t it the other way around? What I see is the majority try to rule over the minority instead of protecting them. Indonesia is a good example where Moslem majority should re-learn their Koran and be able to digest it logically, instead of just listening and being provoked by some uneducated so-called hard-line ustadz (the religious preachers).
-
Daniel J. Dick says:
I’m a Christian who has been a member of an Indonesian church for about 25 years, and I love Indonesia. It breaks my heart to see violence and hatred between people of any faith.
For me, when I see a faith supporting violence or abuse or murder, I feel it speaks very poorly of that religion. For example when a so-called Christian murders, I question whether that person could really be a Christian because the sixth commandment is not to murder, so to murder is to declare God unworthy of respect, honor, and obedience. You cannot do that and be a Christian.
At the same time, when a person who claims to be a Muslim murders or terrorizes, especially a member of his own family who comes to believe in a different faith, it blasphemes and desecrates everything about that religion.
Some say Islam promotes killing infidels. Some say Jihad is something entirely different, where a person wars with their own sinfulness to come to the place of complete submission to Allah, which is exactly where many of us Christians are as well, pressing in, seeking the grace of God to be totally surrendered to God.
Some say Islam promotes the idea that the only way to guarantee entry into heaven is to die as a martyr in the act of Jihad, and you see 14 year old girls tying bombs to themselves and going into populated places on a suicide bombing mission. Others claim that’s not Islam at all. That’s cowardice of someone putting a young girl up to a terrorist act and hiding behind the name of the Islamic religion.
And I believe I remember reading a verse in the Koran transcribed into English that said that if you kill a person of the Book whether it be a Muslim, a Christian, or a Jew, there is absolutely under no uncertain terms any way one can enter into heaven. And if two Muslims are at war and one kills the other, the one who died would also perish because his intention was to kill his Muslim brother.
So, if indeed Mohammad said these things, is it not the utmost act of violence against the honor of one’s own religion to go to ones death violating the very principles Mohammad laid down? And is this not also true for the Christian and the Jew?
God called us to love one another. Not hate. Love. And I saw the most amazing example of love demonstrated by a Muslim man that made my eyes water. He and his family lived in a war torn region, and his little girl had been killed by an Israeli soldier.
And this man, in an extraordinary act of sacrifice, humility, love, sincerity, and tremendous courage and honor, allowed his little girl’s hear or some other organ to be used in surgery to save a little Israeli boy’s life.I have Muslim friends, and I love them, and they love me. I never felt insulted or bothered years ago when two university girls from Malaysia, dressed in their Islamic coverings, came and visited me in my office together sharing their faith in hopes I would accept it as my own. They valued my soul. They wanted me to be saved and spend eternity in heaven. Yes, they thought my religion was wrong, just as I disagreed with theirs. But, they valued my soul enough to do something.
For me, the only reason I would not become a Muslim have nothing to do with any of the Muslims I have ever known. I worked for some very brilliant Muslims in the bay area, and some were among my best friends from Indonesia, Pakistan, Eritrea, Malaysia, and elsewhere. The only reason I would not become a Muslim has more to do with a fundamental, personal disagreement with some of the teachings, and because I am quite strongly rooted in my Christian beliefs.
But, all in all, if we would bring honor to our faith, we have to love one another. The problem is, historically, I have so say some will love one another and some will not. And there will be times when fear and distrust comes about and for good reason. When someone commits heinous acts while linking themselves to something, they bring distrust to whatever they link themselves to.
In other words, if people go around saying Muslims believe in killing the infidels and if they can pick up the holy book of Islam and point to the place where it says to do that, if they can ask Muslims everywhere if that is what it says and if that is what it means, and there is a silence or a sense of discomfort, then there will be reason for distrust rooted in the book itself. However, if one were to go to Muslims everywhere and were to find themselves told by nearly every one of them that no, this does not mean war, this does not mean terrorism, this does not mean honor killing, but this means purging one’s heart of sin, and here is why…. If this is the widespread common understanding of that this holy book means, then people will be able to see that the use of that verse to justify terrorism and murder is only an act of injustice and twisting a good scripture to justify an evil deed.
And Muslims, Christians, Jews, and everyone else alike will seek to separate themselves from such crimes, not for the sake of themselves only, but for the sake of the honor of their religion, their family, their country.
At the same time, where there is distrust, it is perfectly natural for people to want to protect their families and their country, and it is reasonable to want to do that. Still, sometimes the people committing the violence get confused over who the defender and who the terrorist is, and most terrorists think they are the defenders. Getting unilateral disarmament is hard because there is fear that the other side won’t disarm.
But, if it comes down to one person against one person, if I am face to face with a Muslim, should I rather that he die or I die? Of course, neither!!! But if it had to be one or the other, if it was someone else attacking both of us, I would rather that he live so he would have a chance to be saved, and his eternal salvation would have more value than my survival here on earth. However, if he were the attacker, I might have to expect if he were attacking me, he would also attack others and therefore my act of defense would not be to protect myself as much as it would be to protect others. And even so, I would want to hope and pray for his salvation and not have him be lost.
Dan
Comment on “Christian Terrorists”.
Copyright Indonesia Matters 2006-2023
Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Contact
I wonder if the judges are going to be that lenient with these two guys like they did with Hasanuddin (Poso behadings) who only got 20 years. Probably these guys will get the death penalty and as revenge some more Muslims will be killed. Also these perpetrators will be caught and get the death penalty, and the story goes on and on.
It looks like a Fire Brigade that is trying to extinguish a fire with gasoline instead of water and then wonders why the fire is continuing.
This situation might change for the better when the judges would stop applying double standards for different religions. Another important is the KTP and especially the mentioning of someone’s religion. Omit religion from the KTP!
The Indonesian Government is responsible for fuelling religious violence because they fail to deal with the ingredients which cause this violence.