Gunmen fire at worshippers [Islamic terrorists fire on Christians in Indonesia; 7 injured]

The Advertiser ^ | 11apr04 | AP

[yonif]

UNIDENTIFIED assailants fired automatic weapons at a group of Christian worshippers attending Easter services in Indonesia's Central Sulawesi province, injuring seven people, officials said today.

Two gunmen in black uniforms rode up to the Tabernacle Church in Poso on a motorbike and fired several bursts of automatic fire at the congregation before fleeing, police chief Lieutenant Colonel Abdi Dharma Sitepu said.

Those injured included a four-year-old girl, her parents and the pastor, Sitepu said. None suffered life-threatening injuries.

"The gunmen fired indiscriminately as the churchgoers were singing a hymn ... these are people who want to stoke up more trouble here," said Lieutenant Colonel Agil Assegaf.

The region has been wracked in recent years by religious violence.

Although large-scale fighting ended two years ago, in the past three months several prominent Christians have been killed or injured by gunmen.

Security forces have arrested five suspected Muslim militants, including an Arab man, in those attacks.

Assegaf said hundreds of police had been sent to secure Poso, where tensions were high. Poso is 1600km northeast of Jakarta.

"We are combing the area around the church," Sitepu said. "We still don't know who the perpetrators are."

Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim nation, but Central Sulawesi has roughly equal Muslim and Christian populations.

The sectarian conflict in Poso broke out in 1999, soon after a religious war erupted in the nearby Maluku islands.

A Muslim militia, Laskar Jihad, was blamed for thousands of deaths in the fighting that ended in 2002.

The group was reportedly set up by a hardline faction in the army following the overthrow of longtime dictator Suharto in 1998, with the aim of destabilising elected governments.

It was abruptly disbanded soon after the Bali nightclub bombings in 2002, when international attention focused on radical groups operating within Indonesia.

The Bali bombings were carried out by Jemaah Islamiah, a southeast Asian militant network linked to al-Qaeda, which has been blamed for numerous other attacks in the region.

Authorities had warned that militants might carry out attacks to disrupt the country's parliamentary elections, which went off peacefully last Monday.

[ASTM366]

Islam - A religion of peace.

now that we know the truth

Islam - A religion of hatred and death.

[InvisibleChurch]

John 15:18
"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.

[expatguy]

But that is soooo politically incorrect.

[Becki]

The region has been wracked in recent years by religious violenceislamofacists.

There!

Becki

[EGPWS]

Islam - A religion of peace.

The extremists of said religion sure are doing a fine job of making your definitive point clear. Aren't they?

[ASTM366]

I have yet to see an islamaslime cleric get on television in the USA and openly rebuke the terrorists who purportrated 9/11 and other hideous acts.

Islam is a ticking time bomb in the United States.

[Delta 21]

I want to know what hymn they were singing.

[rogueleader]

Can you imagine the world outcry if this occurred a single time in a mosque at Christian hands anywhere in the world?

Christians are being persecuted. No other way to describe it.

[JasonC]

Those dang Amish acting up again. Has to be.

[EGPWS]

Islam is a ticking time bomb in the United States.

With the terroristic mindset of the minority within the "religion of peace" and the lack of outspoken protest defiling that mindset from the majority within, your statement certainly has the makings for mindful contemplation for the reasonably minded person doesn't it.

[ApplegateRanch]

I almost hit the "Report Abuse" button, before I realized that killing Christians wasn't they type of abuse it meant.

ALLAH! What does it spell?

A nti:
L ife
L iberty
A mericanism
H umanity

ALLAH! Under its true name, it really runs Hell!

[Clint Williams]

So this is the kind of respect Islam gives to its professed fellow "People of the Book"? What a dirty, dishonest, deceitful religion!

[Travis McGee]

It must be the Mossad, doing the dirty work of the neocons, trying to make Islam look bad again!

[sheik yerbouty]

Rise early, and deal with them first..

[daddyOwe]

Just make sure that no Mosques are ever fired on. They should level the Mosques. Skateboarders would be glad to have the domes for their backyards.

[Fitzcarraldo]

I've had it. Time for another Crusade.

[White Eagle]

The more I see and read, the more I become convinced that Islam is not a religion, but a form of devil worship. No god could encourage followers to commit atrocities in his name.

[Fitzcarraldo]

[Robert_Paulson2]

Of course it was.
Jews.... once again openly AND covertly, keeping busy, humiliating the poor muzzies.
What a tragedy!

How will the muzzies respond to this humiliation?