Ten Dead, 88 Hurt in Clashes in Indonesia's Ambon (Mohammedans killing Christians)

Reuters ^ | 4/25/04 | Reuters

[Bismarck]

AMBON, Indonesia (Reuters) - At least 10 people were killed and a church and U.N. office torched Sunday as Muslim and Christian residents of the eastern Indonesian city of Ambon fought pitched street battles, witnesses and police said. Nearly 90 people were hurt as groups rampaged through the provincial capital of the Moluccas province in the worst day of violence since factions signed a peace deal in February 2002.

Gunfire and explosions were heard in the city and thick black smoke billowed into the air. It was not clear who was firing as the mobs were mostly using stones and knives.

"The victims are 98 in total, 10 of whom are dead. The number of victims could change," Moluccas provincial police chief Brigadier-General Bambang Sutrisno told Reuters by telephone. He did not say how the victims had died.

"The situation is under control now and we are tightening security. Police and soldiers will stay out in the field overnight. We have to investigate how this could happen."

Thousands of people were killed in the Moluccas during nearly three years of sectarian conflict before the 2002 peace deal. The central government of the world's most populous Muslim nation lifted civil emergency curbs in the Moluccas only last year.

Sunday's clashes began after police arrested and then released a number of people for trying to raise the banned flag of a little known and mostly Christian rebel group, the South Moluccas Republic movement.

Novi Pinontuan, editor of the Suara Maluku newspaper in Ambon, told Reuters he had seen a church and a local U.N. coordinating office in flames and that hundreds of people rampaged through parts of the city.

"The office and four U.N. cars were in flames," he said.

Caroline Tupamahu, the United Nations Development Program officer in charge in Ambon, said no staff had been hurt and only two local security guards had been at the office.

Residents said police fired shots in the air in an effort to break up the clashes.

Some 85 percent of Indonesia's 220 million people are Muslim. In some eastern areas, however, the Christian and Muslim populations are about equal in size.

[Bismarck]

The Religion of Peace (TM) strikes back in Indonesia.

[kayak]

Continuing to pray for those in Indonesia!

[germanicus]

We have to investigate how this could happen

Save the investigation. Does the word "Islam" ring a bell?

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Don't ya love how the Leftist media describes events such as these as thouth the "just happened"? No mention of one side ATTACKING the other, as is the case in almost every conflict between Muslims and "infidels". The Muslims attack without provocation, and the media reports it as a battle that "just happens". A Palistinian Muslim boards a bus filled with Jews and sets off a bomb, and Reuters will trumpet: "Bus Blows Up, Palistinian Boy Killed"

[Travis McGee]

Just another example of Mad Mo's Insane Murder Cult doing what it's always done.

[Mamzelle]

bump

[river rat]

"Moderate Muslims" will have to show themselves and take charge -- or serious consequences will be necessary..

The "religion of Peace" had better behave as such - or someone will determine it is necessary to DESTROY THEM...

These lunatics are a cult, flirting with extinction....

Semper Fi

[Red Boots]

The "religion of Peace" had better behave as such - or someone will determine it is necessary to DESTROY THEM.

Sometimes I wonder if God himself is behind this war as the way to do just that.When a religion gets totally out of hand, God will take steps to bring it back. Just look at the Reformation; the Catholic Church had bascially turned into a money-making machine,and was denying people the right to read the bible.God sent people to translate the Bible and get people back on track. Although parts of the Reformation were bloody, the overall result was very positive for the Christian church as a whole.

Similarly, there are some parts of Islam that really do get it ( the Sufi's come to mind), but they are marginalized and shut down by the more extreme elements. For all the hatred and lies that come out of Islam, there are still millions who are sincerely turning to God in the only way they are allowed/ and or know. God must know this, and hear them. But the leaders aren't listening ( sort of like the Catholic popes didn't in the Reformation), so God has to send an Army to destroy them, in order to free them.

Even if they should win, and actually conquer us, they will be transformed anyway, as conquers are (like the way Greek ideas transformed the Roman Empire,and still influence us today, even though they were conquered by the Romans). God's truth always wins out in the long run.

Well, there's my Sunday muse. I know I'm not a big thinker or anything, but thanks for reading.

[First_Salute]

Bump.

[M Kehoe]

It must be me. I never see headlines that read, "Christians go on rampage killing Muslims." Or, "40 Muslims killed in mosque by Christians," etc...

5.56mm

[peter the great]

The other thing that I found odd about this article was that there was no word as to the denomination of the Church that was attacked,

[Eurotwit]

In this case I think the Christians might have been fighting back:

"The bodies of eight Muslims - most of them with gunshot wounds - were taken to the city's Al-Fatah hospital, the hospital's director, Riva Ambon, said."

[EQAndyBuzz]

This is the problem:

Muslims are too afraid to stand up to radical Islam. They have been penned up for centuries by their benevolent rulers and think having women killed for not wearing scarves or people burned for not practicing is normal.

Second problem is that you have the secularists, (re: Socialists, communists, liberals) that want to see Christianity abolished so that they won't feel guilty in their decadence.

On the other side of the fence, you have Judeo/Christianity which is stronger than the other two but due to the apologists and appeasers in government, prevent us from practicing or protecting ourselves from the scourge.

Unless we act now, in 100 years there will only be Radical Islam and Communists left on this earth, the rest being rounded up and either reeducated or slaughtered in pogroms.

Then the fight will begin and the world will be destroyed in the nuclear winter that will follow.

After that, Cornelious, Vera and Dr. Zeus will tell their children about what happened to the human race.

[Mel Gibson]

I travelled to Ambon, Indonesia in 1998 and it was such a beautiful, peaceful place. What a difference 6 years makes.

[zerosix]

Nor will the racist anti-Christian press state which side has the weapons of murder and if the victims who died were unarmed.

[John Frum]

Indonesia, the worlds most populus muslim state, is a wasteland of humanity (note I am not referring to its physical attributes, landwise). (from the CIA factbook about Indonesia: Muslim 88%, Protestant 5%, Roman Catholic 3%, Hindu 2%, Buddhist 1%, other 1% (1998)) If you got rid of those 88% plus, I'm sure it would be a much better place, indeed.