Indonesian Christians Lament Continued Persecution
Indonesian Christians Lament Continued Persecution: According to the recent report Indonesian Christians frequently face harassment, discrimination, or even worse, life-threatening attacks. From hardship in the workplace, abusive and mandatory Islamic dress codes for girls, challenges acquiring building permissions for churches, and even church raids and terrorist attacks.
Indonesia, a country with a majority of Muslims, recognizes six different religions: Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Confucianism. Although many other religions besides Islam are followed across the archipelago, it is not unusual for their followers to experience harassment, discrimination.
However, many who follow Jesus in Indonesia remain steadfast in their faith and spread the Good News.
According to this information, Indonesian Christians, particularly those who have come from Muslim origins, frequently struggle with cultural and familial pressures.
Being a Christian in Indonesia can result in hatred and contempt, from bullying, isolation, threats, broken relationships, and physical attacks to hiring outsiders to perform “exorcisms” so they can convert back to Islam.
Girls and women are required to wear Islamic garb that partially covers their bodies, such as the hijab or jilbab, in schools, government buildings, and the workplace. According to HRW’s 2021 report, harassing girls and women to make them wear the jilbab is common and can lead to severe psychological suffering.
An Indonesian government employee named Vania* described the various overt and covert kinds of discrimination she has encountered.
She discovered she was the only Christian employed there after passing the admission exam to represent her country in a government agency. Without a veil, she stands out easily in a Muslim-only setting.
At work, she said that some of her Muslim coworkers avoid her. What’s worse is that what should have been a quick process to get a required official ID took months.She found out after looking into it that her agency tried to discredit her and prohibit her from working there because she is not Muslim. She eventually got her ID, but it was a difficult and unpleasant procedure.
Vania’s experience as a Christian in this Muslim-dominated nation is not unusual.