Muslims to guard churches on Xmas!
Financial Express ^ | Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Volunteers from Indonesia's largest Islamic organisation will guard
churches across the world's most populous Muslim nation on Christmas
amid fears of terrorist attacks on those places, the group said on
Friday.
Jakarta police have said they would boost security in the capital
ahead of Christmas to avoid a repeat of 2000 Christmas Eve bombings on
churches in several Indonesian cities, including in the country's
capital.
A youth wing affiliated with Indonesia's largest Muslim group
Nahdlatul Ulama, some 40 million strong, said that members would guard
churches for the coming Christmas festivities and it had persuaded
youths from other religions to join the project.
"We have an annual programme to set up posts to secure Christmas. For
this year, I have contacted groups from other religions like the
Hindus and Buddhists and they have responded positively," said Tatang
Hidayat, National Coordinator of NU's Banser group, known for its
military-like uniform.
Hidayat said the volunteers would closely collaborate with existing
police operations and the churches' own security.
Around 17,000 policemen are expected to safeguard Christmas
celebrations in Jakarta alone.
The spate of bombings in 2000 killed at least 19 people, including a
Banser member guarding a church in East Java.
The attacks along with other blasts in recent years -- most recently
on the tourist island of Bali in October when suicide bombers killed
20 people -- have been blamed on Jemaah Islamiah, a militant network
intelligence experts call a Southeast Asian wing of al-Qaeda.
Around 85 per cent of Indonesia's 220 million people are Muslim.
Christians form the second largest religious group in the country as a
whole, as well as in Jakarta.
Although Indonesia has been relatively calm in recent weeks, many
security analysts say threats of militant attacks still run high
because police have yet to catch one of the alleged masterminds of
previous bombings, Malaysian-born Noordin M. Top.
Police last month killed Azahari Husin, another alleged Jemaah
Islamiah leader, in a shootout in East Java province.
--
"The president and I cannot prevent certain politicians from losing
their memory, or their backbone, but we're not going to sit by and
let them rewrite history." -- ***** Cheney 11/16/2005
"War is God's way of teaching Americans geography" -- Ambrose Bierce
"America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy." -- John Updike
"Long term commitment in relationships is only necessary because it takes
so damn long to raise children. Marriage may well be some kind of trick
to keep the males around beyond sexual satiation." -- Captain Compassion
"Progress is the increasing control of the environment by life.
--Will Durant
Joseph R. Darancette
daranc@NOSPAMverizon.net
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