BEKASI, Indonesia — Hundreds of Muslims from outside the area where a 600-member church meets in West Java staged a protest there in February to call for its closure in an attempt to portray local opposition.
Demonstrators from 16 Islamic organizations, including the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front (IDF), gathered Feb. 15 to demand a stop to all activities by the Galilea Protestant Church in the Galaxy area of Bekasi city. Pastor M. Tetelepta said that church has had the required consent of local residents and official permission to worship since its inception in 1992.
At the Galaxy-area demonstration, IDF Bekasi branch head Murhali Baeda tried to impugn the legal status of the church by telling ANTARA, the official news agency of the Indonesian government, that he was “certain” that “a number of the church buildings” in the area “do not have complete permission.”
“This is proved by the large number of posters and banners that are displayed in the alleys and public gathering places rejecting the presence of these (church) buildings,” Murhali told ANTARA.
Local organizations represented at the demonstration included the Bekasi Dakwah Council, the Bina An Nisa Dakwah Council of Bekasi and the Galaxy Mosque and Mushola Forum, but Tetelepta said he was sure that 95 percent of the protestors were not local people.
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