Protesters with banners and loudspeakers sought to disrupt a Christian revival worship service that a government official was attending in a rented venue.
Muslims from the group Ahlus Sunnah Defenders demonstrated Jan. 6 outside FX Surdirman Grand Ballroom in Bandung in Indonesia’s West Java province, reports Morning Star News. Inside the building, Indonesian Evangelical Reformed Church was holding a worship service, whose attendees included Gugun Gumilar, special staff to the Indonesian Minister of Religious Affairs for Religious Harmony, Monitoring and Foreign Cooperation.
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On a video of the demonstration, a Muslim said, “We are demonstrating because they are using public facilities.”
Morning Star says the Muslim also “claimed that the church was not allowed to use the building because of prohibitions against ‘spreading religious activities which deviate from the principal teachings of Islam.'”
The video also records a Muslim yelling that converting Muslims to Christianity was the aim of the worship service.
About the incident, Gugun later stated that Indonesian citizens have the right to worship, which is a right that should be supported.
Referencing information from Open Doors, Morning Star states, “(Indonesian) churches involved in evangelistic outreach are at risk of being targeted by Islamic extremist groups.”
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