Two children were injured when a mob of Muslims shouting “Allahu Akbar” attacked a Sunday School class in a prayer house in Padang Sarai village, Padang city, West Sumatra province on 27 July.
Video footage captured a group of men armed with knives, sticks and stones entering the building and demanding that the Christian teaching cease. They ordered the crying children and their parents to disperse and shouted, “Destroy everything!”
Two children aged 11 and 8 were hit by hard objects thrown by the attackers and had to be taken to hospital for treatment. The attackers also destroyed furniture, electronic devices, sound system equipment, chairs, fans and a pulpit podium and cut off electricity to the prayer house, which was used by the Anugerah Padang congregation of the Indonesian Faithful Christian Church to provide state-mandated religious education for Christian children attending local state schools.
Church pastor Fatiaro Dachi said, “Some thirty children attending the Sunday school were left traumatised by the sudden attack.” Describing the attack, he said, “They smashed glass windows, broke chairs, and damaged items inside the prayer house.”
Members of the congregation are mostly from the Christian-majority island of Nias, west of South Sumatra. A legal advisor to the Nias Community Forum, Yutiasa Fakho, said the attack was reported to the police on 28 July and added, “We have forgiven what happened, but the legal case will continue. We are currently gathering evidence.”
Brigadier General Solihin, deputy chief of the West Sumatra Police, announced that nine suspects had been detained, all identified from the video of the attack circulating on social media.
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Padang mayor Fadli Amran, who apologised for the incident, said it was a case of miscommunication and that the attackers were objecting to the crowd gathering at the house. “We certainly regret this incident,” he said. “We also understand the hurt feelings of our Nias brothers and sisters who have lived peacefully with the surrounding community for a long time.” The mayor said he would ask the Social Services Agency to provide trauma healing for the children and all Christians in the area.
Halili Hasan of the Jakarta-based Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace, which advocates for religious freedom, told UCA News that local government should “not be permissive and simplify the intolerance and violence as acts triggered by misunderstandings. Instead, it should address the root causes, particularly religious conservatism, low religious literacy, social segregation, discriminatory regulations, and the normalisation of religious intolerance, at the structural and cultural levels.”
He urged President Prabowo Subianto’s government not to remain silent, warning that “the absence of firm law enforcement is an invitation to the recurrence of crimes against minority and vulnerable groups“.
Several organisations in Padang city accused the local congregation of stoking tension between Christians and Muslims by using the house for Christian gatherings. They demanded closure of the prayer house, action against the pastor and the release of the alleged attackers from police custody.
Christian student retreat attacked
The attack on the prayer house took place a month after a large mob attacked a Christian student retreat in Sukabumi, West Java province, on 27 June. Police detained seven Muslims accused of disrupting the retreat and vandalising the premises. A police spokesperson said local Muslim extremists carried out the attack, believing a private house was being used unlawfully for Christian worship.
Read Church in Chains’ Indonesia Country Profile.
(Barnabas Aid, International Christian Concern, Mission Network News, Morning Star News, UCA News)
Image: screenshot from video on Facebook via Morning Star News