Jakarta, Indonesia, Feb 10, 2011 / 22:42 pm
A bishop in Indonesia has strongly criticized national officials for failing to protect Christians and other religious groups after a mob of 1,500 Muslims destroyed three churches, an orphanage and a hospital on Feb. 8.
Religious minorities in Indonesia “have been left without any protection from the state,” Bishop Petrus Canisius Mandagi of Amboina said in remarks to Vatican-based Fides news agency on Feb. 9.
Bishop Mandagi – who also serves as president of the Commission for Interreligious Dialogue for the Indonesian Bishops Conference – called for “a decisive step” from the government to put an end to the violence and urged local Christians to practice forgiveness as opposed to revenge.
Earlier this week, an estimated 1,500 Indonesian Muslims destroyed three churches before attacking an orphanage and hospital in Central Java on Feb. 8. The mob was protesting a court's decision not to sentence a Christian man to death for defaming Islam.