briter, one hears occasionally about such things happening, but I am unaware of any law on the books that allows it to happen. Perhaps we need to see the actual details of the event before we accept that it actually happened. It may well be that the offence he was actually charged with was something else, but everyone takes it to be punishment for trying to convert others. I lived for a decade or more in an area that was predominately christian to the north and muslim to the south, and there was a large degree of overlap both ways. Whilst each group considered themselves more enlightened than the other, it didn't stop a fair degree of inter faith marriages or members of each group being invited to participate in the important religious observances of the others, in fact each expected that they would be asked. Last year I was talking to senior members of a congregation in Sumatra, discussing a perception held in some circles that there was a rise in anti-christian sentiment in the country generally, as evidenced by such things as you mentioned and attacks on church property at various locations. In their opinion they felt that the threat was over-rated, and whilst there were indeed these acts being carried out, (and if they weren't actually due to some other issue), they were the work of a small group of radicals, and not any indication of any general shift of sentiment within the general population. They themselves had been the target of such an attack, but they still held the same opinion. In fact any such attacks are as much a threat to the majority of moderate muslims as they are to the christians, and they feel that there is a bond between all the moderates irrespective of their religion. I personally feel that the biggest danger is that the radicals, by virtue of their ability to harness the media, especially in these new days of democracy in Indonesia, are going to build a perception that they are more powerful and influential than they really are that will began to feed on itself. Just as those here who move outside the law, then use all the resources of the law to protect themselves, the same now applies in Indonesia. It is no coincident that these groups began to proliferate only once Suharto stepped down. All the authorities there can do now, is to try and not push them underground and wait until they can build a case against them that will stand up in a court of law. Our interest can be best served by supporting those who are doing this, unfortunately too many of us are all too ready to criticise and take pot shots at them when something happens that perhaps we don't fully understand, but it seems wrong to us. So, Briter, to answer your question, I don't defend or condemn anything until I fully understand what has really happened, and considered it all in it's proper context. As I have said many times, in Indonesia what seems to be the case at first look, more often than not turns out to be something completely different. The devil is in the detail, the subtle shades, and most importantly the shadows being cast.
