Indonesian Sunday School Teachers Face Five Years in Prison

WASHINGTON, July 13 /Christian Wire Service/ --

Court proceedings involving three Christian women arrested under "Child Protection" laws, for leading Sunday school classes for their local church continued on Thursday July 7th. Once again, a mob of radical Islamists arrived by the truckload at the court where the proceedings continued. The mob gathered just outside the courthouse; and as the three women arrived for their trial, police forces had to hold back the assembled mob from attacking the women, as they shouted "Allahu akbar! (God is great!) Dr. Rebekah is evil, hang them...Shoot her!"

It remains unclear who organized the mob, but experts believe former Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a disbanded radical Islamist group, were behind the demonstrations. Whoever was behind the protests, they were obviously designed to strike fear into judicial authorities as well as the Christian population.

As the trial began, the mob again took over the seats in courtroom and reacted vigorously to everything said in the proceedings, especially when the leader of the investigative team of the Indonesian Council of Islamic Preachers shouted toward the women, "Stop the terror you are committing!" The mob responded by shouting back the traditional Islamic phrase for slaughtering animals, "Allahu-Akbar," and "shoot them!"

Several children were called to the witness stand to testify along with their parents, but all of the children were too frightened by the mob, and had to be taken outside to recover from their fright. When their testimony resumed, the children denied being given money to convert to Christianity. It was also made clear that each Muslim child who attended the Sunday school classes had their parents' permission, and when the three Christian women took the children on field trips, the children were accompanied by their Muslim parents.

Story: http://www.earnedmedia.org/icc0713.htm