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Politics : Al Gore vs George Bush: the moderate's perspective -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GUSTAVE JAEGER who wrote (9159)	12/30/2000 3:54:14 PM
From: chalu2	Read Replies (7) \| Respond to of 10042

Why has Bush not spoken out against christian persecution? How many more stories like this do we have to read?: INDONESIAN CHRISTIANS FORCED TO CONVERT TO ISLAM OR DIE! THOUSANDS FORCIBLY CIRCUMCISED. Over 700 Christians are being held in mosques on Keswui island and are beingforced to either convert to Islam or face execution. Some 93 Christians have already been killed and hundreds have been forced to convert. At least20 have been forcibly circumcised as a sign of their ‘conversion’. In another recent incident of mass forced conversion over 1,150 Christian men and boys from the town of Bacan were forcibly circumcised and a minister tortured and killed. Elsewhere in Indonesia’s Moluccas islands over 5,000 Christians have been forced to convert to Islam and many Christian women made to marry Muslim men, thus forcing their conversion in the eyes of their Islamic extremist tormentors. Dressed in traditional Islamic-style clothes and caps the Christians of Keswui endure a conversion ceremony in a mosque whilst Islamic warriors stand guard. One said “We agreed because we were concerned for the safety of our children”. The horrific violence began on Tuesday 28 November when four Christian villages came under attack from Islamic extremists. Eight villagers were killed outright and over 3000 fled into the jungle to hide. However, the Islamic raiders chased them through the trees capturing the 700 Christians. Stories of indescribable terror and fear are beginning to emerge from the very few Christians who were fortunate enough to escape the island. Chased through the jungle and surrounded by Islamic extremists, many Christians had no option but to seek refuge in nearby Muslim villages. One group was found in the jungle by local Muslims who persuaded them to come to the Muslim village of Tanah Baru for their own safety. Once there they were seized and questioned by Imams outside the mosque who told them “By the order of the Jihad, now you have come down from the woods, this means you have to embrace Islam. If you are not willing to do so, we have to separate you from the others and you will be killed.” One desperate Christian woman from Ambon travelled to Keswui with a military escort and managed to secure the release of her husband and children “I would do anything to get my husband and children back. I even begged, down on my knees and kissed Ibrahim’s [an extremist leader] feet”. A team was sent by the authorities in Ambon to investigate these atrocities. Significantly, all of the team members were Muslim except for two Christians. A Christian leader recently said that many of the Laskar Jihad Islamic warriors who are terrorising the Christians of the Moluccas come from the army. Others have joined their Javan and Sumatran comrades from the Southern Philippines, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Libya. This would seem to support the accounts of many survivors of ruthless attacks in the Moluccas who reported seeing Afghan, Saudi Arabian and Filipino Muslim fighters amongst the extremists who attacked them. The militants have promised to “Turn off the candles in December” and that no church bells will ring in Ambon this Christmas. The candle is the symbol of Ambon. They have also threatened that the rest of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan will bring greatly increased violence. Ramadan began on Sunday 26 November and will end on approximately Tuesday 26 December (depending on the sighting of the moon).