ASIA/INDONESIA - With regard to Catholic school surrounded on Sunday by radical Muslim youths local Catholics say: “We ask local authorities the central government and the new president Yudhoyono to show tolerance and respect with regard to religious minorities”

Jakarta (Fides Service) - There is concern among Catholics in Indonesia since a group of radical Muslim youths surrounded Sang Timur Catholic school at Ciledug, in Banten province on the Island of Java, 40 km west of the capital Jakarta on Sunday 3 October. The local Catholic community has called in civil authorities and the newly elected President Yudhoyono to intervene to restore order.
The youths, members of “Forum of Defenders of Islam”, accuse Catholics of proselytism. They say the school is as a used church and ask for it to be closed and confiscated.
“It is sad to see these things happen in Indonesia. This isolated group of radicals is not good for the country’s international image”, local Church sources told Fides.
The angry youth mob surrounded the school and stopped anyone from entering or leaving the institute which has about 3,000 pupils, many of them Muslims from elementary grade to high school. According to the Indonesian daily Jakarta Post, for 12 years now the growing local Catholic community has had to use school premises for Sunday Masses because although money has been collected and land purchased for a new church, building permission has not been granted.
“We ask local authorities the central government and the new president Yudhoyono to show tolerance and respect with regard to religious minorities and to grant the building licence so that school activities may continue”.
“As the Catholic community we have no requests to make to the new President - Father Ignazio Ismartono, president of the Indonesian Bishops Commission told Fides. All we ask for is to be treated as Indonesian citizens without any discrimination on any grounds social civil or religious”.
(PA) (Agenzia Fides 5/10/2004 Righe : 25 Parole: 262)