Catholics threatened for praying the rosary in a South Tangerang home
A group of university students had gathered to pray in the home of a Catholic family but were forced to stop by armed men. The man at the head of an Islamic extremist group said Christians should gather in church. The police have opened an investigation.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) – Catholic students from Pamulang University (UNPAM) were threatened by Muslim extremists as they prepared to pray the rosary.
Last night, a group of armed Muslim men broke into the home of a Catholic family in South Tangerang[I] that was hosting students. Shouting threats, the attackers ordered the university students to stop the prayer activity and disperse as soon as possible.
It seems that the hostilities were fomented by a man called Diding. “If you perform any praying, do it in your church as we local Muslims are used to do it in our mosque; not in a residential house like this,” Mr Diding said, according to witnesses.
“A dozen UNPAM students were reciting the rosary at the home of a local Catholic,” said a political activist known as Mr A. “We were at the police’s command post until at 3 am to demand perpetrators be held accountable for last night’s hostile deed,” Mr A told AsiaNews.
Speaking to local media, Chief Superintendent Alvino Cahyadi said police were looking into the case after a video about the incident was posted on social media. Some female students suffered minor injuries.
A similar incident took place in 2014, when Julianus Felicianus, a Catholic, opened his home to the community near Yogyakarta to pray the rosary, an activity that many Christians engage in, in the month of May.
A group of Muslims targeted the Catholic gathering and Felicianus received threats, including death threats, from several people.
For many Indonesian Catholics, the month of May is special, a time to visit Marian grottos and shrines to pay their respects to the mother of Jesus.
[I] Tangerang Selatan.
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