Christians have been forcibly circumcised by Islamic holy warriors in the Moluccas islands of Indonesia, as the jihad against believers continues. Women and children, as well as men, have been made to convert to Islam on penalty of death. Rites of circumcision with a razor blade are then carried out to complete the process - without anaesthetic. The same blade is used over and over again, and 'converts' are sent into the sea for 'disinfecting'.

One victim, 32-year-old Christina Sagat told The Sydney Morning Herald: 'I feel like I'm no longer complete, both as a person and a woman.' Conversions of entire Christian villages is a disturbing new development in this conflict, which has been raging for two years. Over 5,000 have died and half a million have fled from their homes. Hundreds of Christians are said to have been forcibly converted.

More than 600 believers were given the choice of death or Islam on the Islands of Kesui and Teor alone. Some who refused to recite the Islamic declaration of faith were killed. In Kesui, Muslims paraded the severed head of a Christian as a warning. On the island of Seram, villagers in Hatu and Hatumete were given the ultimatum - convert to Islam by November 30th or be killed. Human rights organisation, Masariku Network, with financial assistance from CSW evacuated these Christians to a safer location.

The news of forced conversions has galvanised the international Christian community and a number of agencies are fundraising for further evacuations.
Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid has reportedly acknowledged: 'There is an effort by Islamic extremists to convert Christians to Islam in the Moluccas.' Yet the Indonesian government has been slow to intervene.

The Roman Catholic bishop of Ambon has appealed for international assistance. Monsignor Mandagi says: 'Most of the victims are just simple people, poor and defenceless. [They] urgently need to be freed and evacuated.' The main militia group involved in the violence is the Java-based Muslim Laskar Jihad (Jihad Force). 'The destruction by Jihad warriors' has been systematic and extensive,' says Pastor Ian Freestone of the Malaku [Moluccas] Support Project, who recently returned from the islands. 'There are many villages in which the Christian population has been entirely eradicated.'

Pastor Freestone states, 'it is more than just local Muslim-Christian rivalry. It is a carefully scripted agenda in which the people [of the Moluccas] are being both manipulated and horribly abused.' The Moluccas population of 1.85 million is evenly split between Muslims and Christians. The conflict began in January 1999.

Jihad warriors are dedicated to the radical Islamisation of the whole of Indonesia. And members of the former Soeharto regime are said to be exploiting the unrest to try to bring down the government, with the aid of factions in the military.

CSW is calling on the international community to urge the Indonesian government to evacuate Christians in danger and to guarantee believers the right to freedom of religion.

Whilst we are calling for the immediate evacuation of the Christians facing forced conversion and/or circumcision this should be viewed as a short-term emergency measure and should be accompanied by plans for the safe repatriation of the refugees as soon as possible. Otherwise we might be facing the situation where, ironically, we are doing the Jihad militants work for them by emptying Christian villages and creating a displaced refugee population.
It is imperative that the Indonesian government is called to address the underlying issues behind the evacuations, namely the activities of the Laskar Jihad and the insufficient protection provided for the Christian communities under the threat of conversion.

Sources include The Sydney Morning Herald