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Papuan religious conflict set to erupt

Source
Sydney Morning Herald - June 17, 2008

Mark Forbes, Jakarta – Rising tensions between hardline Islamic groups moving into Indonesia's Papuan and Christian communities could erupt into violent conflict, the International Crisis Group warns.

A group senior adviser, Sidney Jones, said the situation could seriously deteriorate. Several incidents last year came close to violence, with the blocking of plans to build a new mosque and Christian groups being forced to take down a large Christmas tree, Ms Jones said.

"The potential for communal conflict is high in Papua because both sides consider themselves aggrieved," she said.

Christian Pentecostals and charistmatics are gaining ground at the same time as hardline Islamic groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir, exacerbating the problem.

"Relations between Muslims and Christians are strained in Papua and likely to worsen because of demographics, aggressive proselytising by hardline elements on both sides, political use of religious history and outside developments that harden perceptions of the other as enemy," the report states.

"The communal divide is overlain by a political one: many Christian Papuans believe autonomy has not gone nearly far enough, while many Muslim migrants see it as a disaster and are fervent supporters of centralised rule from Jakarta."

Government-backed migration of Indonesians into the province has led to a dramatic increase in the proportion of Muslims to close to half the population, the report estimates. "Most Papuan leaders are in a state of denial," Ms Jones said. "But at the grassroots level, feelings are very strong."

Religious tensions are exacerbating Papua's long-running independence disputes, with Islamic extremists claiming Christians supported by Australia and the US are attempting to separate the province from Indonesia.

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