Two days before a suicide attack struck a church in Solo, a priest and a human rights activist warned of a shadowy campaign to exacerbate interreligious tension between Christians and Muslims in an attempt to foment violence similar to the recent sectarian clashes in Ambon, Spero News reported.

The article, which was published on Friday, states that in recent days journalists and activists have received text messages – proven to be hoaxes – telling of invented or exaggerated attacks on Christian churches in the country.

One of those text messages tells of two Catholic churches and one Protestant house of worship that were burned in Poso, Central Sulawesi. But according to Jimmy Tumbelaka, a priest at the Diocese of Manado in North Sulawesi, the message is an exaggeration.

Jimmy, a longtime activist against sectarian violence, said that only the Santa Teresa church was recently set ablaze, and the damage was limited to the building's front entrance.

The messages are eerily reminiscent of the rumors that sparked the Ambon clashes on Sept. 11. Seven people died in the violence, which is believed to have been spurred by a text-message rumor that a Muslim man who had died in a traffic accident had actually been tortured and killed by Christians.

Activist Theophilus Bela told Spero News that he had recently received similar text messages telling of assaults Christian churches in Poso.

"After Ambon, now here in Poso. A Pentecostal church is going to be burned, along with a Catholic church in Poso," read one message he received. He quickly debunked the rumor, and has concluded that it was "orchestrated news."