Indonesia – Two churches met in front of the presidential palace on Easter Sunday to protest a ban placed on them meeting in their places of worship. About 300 members from the two church met, reportsPersecution.org. The churches claim they are registered legally but local authorities have refused to allow them to meet and the central government has done little to protect their rights.
One of the churches even agreed to allow a mosque to be built next to their church in exchange for the right to meet, but still nothing has changed for their church. A Supreme Court ruling requiring local authorities to give them to right to build and meet has been ignored. Although Indonesia is supposedly tolerant, in reality it is extremely intolerant of religious minorities, many of them who have to meet “underground” to avoid persecution by the local government or community.