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Indonesia: Christian Church Barred from Worship in Rented Space

June 14, 2023

There is a small community of about 2,500 Orthodox Christians in Indonesia. Get information about Holy Orthodoxy in Indonesia here.

For previous ChristianPersecution.com coverage of the persecution of Christians in Indonesia, see here.

“Christian Church Barred from Worship in Rented Space in Indonesia,” International Christian Concern, June 13, 2023:

06/13/2023 Indonesia (International Christian Concern) —Roughly 100 Muslims protested at a local shopping mall to prevent Christians from using a room they had rented as a place of worship at the beginning of May.

The Muslims, members of the Muslim Alliance (AUI), demanded that the Plaza Suzuya Marelan mall be used exclusively as a shopping center. The group demanded that the mall revoke the Indonesian Christian Elim Church’s (GEKI) permission to hold worship services there.

The property administrator, who confronted the crowd of protesters, did not immediately respond to their request to revoke the recommendation, so the demonstrators returned in June with even more people. Due to the backlash, the church cannot hold its worship services in the mall.

The mayor of Medan, Bobby Nasution, shared that he was surprised by the large group of protesters hoping to ban the church from the shopping center. Other groups have used rooms in the mall for activities contrary to Islamic beliefs in the past, but the only time there were protests was when the Christians wanted to worship there….