Armed Muslim gangs have been forcing Christian villagers in the remote Malukus to convert to Islam ahead of Christmas and holy Muslim feast days next week, Indonesia's head of state said yesterday.
"There is an effort by Islamic extremists to convert Christians to Islam in the Malukus," said President Abdurrahman Wahid in a speech at a mosque in Jakarta. "This is not right."
Wahid condemned reports of the gunpoint conversions during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
Christian groups have said the conversions represent a disturbing escalation in a two-year-old conflict between the members of the two religions in Maluku, 2,600km east of Jakarta.
At least 5,000 have been killed in sectarian violence despite a heavy military presence and repeated peace efforts by Wahid, himself a Muslim scholar who has long preached religious tolerance.
Church workers said yesterday that hundreds of people have fled several islands following the conversions.
Muslim clerics yesterday admitted that some Maluku Christians had recently changed religions. But they denied that the threat of death or violence had been used.
"The claim that they were forced to become Muslims is baseless. They voluntarily converted to Islam," said Malik Selang, an official at Ambon's main Al Fatah Mosque.
However, several displaced islanders said this week that they were among hundreds of Christians coerced into swapping faiths.
Some male converts were forced to undergo Islamic circumcision and had their heads shaved as part of a conversion ritual. "I only said yes to save myself," said Anton Sagat, who escaped from the village of Sumelang on Tior island.
Another, who spoke on condition of anonymity, claimed that some members of Indonesia's armed forces had helped the Muslim gangs. "A soldier aimed a pistol at our chests. He said if we refused to become Muslims we would be shot," he said.
Maluku Governor Saleh Latuconsina confirmed that some forced conversions had been carried out, but the practice had been stopped by security forces and government officials.
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