Indonesia’s Last Synagogue – An Intended Heritage Site – Destroyed By ‘Unidentified Persons’
Hadith, Al Bukhari 2:24, “Allah’s Apostle said: ‘I have been ordered (by Allah) to fight against the people until they testify that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that Muhammad is Allah’s Apostle …”
By JTA and the Times of Israel – “Indonesia’s last synagogue has been destroyed, a Dutch news site reported.
Unidentified persons demolished the Beith Shalom synagogue in Surabaya on the island of Java to its foundations sometime earlier this year, according to a report on Indoweb.nl.
The synagogue has seen a number of anti-Israel protests staged in front of it and was sealed by Islamic hardliners sealed in 2009, according to the Jakarta Globe.
Reports suggesting the synagogue’s destruction have appeared in Indonesian media since May but were confirmed last week by the Indoweb.nl, which quoted the director of the Surabaya Heritage Society as saying that he intended to protest the demolition in talks with government officials.
‘It is not clear by whom and when exactly the building was demolished,’ Freddy Instanto told Indoweb.nl.
The City Council of Surabaya was in the process of registering the building as a heritage site. Istanto said that for that reason, the building ‘should have been protected.’
The Dutch news site also quoted Sachiroel Alim, the head of the Surabaya regional legislative council, as saying that it was unknown whether Muslim extremists had anything to do with the demolition.
Situated in in eastern Java, the small synagogue was built in the 19th century by Dutch Jews when Indonesia was still a Dutch colony. It had white-painted bricks a Star of David painted on the front door.” Read more.
Flashback: Massive Increase Of ‘Islamist Extremism’ Spreads Throughout Indonesia, Including ‘Top-Quality’ Universities – “The suicide bombing of a church in Central Java on Sept. 25 pointed not only to a new level of attacks on religious minorities in the world’s largest Muslim-majority country but to a political bent that accommodates Islamist extremism. ‘Radicalization of Islamic teachings and understanding is a problem in Indonesia,’ admitted Dr. H. Nasaruddin Umar, director general of Islamic Community Guidance under the Ministry of Religious Affairs. ‘There’s a need to re-explain the concept of jihad.’” Read more.




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