June 21,
2008: The Indonesian provinces of Papua
and West Papua (both in the western half of New Guinea island) is turning into
another battleground between Moslems and Christians. The region used to be a
Dutch colony, and many of the Melanesian tribal people there were converted to
Christianity. Islam was relatively unknown. No longer. Because of heavy
migration from other parts of Indonesia over the last two decades, about a
quarter of the three million strong population is now Moslem. Islamic radicals
have shown up as well. Between angry Christians (who oppose the migrants, and
their religion) and Islamic radicals (who hate non-Moslems), there have been a
growing number of clashes. Most of the police are Malay (the dominant ethnic
group in most of Indonesia), and they
tend to side with the Moslems. It's getting uglier by the month.
