Executions of 3 Christian militants sparks violence in Indonesia

[WMS]

     Human rights workers say the men’s 2001 trial was a sham, and that while it was possible the men took part in some of the violence, they almost certainly were not the leaders.
...
      The case against the three had heightened tensions in the world’s most populous Muslim nation and raised questions about the role religion played in punishing those allegedly behind the violence that swept Sulawesi province from 1998 to 2002, killing more than 1,000 people of both religions. Only a handful of Muslims were convicted, all for 15 years in prison or less.
...
     Human rights activists said Muslim hardliners gathered at the court during the hearings, likely intimidating judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and witnesses.
 
     “The men’s lawyers received death threats, including a bomb planted at one lawyer’s house and demonstrators armed with stones outside the courthouse demanded that the three be sentenced to death,” said Isabelle Cartron of London-based Amnesty International.

Dibble, I think you are ignoring these parts if your purpose was to "show that Christians can be violent and hate filled as well".

There was not equal treatment of Christians and Muslims under Indonesian law! That might just, ya know, have something to do with this?

And let's see...didn't the freaking head of the Jemaah Islamiyah - you know, the ones who killed 202 people in Bali? - get a whopping 2 years in prison?

Indonesia brought this trouble on itself...

[WMS]

     Human rights workers say the men’s 2001 trial was a sham, and that while it was possible the men took part in some of the violence, they almost certainly were not the leaders.
...
      The case against the three had heightened tensions in the world’s most populous Muslim nation and raised questions about the role religion played in punishing those allegedly behind the violence that swept Sulawesi province from 1998 to 2002, killing more than 1,000 people of both religions. Only a handful of Muslims were convicted, all for 15 years in prison or less.
...
     Human rights activists said Muslim hardliners gathered at the court during the hearings, likely intimidating judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and witnesses.
 
     “The men’s lawyers received death threats, including a bomb planted at one lawyer’s house and demonstrators armed with stones outside the courthouse demanded that the three be sentenced to death,” said Isabelle Cartron of London-based Amnesty International.

Dibble, I think you are ignoring these parts if your purpose was to "show that Christians can be violent and hate filled as well".

There was not equal treatment of Christians and Muslims under Indonesian law! That might just, ya know, have something to do with this?

And let's see...didn't the freaking head of the Jemaah Islamiyah - you know, the ones who killed 202 people in Bali? - get a whopping 2 years in prison?

Indonesia brought this trouble on itself...

Uhm, so looting Muslim-owned stores and burning down the prosecutors house are not hate-motivated actions? Don't get me wrong - I'm not anti-Christian and I'm not saying such trouble shouldn't be expected from unfair treatment like this, but many of the actions that resulted from it stem from hate. I'm not even saying that the hate is necessarily unjustified. The notion that Christians never hate however is clearly not true. They're no more or less human than anyone else after all.

The most unfortunate part of these actions is that it's not going to produce positive results - it's only going to breed more hatred from the other side, which will likely result in actions that will breed more hatred among the Indonesian Christian population, and the cycle will continue until one side is destroyed or cooler heads prevail.

The point I was making is that this is happening because of unfair treatment of the minority Christians in Indonesia. While these riots are, indeed, acts of anger and even hatred, I would again say that they were brought on by acts of the Indonesian Muslim majority.

The bolded part in your statement was probably meant for jmfcst, but since I've never made that claim I see no need to bother with it.

[WMS]

The point I was making is that this is happening because of unfair treatment of the minority Christians in Indonesia. While these riots are, indeed, acts of anger and even hatred, I would again say that they were brought on by acts of the Indonesian Muslim majority.

I have not made any indication to the contrary, have I? I even agreed with you on that. Given the right circumstances most any group can be violent and hateful(take this instance or groups like the KKK who use the same Bible as every other Christian, or the radicals in the Middle East), and given the right circumstances most any group can be peaceful(take the majority of Muslims and Christians living in the US for instance).

Just making sure it wasn't a "Christians are rioting becasue they're being hateful" bit. This doesn't appear to be the case here. Otherwise I agree with ya.

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The bolded portion was simply a statement of truth to back up my assertions that both groups, as with all groups of humans, are capable of violence and hatred. It was not really directed at anyone in particular. Some people tend to view their enemies as less human than they are(wasn't saying you or jmfcst do so), so I tend to bring that up when talking about differing groups.[/quote]

Oh well, true enough. Every group, including the secular atheists is capable of hatred. I guess that wraps up our discussion.