In Jakarta, Indonesia, the situation is calm but police remain on heightened alert after a series of terrorist attacks. Islamic extremists tried to reproduce the attacks of the ISIS members in November last year in Paris, but could not. Christians quickly began to act to reassure people.
At least three blasts in the Indonesian capital on Thursday, followed by a two-hour firefight. One incident occurred in a popular shopping centre and another in a cafe “Starbucks”. Seven people, including four attackers, were killed. Five police officers and two foreigners, one of whom is a Dutch national, was among the wounded. News Agency associated with ISIS, said that “Islamic state” has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Indonesia’s President vowed to find the perpetrators and deal with terrorist networks operating in the most populous Muslim country in the world. He urged people to remain calm, not be afraid and do not worry in connection with the terrorist attacks. In a telephone conversation the Director of “CBN Indonesia” mark McClendon described the attack as amateurish: “In fact, the attack was not well planned and thought out attacks. Looks like they organized the laymen and they were not very effective. The crime scenes are cleared promptly, and police quickly detained most of the participants,” says mark McClendon.
McClendon also said that members of the growing Christian community in the country immediately after the attack began to help his fellow citizens: “after a few minutes in social networks started the avalanche: the people were urged to pray, prophesied, proclaimed peace, justice, prosperity, godliness, the Kingdom of God. Such appeals filled the air. There was very little negativity”.
According to the organization “Suphan”, about seven Indonesians may have traveled to Syria and Iraq to join ISIS. Some of them probably had to go back to Indonesia. And many in this country are sympathetic to the “Islamic state”.
“The real problem here is that about 6% of Indonesian Muslims, as shown by a recent survey said they agree with the actions of ISIS in the middle East,” mark McClendon.
This means that as many as 15 million Indonesians support the actions of ISIS. But McClendon says the police and military of Indonesia have an extensive network and has prevented many such planned attacks.
“You talk a lot about their ability to track suspicious individuals and to prevent terrorist attacks. In General, people have a lot of confidence that the Indonesian police and military to cope with such threats,” — says mark McClendon, adding that he believes God will use this tragedy to give people hope.
“It seems that people have an optimistic attitude: faith in Christ and God’s ability to keep this country. In some sense, bad news is always good news for the Kingdom of God. They make people think, what they really believe, and encourage them to look around in search of answers, and Jesus is always there,” says mark McClendon.