Three women in Indonesia were arrested and charged of attempting to convert Muslim children to Christianity, Compass Direct has reported.
Dr. Rebekka Zakaria, Eti Pangesti and Ratna Bangu of Gereja Kristen Kemah Daud (GKKD), of the Christian Church of David's Camp; were imprisoned on 13th May in Indramayu State Prison, where they are now awaiting their trial.
Their story began in 2003, when the elementary school in the area asked the church stuff to provide a Christian education program at their school.
The reason for this resulted from a change in the law, which occurred in June 2003 when the National Education System Bill came into force. The Bill requires providing religious education for children of religious minorities.
Since the school in Babakan Jati had no means of providing Christian education, they asked GKKD church to provide the program.
The told how three women set up a program entitled "Happy Sunday" providing Christian songs, games and Bible studies for children. The program was run by Bangun and Pangesti, and supervised by their Pastor, named Zakaria.
The program was very successful, and attractive not only for Christian children, but later for Muslim children as well. The number of children attending the Happy Sundays reached 40, among them just 10 Christian children.
Muslim children, who attended the program, were doing so with the full consent of their parents. The problems then arose when Islamic elders noticed that some of the children started to sing Christian praises at school and at home.
