Ramadan Trophies

Hasanuddin, a Javanese Muslim trader, was impressed after a visit with the Philippine Islamists of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front with how they planned bombings to celebrate the end of Ramadan. He brought the idea back to Poso in Central Sulawesi in Indonesia, where Muslims and Christians fought a murderous war in 2001 to 2002 that left one thousand dead via burnings, beheadings, and the usual atrocities common to jihad. While Muslims are a majority in Indonesia, the Muslim and Christian populations are roughly equal in Central Sulawesi. Hasanuddin discussed his Ramadan bombing plan with a local Muslim cleric, but soured on it.

After batting the idea around with his pals, Hasanuddin decided that beheading some Christians would count as an act of Muslim charity. So he gathered accomplices from the local Islamic school to find some Christians to decapitate for the Lebaran holiday which marks the end of Ramadan. He told his pal Lilik Purnomo, "It would be a great Lebaran trophy if we got a Christian. Go search for the best place for us to find one."

Purnomo found some easy Christian prey in the form of a group of six schoolgirls who cut across a cocoa plantation near Poso when they walked the six miles from their village to a private Christian school. They were conspicuous by their school uniforms. Hasanuddin, Purnomo, Irwanto Irano, and six other men prepared to ambush the girls. They gathered six machetes, black ski masks, two-way radios, and black plastic bags to hold the heads. They watched the ambush site.

A woman spotted them hiding off the road and scared them off, but they came back to try again. The night before the attack, Lilik joked to Hasanuddin, "I hope you are ready to receive your Lebaran gift."

Only four girls, not the expected six, showed up at 6:30 AM the morning of October 29, 2005: Yusriani Sampoe, 15 years old; Theresia Morangke, aged 16; Alvita Polio, 19; and Noviana Malewa, 15. They were all cousins. The Muslims sprang out from behind a stand of tall grass to ambush the girls. Within seconds they had struck off the heads of three of them.

Noviana fought the jihadis enough that her assassin could not get a clean swing at her. He struck her across the side of the face with his machete, wounding her badly but failing to kill her. She ran with blood gushing from a massive gash from cheek to neck. Recalled Noviana, "All I could do was pray to Jesus for his help." The beheaders could not catch her. "I was streaming with blood." She escaped into a ravine.

Lilik directed the attack by radio from a hill. He told his gang to move fast so that if the other two girls showed up they could cut their heads off, too. The Muslims harvested the girls heads, stuffed them in a backpack, and presented it to Hasanuddin.

Hasanuddin's gang dumped the headless bodies of the three girls, dressed in their brown school uniforms, next to a busy road. Theresia's head was left in a black plastic trash bag on the doorstep of a newly built church in the village of Kasiguncu. The militant Muslims of Central Sulawesi have been perpetrating a terror campaign against Christian churches and religious services. Theresia's head was probably used as a threat to the practice of Christianity.

Yusriani (nicknamed Yarni) and Alvita's heads were dumped at a police station in Lege. Hasanuddin left a note with their heads that read, "Wanted: 100 more Christian heads, teenaged or adult, male or female; blood shall be answered with blood, soul with soul, head with head."

Theresia's father, Hernius Morangki, spoke from the spot where his daughter was murdered, "They were killed as if they were chickens. I keep asking myself: What were my daughter`s sins?"

Indonesian government officials in Jakarta, the capital, denied Muslims had murdered the girls. They said it was the work of criminals. The government is predominantly Muslim. They denied Muslims did the Bali bombing, too. Noviana's mom, Nur, 46, blames the Muslim extremists for the attack on her daughter, "My daughter is fighting for her life because she is a Christian. This has nothing to do with local gangsters; it is about religion. But they won't be able to provoke us, we don't want another war. We want justice, not vengeance. We are suffering enough." David, a lay preacher in Poso, has another interesting query about the jihadis, "I want to know why most of the weapons carried by these militants are army issue." Good question.

Poso is Laskar Jihad country, where Wahhabism has taken hold due to Saudi missionaries. One young Muslim man in Poso helpfully explained to a visiting reporter, "We're not terrorists, but we have little respect for Christians. Indonesia should be an Islamic country without the impurities of Christianity or Hinduism. There are no churches here. The beheadings of these schoolgirls suits the Christians. Perhaps they did it to show Muslims as monsters."

A week after the beheadings, Ivon Maganti and Siti Nuraini were shot by masked men while they walked to a Girl Scout meeting. They were both 17-year-old Christian girls. Assassins dressed in black and riding motorbikes slashed another couple women the next Friday, the Muslim sabbath.

Verse of the Sword, Koran 9:5: "Slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush."

The three girls' bodies were dressed in flowing white gowns, bouquets placed in their hands, and their heads re-attached. Apparently, they were photographed and displayed in the Indonesian media.

The pastor of the dead girls church claims that their deaths were not in vain, that they are martyrs who have brought unity to Christian churches in Poso, who encourage the Christians to be strong in their faith. Alfita wanted to become a pastor herself. She was due to graduate from high school in five months. Her friends sing her favorite hymn, a song they believe she sings in heaven.

Incredibly, the parents of the slaughtered teenaged girls have forgiven their murderers. They believe God will judge the killers, not themselves. Markus Sambuwe, the father of 15-year-old-forever Yusriani, said, "I am really angry, but the Holy Spirit touched my heart and changed me. I forgive them just as Jesus has forgiven my sins."

Hasanuddin and two others have been arrested for the murders and are being tried. They have confessed. There is no reason not to confess. They are guaranteed paradise now. A death sentence will speed them to their reward.

Noviana was taken far from Poso and placed under round-the-clock guard of four policemen. Radical Muslims are searching for her to finish the job and eliminate her as a witness. Muslims have shot other witnesses of Muslim attacks in the past.

Noviana suffered a dislocated jaw in the machete attack and cannot chew well. There is nerve damage which causes sudden bouts of pain. She has to massage her face every day to stimulate nerve growth. A plastic surgeon helped minimize the scarring, which boosted her spirits. No woman wants her face disfigured. Every day she rubs skin salve on the scar and has infrared beam treatment. It's not clear if she has been told her cousins are dead.

The Rev. Stephen Dayoh cautions his flock, "I tell people: Do not retaliate; only God can do that. If we do, it means we are the same as them." That's a fine Christian sentiment but such pacifism merely makes a gift of your head to the Muslims next Ramadan.