1/9/2005 9:30:00 AM GMT
Source: www.smh.com
A Muslim group in the tsunami-devastated Indonesian province of Banda Aceh was worried by the arrival of an Australian Catholic priest and warned him against trying to convert Muslim children.
Father Chris Riley, who leads the charity Youth Off The Streets, arrived in Aceh on Friday.
He is planning to establish an orphanage for some of the 35,000 Acehnese children who lost their parents after the disastrous tsunami.
But on Saturday, the head of the Islamic Defenders Front, Hilmy Bakar Almascaty, demanded Father Riley to stick purely to humanitarian activities in Aceh, the only Indonesian province that fully implements Muslim sharia law.
However, Father Riley said that he wasn’t planning to convert those he helped to Christianity.
"There is no religious component to any of our programs," he said.
Muslim groups in Aceh want to set up their own orphanage for about 1000 children and the Indonesian Government approved the orphanage, to be run by Muhammadiyah, the country’s second-largest Muslim group, on the outskirts of Banda Aceh.
Muhammadiyah's vice-chairman Din Syamsuddin said on Saturday that about 15,000 children lost their parents in the disaster.