1) Reports in 2004 showed that Christianization was rapidly increasing in Indonesia, with some estimates showing a 70 times increase in Christians over 100 years. This could lead to significant geopolitical and social changes similar to East Timor breaking from Indonesia. 2) A visit to Indonesia in 1433 AH confirmed reports that thousands were converting to Christianity annually through mass events and lack of Islamic knowledge among the population. 3) An estimated 2 million Muslims in Indonesia convert to Christianity annually, according to averages from multiple sources, though some estimates suggest the number is higher. Factors driving conversion include colonialism, poverty, secularization, isolation of communities, and evangelism.

1. Mercy Mission World
P.O. BOX 18776
London
E6 3AE
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www.savemaryam.com
Press Release
Save Maryam Live
Early in 2004 our team began to receive reports of huge numbers of people leaving Islam
in Indonesia. At that time we were informed of findings showing that within our lifetime
the rate of growth of Christianisation was heading for a massive societal as well as
geopolitical shift in the region. It would resemble East Timor when a few decades ago,
due to the high levels of Christianisation - it had broken off from Indonesia. Due to a 70
times increase in the number of Christians in just 100 years, what was happening in
Africa was also significant. With geopolitical and social upheavals, these changes were a
clear indication and example of what could potentially happen to Indonesia if Muslims
continued to be ignorant of their beautiful religion.
In this Hijri year of 1433, Allah has been most kind by enabling a good number of our
team members to visit Indonesia to see for ourselves firsthand what the situation was. We
met with a number of Scholars, Professors, Journalists, Islamic Activists, Masjid
committee members, Businessmen and Laymen and there seemed to be consensus that
the number of people leaving Islam was a real issue. At a time tens of thousands would
convert at concerts in Surabaya and Jakarta. Olympic swimming pools were hired to
baptise them into Christianity. At that time large Mega Churches that can house 4,000 -
10,000 people were being built in the main cities. We witnessed a general lack of Islamic
knowledge and apathy. Poverty was also rife in many of the 17,000+ islands of Indonesia
and people were prey to anyone who could afford them basic social services needed to
get by.
So why are so many people converting to Christianity? There are number of reasons for
this phenomenon:
1. Colonisation by the Dutch with a particularly aggressive Christianisation agenda.
2. Widespread general ignorance about Islam and its rulings with a limited means of
accessing pure Islamic knowledge.
3. Poverty being rampant across Indonesia’s population. This is providing a fertile ground
for resource rich movements to enter the hearts and minds of the people offering them
a better alternative to how they were living.
4. Government secular policies and 31 years of anti-Islamic legislations: Suharto presided
over Indonesia for 31 years making Indonesia a secular country and even banning the
hijab during his presidency. Today Indonesia is officially a secular state despite having
200 million Muslims there.
5. 240 million people spread over 17,000+ islands - so it is easy for missionaries to go to
an island and cordon it off from outside influence. This is precisely how hundreds of
island are now off limits to Muslims as the whole island has accepted Christianity.

2. 6. Economy being in the control of Chinese Christians: The people of Chinese origin have
strongly taken to Christianity in Indonesia.
7. Strong evangelical focus in Asia: Time magazine on April, 2010 reports from a PEW
report that the number of Christians in Asia has risen from 101 million in 1970 to 351
million in 2005.
We also began to research the true number of conversions to Christianity in Indonesia per
year. There are large discrepancies from Muslim indonesian reports stating anywhere
between 12-15%. Christian missionaries however are stating that it is anywhere from 17-
20%. So what is the real number? Some people choose to focus on one source for
demographic information - either only Muslim or either only Christian or either only
official government reports or either only one organization or the other. In our view, in
such a matter in which biases are very strong, a more balanced approach was required
where all credible authorities - both the most credible left and most credible right are
taken into account. As a result, we decided to focus on 2009 where projections were
found from both mainstream Christian and mainstream Muslim sources as well as an
official account was also available from an ICG interview with the Indonesian religious
ministry.
In our humble opinion, a very basic projection of the numbers showed us that around 2
million (+/- 1.5% to cater for non-Muslim converts to Christianity and immigration) was a
decent estimate of the number that were converting to Christianity every year without
coming back to Islam. The real figure may be about 10-15% more - however these 10-
15% people revert back to Islam after a year due to variety of factors. According to the
estimates provided by a number of Muslim Professors that we came across, the actual
number may be worse than 2 million. Our estimates were subsequently verified after
meeting with a number of local Muslim duaat that we hope to work with in Indonesia.
The following table will hopefully highlight to you how we reached our figures by taking a
middle path between two biases (Islamic authorities’ vs Christian missionaries). We
started off with the official figures of 8.7% Christians in Indonesia in 2000 as per official
census figures and applied the respective growth rates per World Bank data on
Indonesian yearly growth rates. Then we averaged the increase in the rise in the Christian
population over 9 years from 4 of the best estimates that we could find till the year 2009
- and that was from the International Crisis Group report - the link of which is mentioned
below. We subsequently saw that a figure of 2,014,837 was our near best estimate of the
number of conversions to Christianity.

3. There is no Muslim who sees these figures except they wish that this was not true and
not the case. Truly only Allah knows the absolute exact real numbers that convert to
Christianity but our responsibility is to make an educated guess just like what we have
done above.
So our dearest friends, there is simply no doubt that this unfortunate reality is
happening. The question we should truly be asking now is - what are we going to do to
help them rediscover the beauty, clarity and justice of Islam?
In this blessed month of Ramadan, we should remind ourselves of the beautiful words of
our creator, Allah says in AlAnfal Verse 46:
"Do not argue amongst yourselves such that your [strategies] fail and your strength is
diminished."
And be the people who work on the solution. Be a people who consider the losing of one
Muslim, an episode that brings pain to the heart and mobilises them into action to
support the religion of Allah.
Let no one ever think that the problem is Christianity. Rather, the problem is us and our
weakness. Throughout the centuries, the Ummah has faced serious challenges from the
Mongols and Tatars to invasion of colonial powers to disease, drought, famine and
floods. Whenever we had held onto Islam strongly and our youth had been firm on this
religion, we flourished. Whenever we abandoned our religion and our youth strayed -
Muslims became weak. So the time is now to focus on ourselves and bring our youth back
to Islam with a compassionate Prophetic approach. It’s time to Save Maryam!
Save Maryam Campaign Team
6th Ramadan 1433 corresponding to 25th July 2012