ABSTRACT
On 29 October 2005 three Christian 1 girls were attacked and beheaded by Muslim militants as they walked to a school in Poso, the largest Christian city on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. The assault was timed to take place at the end of the month of Ramadan, and the murderers left one girl’s head in front of a local church with a note 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.” 2 This event was regarded as an attempt to reignite the violence of 1999–2001, during which intense clashes between Muslims and Christians resulted in more than 2,000 deaths in Poso. In March 2007 the court sentenced Hasanuddin to twenty years’ imprisonment for masterminding the beheadings and his accomplices to fourteen years. Hasanuddin commented before being sentenced, “This is a part of our struggle. What will become a problem is if our brothers decide to get revenge.” 3
