Human Rights Watch, an international non-governmental organization, has called on the Indonesian president to adopt a "zero tolerance" method to attacks on religious minorities.

In its report "In Religion's Name: Abuses against Religious Minorities in Indonesia," HRW criticizes President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for failing to protect religious minorities from growing religious intolerance and violence.

HRW says that such violence is "on the rise" in the world's biggest Muslim-majority nation. more >>

Heavy flooding in Indonesia's capital Jakarta, which began Tuesday, has killed at least 21 people and affected more than 250,000 people, prompting the United States to offer help for victims as residents complain of lack of food, water, clothes, shelter and medicine.

More than 18,000 people had yet to return to their homes as of Saturday due to the flooding caused by torrential rains in the low-lying city, according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, locally known as BNPB.

Flood waters have swamped even downtown areas, including where the presidential palace is situated. more >>

The United Nations has recently spoken out against the Indonesian government's continued persecution of religious minorities, urging the government to translate universal human rights obligations into domestic law.

"A fundamental principle of international human rights is non-discrimination. This applies in all areas to all people," the High Commissioner for Human Rights of the U.N., Navanethem Pillay, said at a press conference at the United Nations Mission in Indonesia headquarters on Nov. 13, 2012.

"Indonesia has a rich culture and history of diversity and tolerance. At the same time, it risks losing this if firm action is not taken to address increasing levels of violence and hatred towards religious minorities and narrow and extremist-interpretations of Islam," the commissioner added. more >>

Alexander Aan, an Indonesian atheist who has endured a long court trial over his alleged Islamic dissidence, is currently appealing his prison sentence of two years and six months to the country's Supreme Court, arguing that the court has been unable to prove he purposefully spread anti-Islamic messages in order to incite societal dissidence.

"The ones who spread and cause hatred are the two witnesses, who told about Alexander's postings [declaring himself an atheist] on Facebook," Saputra Roni, Aan's lawyer and deputy director of the Padang Legal Aid Foundation, told The Jakarta Post.

Aan, 31, who was born Muslim but became an atheist at a young age, was arrested in January 2012 for posting on an atheist group's Facebook page a message that read: "God doesn't exist." more >>

The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) has published a report warning the United States government that it should not be ignorant of the terror threat growing in Indonesia, the largest Muslim nation in the world.

The massive economic growth occurring in the region is likely to soon affect U.S. foreign policy - the Strait of Malacca is one of the world's most important strategic sea lanes where close to 40 percent of global trade takes place, linking Asia with the Middle East and Europe.

South-East Asia's largest terror group, Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), which the United Nations has linked to Al-Qaida and the Taliban, have been kept under tight control in the region for years – but the WEA reveals in its report that the organization is growing in power.The report details several bombings and terroristic attacks in Asia that JL were linked to following the 9/11 Twin Tower attacks. more >>

A petition to President Barack Obama looking to highlight the plight of an Indonesian blogger jailed for writing "God doesn't exist," has not been able to gather enough signatures to warrant an official response from the White House.

The petition in support of the atheist needed to gather 25,000 signatures within 30 days to warrant a response from the White House, however, the number fell well short of the required mark.

"I'm disappointed -- not necessarily in other people for not signing the petition, but for Alexander Aan, who remains sitting in a jail cell merely for stating his position on religion," Michael De Dora, Director at the Office of Public Policy at the Center for Inquiry, who started the petition, shared with The Christian Post. more >>