CAIRO, January 13 (IslamOnline.net) - Giving credence to fears that Christain missionaries are exploiting the tsunami distaster to proselytize poor and needy Muslims, The Washington Post reported Thursday, January 13, that a US missionary group plans to christianize 300 Muslim children from the Indonesian province of Aceh.

While many religious charities have policies against proselytizing, Virginia-based WorldHelp is an exception raisning money among evangelical Christians by presenting the tsunami as a rare opportunity to make converts in hard-to-reach areas, said the American daily.

“Normally, Banda Aceh is closed to foreigners and closed to the gospel,” the missionary group said in a fund appeal on its Web site, according to the Post.

“But, because of this catastrophe, our partners there are earning the right to be heard and providing entrance for the gospel.”

The Post stressed that the Web site was changed, and the appeal was removed after a reporter called to inquire about it.

At least 156,000 people have been confirmed killed, thousands missing and millions displaced in several Asian countries in tidal waves triggered by a 9.0 magnitude undersea earthquake - the world’s biggest in 40 years - which struck deep in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra Island.

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, lost 110,229 people to the killer sea surges.

The Indonesian government estimated that 35,000 children have been made homeless, orphaned or separated from their parents in Aceh, where Muslims make up 98 percent of the population.

In its fund-raising appeal, WorldHelp said it was working with Indonesian Christians who want to “plant Christian principles as early as possible” in the 300 Muslim children, all under 12.

Rev. Vernon Brewer, president of WorldHelp in Forest, Va., said they raised about 70,000 dollars and were seeking an additional 350,000 dollars to build the Christian orphanage.

John Budd, UNICEF Indonesia Communication Officer, said last week that UNICEF's Malaysian office had received an SMS advertising 300 orphans from Aceh aged between three and ten who could be bought.

“It's chilling…What this indicates is that they have got children or they have a network where they can identify a child and take them,” he said.

Also in reaction to the increasing missionary work, an anonymous electronic text message spread through Indonesia this week.

“Please ask among friends who would like to adopt orphans from Aceh. 300 orphans coming soon. Need Muslim homes. Christian missionaries want them. Pls help!” it read.

Gospel for Asia, a group seeking to train and send 100,000 native missionaries into the most unreached areas of Asia, was working around the clock to bring food, clean water, medicines, clothing, shelter, and spiritual counseling “in the name of Jesus” to those who lost everything in the killer tidal waves.

Acehnese children reach for pencils at a school in a makeshift refugee camp in Banda Aceh. (Reuters)

Brewer, a Baptist minister, claimed that the Indonesian government gave permission for the orphans to be flown to Jakarta and was aware that they would be raised as Christians.

Indonesian Vice President Yusuf Kalla announced last week a ban on adoption amid alarming reports about human traffickers spiriting children out of Aceh.

He said the children would be placed in orphanages run by the government, Islamic foundations or Muslim boarding schools.

The government also said that children under the age of 16 would not be allowed to leave Aceh without their parents.

Rev. Arthur Keys, president of International Relief and Development in Arlington, Va., feared overt evangelizing could produce a backlash.

“I think there's a danger that all international groups could be tarnished by this,” said Keys, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ.

“I think we have to go out of our way to assure people that we're there to help, period.”

Indonesia asked all foreign troops to leave the country by March 26, a day after the army imposed sweeping restrictions on foreign aid workers in Aceh amid reports that some evangelical groups are mixing Christian missionary work with humanitarian aid.

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