The police officers' rowdy shouts and curses made Muslim Agil tremble. The four-year-old boy, swaddled in his mother's arms, could only close his eyes and cover his ears. "Come on, let's go in Ma, they're yelling at us," he said. Marnoto, Muslim's father, didn't move a muscle.

The Marnoto family and dozens of other Shiite families in Sampang regency, located on Madura island off Java's northeast coast, had decided to hold out when officers evicted them fro