- Obama: "I want to make sure we end before the call to prayer"
- Iran Deploys Troops, Ballistic Missiles To Eritrea [2008]
Posted on 05/24/2012 7:02:36 AM PDT by marshmallow
JAKARTA — Just a few days after Lady Gaga’s concert in Indonesia was canceled after protests by Islamic groups, I flew 1,370 kilometers from Jakarta to Padang, West Sumatra, and drove a further 130 kilometers, a four-hour journey along rough, winding roads, to Sijunjung, to visit an Indonesian atheist jailed for his beliefs.
Alex Aan, a 30-year-old civil servant, is a gentle, soft-spoken, highly intelligent young man who simply gave up his belief in God when he saw poverty, war, famine and disaster around the world.
He faces the possibility of up to six years in prison, charged with blasphemy, disseminating hatred and spreading atheism. Radical Muslims came to his office, beat him up, and called the police after reading about his views on Facebook.
Alex is the first atheist in Indonesia to be jailed for his belief, but his case is symptomatic of a wider increase in religious intolerance in the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation. The previous Sunday, I joined a small church in Bekasi, a suburb of Jakarta, for a service, but found the street blocked by a noisy, angry mob and a few police.
The church, known as HKBP Filadelfia, was forced to close a few years ago, even though the local courts had given permission to open. The local mayor, under pressure from Islamists, has declared a “zero church” policy in his area. For the past two months, the congregation has been blocked from worshiping in the street outside their building, and the atmosphere has grown increasingly tense.
When I was there, I felt it could have erupted into violence at any moment. The radicals in control of the loudspeaker shouted “Christians, get out,” and “anyone not wearing a jilbab (headscarf), catch them, hunt them down.”
World leaders and commentators like to point to Indonesia as..........
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Bookmarked for later reading. I spent a week in Indonesia in March, teaching at a pastors’ conference in Medan, North Sumatra.
Thanks marshmallow.
I had never seen this famous bow from profile before. Ugh.
Curious how does O bowing to Saudis have anything to do with Indonesia?
The Islamic dunce in the White House was raised as a Moslem in Indonesia.
Lawmaker Martin Hutabarat is calling on Indonesian Christians to not be provoked by “insults” on their religion made by US pop singer Lady Gaga.
The Great Indonesian Movement Party (Gerindra) politician also invited Christians to remain calm in responding to “provocative” statements from Gaga, who is accused of promote “satanic values” and hatred against Christianity.
"Let God decide what to do to her if she does insult God or Christianity, as has been widely reported. We are not one to defend the Divine. Judgment doesn't belong to us," Martin said Friday at the House of Representatives.
An Islam Defenders Front (FPI) spokesman has previously condemned the public for negatively judging the group and other fellow hard-liners for protesting against Gaga's plan to perform a concert in the capital.
He said Indonesian Christians be thankful for the protest because it Gaga had attacked their religion.
"Just remain calm. I believe God knows what to do," Martin said.
The comedy here is that Lady GAG will back the _resident and the islamofascists ...and work for ‘The messiah’s’ reelection
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