Maya Safira Muchtar , Jakarta | Wed, 02/03/2010 10:36 AM | Opinion After reading several issues of The Jakarta Post these last few days, I have been feeling very disturbed. There have been reports on churches and a pastor’s home being burned allegedly by Muslim mobs. Yet the police were unable to arrest anybody on the pretext that it was done by a mob of people. The mobs had an excuse for burning the...
I salute Din Syamsuddin, chairperson of Muhammadiyah, for his statement in The Jakarta Post’s article on June 20 titled “FPI attacks damage RI Muslims’ image”. Such a statement from the chairperson of the second largest Muslim group in this country represents the silent majority of moderate Muslims. Of course, the silent majority of Muslims has not been helping much in building a peaceful...
Radical Islam in Indonesia is on the march, and the religious pluralism enshrined in the doctrine of Pancasila is coming under direct attack. Last week the Indonesian government has issued a joint ministerial decree telling the heretical Muslim Ahmadiyya movement to ‘stop spreading interpretations and activities’ which deviate from orthodox Islam. That decree has implications for other minorities as...
Jangan lupa shalat, karena kalau tidak….dosa…dosa….dosa..dosa… Ada api neraka…..” (Don’t forget to pray, sin…sin…sin…sin…There’s fire in hell) That was part of the lyric from a funky rap song which I was swaying to its tunes. I was practically moving my legs in rhythm and tapping my fingers against my bag in the middle of a shopping mall. When I realized the contents of the lyric, it is as though my brain just...