Indonesia no longer land of religious tolerance? Blog #5

Just three months ago President Barack Obama, used the country of Indonesia as a model example of religious tolerance. He told the world that both the United States and Indonesia showed excellent examples of religious unity and tolerance. In the past Indonesia has called it's self a country made up of citizens with different religious backgrounds. It is even shown in their national model "Bhinneka Tunggal Ika," meaning unity in diversity. However possibly due to increased technology that national/international image of tolerance, is slowly dissolving. Many have argued that the government is not doing it's job to protect the people from religious discrimination. In just three days two different religious groups were attacked by a large mob. It has been estimated that up to a thousand angry militants attack the groups, police officials, as well as burning down two churches. The apparent cause was over the recent sentencing of a Christian man, who was allegedly blaspheming Islam. The man's sentence was considered to be "far too-lenient" which led to the attacks.

Unfortunately that is just one example. Five have been confirmed dead and 5 are critically injured. This is all due to a recent machete attack towards 18 peaceful members of a particular Muslim community. These attacks are being made by several religious extremists. This has become a very serious problem for the country, once known for it's religious tolerance.
This is a very disturbing article. I decided to research the topic a little more after reading the part about being sentenced for blaspheming Islam. As it turns out the Indonesian government created the Blasphemy Law in 1965 by it's definition the law states that it "targets those who deliberately, in public, express feelings of hostility, hatred, or contempt against religions with the purpose of preventing others from adhering to any religion, and targets those who disgrace a religion." If convicted a person can receive a maximum of five years in prison. I think that might be a huge problem within the country. While I do see how it can be very important to trying to protect the masses, it creates more harm then good. Also I'm sure the title given by President Obama as a model for religious tolerance puts massive amounts of pressure on the country. It's kind of like when your parents say your such a great student in front of all of their friends, and you ended up skipping school right before that was said. I think the Indonesian government really needs to step in, assess the situation at hand, and solve it!

I like what the author of this article said: "Indonesia, it is time. Are you truly that model of religious tolerance our President said you are? Do you respect and protect diversity? The whole world is watching, and it's your move." That's the real question!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harris-zafar/indonesia-land-of-toleran_b_821180.html