What does Osama bin Laden’s death mean to Indonesia?

03May11

Twitter went wild yesterday with the death of Osama bin Laden when it was officially announced by Obama (yes, I better make sure I don’t make the same typo). Big news, but I actually would think that it doesn’t mean much to Indonesia.

Filed under: News, Politics   |  16 Comments
Tags: Islam, Osama bin Laden, Terrorism, tolerance

Paying the Price of Ignorance

18Apr11

17 years ago, the world stood by as an estimated number of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were mass slaughtered by the exteremist Hutus in Rwanda. What is now known as a genocide, was very much debatable back then when the ordeal happened. The international community, who had in their disposal the power to intervene and act, unfortunately were too ignorant to do so and it inevitably led to the gruesome epilogue that we have bitterly learned today.

Filed under: Politics, Social   |  61 Comments
Tags: Genocide, Rwanda, tolerance

On the point of religious tolerance

25Feb11

If there’s one topic that I’d like to avoid when I write, it’s actually about religion. If you’re like any other Indonesian, religion goes deeply into each of us; it’s embedded into your system of values and how you live and treat others are based on what you believe in. Thus, when one speaks of religion, it is hard to separate between logical arguments and what your faith has told you to do. As we’ve witnessed recently in Indonesia, speaking about religion and practicing it- to a certain extent-if not done ‘correctly’, you are prone to ill treatment from others who are different than you.

So I cautiously ask, does religious tolerance still exist (or has it ever existed) in Indonesia?

Filed under: Politics, Social   |  10 Comments
Tags: Ahmadiyah, Indonesia, religion, Robert D Putnam, tolerance