Article

2006-03-20 Southeast Asia

Separation of Mosque, State Wanes in Indonesia

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Posted by Steve White 2006-03-20 12:19|| || Front Page|| [2 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Sumardi Tappaya, 60, a high school religious teacher on the island of Sulawesi, was locked up in January after a relative told police he had heard Sumardi whistling while he prayed. The whistling was declared deviant by the local ulemas, and Sumardi is now in jail awaiting trial on charges of religious blasphemy. He faces five years in prison.

Five years in prison for having a gap between your teeth...

Posted by Robert Crawford">Robert Crawford 2006-03-20 12:58|| http://www.kloognome.com/]">[http://www.kloognome.com/] 2006-03-20 12:58|| Front Page Top

#2 As is necessary for foundation myths of virtually all religions, the first followers of the new faith had to endure persecution, fleeing to Christian Ethiopia around the year 615. While those Muslims-in-the-making were out of town, Mohammed and the disciples who had stayed with him in Mecca were confined under siege - to be starved into submission.

Just in the nick of time, Mohammed received a revelation that helpfully clarified the theopolitical questions at issue for the Meccan guardians of the gods in the Kaï¿½aba. When Mohammed had reported that Allah was the only god in town, it turned out that he hadn't received the entire satellite transmission. Perhaps Gabriel had mumbled and Mohammed missed part of the message. Wouldn't you know? The three favorite goddesses of Mecca - al-Lat, al-Uzzah, and al-Manat - were also real! This saved Mohammed's neck and all body parts attached thereto, and the exiles were able to return from Ethiopia. Later, when it was safe to do so, this all-important revelation was expunged from the Qurï¿½an and it was explained that the revelation had come from Shaitan (Satan), not Allah. Thus began the legend of the "Satanic Verses," which more than a thousand years later was to prompt the Ayatollah Khomeini to issue a fatwa of death against the novelist Salman Rushdie.

To draw attention to the Satanic Verses is to galvanize a still-raw nerve in the body politic of Islam.

To draw attention to the Satanic Verses is to galvanize a still-raw nerve in the body politic of Islam. The Satanic Verses are an acute embarrassment to Mohammedan authorities because they imply that it was Satan, not Allah, who had saved their prophet's life. If Allah was the only god, and if he had previously selected Mohammed to be his last and greatest mouthpiece on this planet, why didn't he save his own appointed prophet? Why would the god of evil want to save his enemy's ambassador? Might not there be more Satanic Verses in the Qurï¿½an ï¿½ verses that have never been recognized as the handiwork of the prince of devils? Who knows what evils yet may lurk in the Book of Books?

Posted by 3dc 2006-03-20 13:17|| 2006-03-20 13:17|| Front Page Top

#3 the people wouldn't bother to riot if there was no one who deviated

Ah, yes. The traquil stability of a stagnant monoculture. Just the ticket for a country that direly needs to enter the 20th century while most others are entering the 21st.

Roy's sentence is only six months shorter than the term given radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, the purported spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah. The Southeast Asian affiliate of Al Qaeda is believed to have killed at least 225 people in suicide bombings in Bali and Jakarta.

Wow, I guess they take it pretty seriously if you try to pray in another language.

Or is it that they don't take it very seriously if you slaughter over two hundred innocent people, so long as they are mere infidels?

Posted by Zenster 2006-03-20 15:44|| 2006-03-20 15:44|| Front Page Top

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