What It Feels To Be Christian in a Moslem Country

Angry. Oppressed. Offended. And last but not least, satisfied.

You may ask why the first three negative words are finished with a positive result. I'll tell you why.

As a Christian who lives in a Moslem-dominated country like Indonesia, I have encountered far too many unpleasant experiences with the so-called Peace lover Moslem believer. And I have to face it every day, day in day out, from dusk till dawn.

First of all, Moslems like to build mosques everywhere. And I mean everywhere. And then they set up huge speakers in all different directions so that they can yell out whatever it is they are chanting or preaching in a loud and obtrusive manner, from dusk till dawn, and even at three or four in the wee hours of the morning. So loud are they that sometimes I can hear what they are talking about, in which most of the topics never go far from propagandas who accuse other religions as pagans and that those who do not believe in Islam should be terminated and send to hell.

Upon hearing such words, I, as a Christian, can only exhale and try to let it go.

Secondly, when the Moslems are entering the fasting season, all of a sudden they become ten times more brutal than usual, which is really the opposite of the purpose of them fasting in the first place: To forgive and to seek solitude and peace. During this season it is not unsual for FPI (Front Pembela Islam, translated as Islam Defender Front) to perform anarchist acts to restaurants, nightclubs, pubs and brothels.

Out of all the other places, you may wonder why restaurants are included. That's because the minorities, like me, who aren't fasting still need to eat and so when we are seen eating in a restaurant through its windows that are not covered in order to prevent Moslem people looking and feeling tempted to break their fasting habit, this pisses the FPI off. Now this is the logic most Moslem people don't get; they think that because they are fasting then everybody else must respect them for it. It seems that they want everything to be made easier for them, isn't it?

"Hey, don't you see that I am fasting? Why are you still eating in front of me? Don't you know that tempting a fasting Moslem is an evil crime, and you know that I am too weak to contain myself to stick to my habit, so you should be the one tolerating ME!"

Thirdly, I have never witnessed any other religion who enjoys begging so much, if it is not Islam. You can find on the streets of Jakarta or in Outer Java, where there are children, young men and women standing by the sidewalks or even blocking the paths intentionally so they can stop the passing vehicles while proferring a net-like tool as a way of asking donation for them to build, guess what, more mosques. Not only is this deeply annoying, it's also creating traffic congestion, but of course that never crosses their pithy little minds.

Fourthly, you maybe have heard about this particular Moslem habit of burning down churches that every Christmas it has become a tradition to load up ten times the amount of security guards than usual to prevent any undesirable riots or even worse, bombings or man-exploding while yelling "Allahuakbar!!!" to kill us all.

Nevertheless, I am satisfied.

Everyday I am thankful that I am born as a Christian, and not as a Moslem.

I am glad that even though my religion is a minority, the people who believe in Christ as I am are much more blessed that we never feel the need to beg for money from other people. I am happy to know that Christians help each other and we have the privilege of a good, decent worshipping places as opposed to the Moslem who, despite all the mosques they need to build they are still as poor as hell.

They can burn our churches down, limit our ability to worship and tell us that we are pagans but the fact is this: the more they are trying to take us down, the higher we will rise. Even though we are small in numbers, but we are big in blessing.