I am a member of a church which is legally admitted as an official organization by the government of Indonesia through the Acts published by the Minister of Religious Affairs. For the sake of discretion, I choose not to mention the name of the organization.
The following is a true story;
The church where I belong had quite a huge number of assembly; some including families who came from a far region in the outer state. For this very reason, the organization where the church affiliated with had a plan to open a branch in the location near those people. The intention was so that these people didn’t have to travel such distance to their place of worship.
Concretely and environmentally, the permission to build this new church was being processed to be legalized by the parties being involved. During this process the person in charge of the organization was having troubles acquiring the permit from the local dweller without being given a clear reasoning whatsoever. A year had gone by since the permit was being requested and through a tough and difficult struggle, the permit was finally being released officially. And so the church was finally ready to be built.
After a year, it was finally ready to be used and the next step was to make it as an official worshiping place. Out of the blue and without any warning whatsoever, the local officials (the village chief, the head of the subdistrict and also the local seniors of the village) came to visit the organization board a day before the church was being made official. They came by to say that on behalf of the village, they strongly disagreed with the building of the church being in their region with the excuse that it would attract noise and crowds.
After going through many heated arguments, the organization board finally decided to delay the officialise of the church because even though the permit had been signed by those village chiefs, the fear that the local people had inflicted by saying they would close down the church as their final ultimatum had made the organization manager to best wait until things were clear.
Strange enough, a few months after the incident, a nightclub was built right next to the unused building of the new church. And until this article is being posted, the new church was never allowed to be officially open to the public.
According to the Indonesian Constitutions, it is mentioned that the state guarantees and protects the freedom of its people to religious freedom, but the true fact is far from it.
Christianity is continuously receiving difficulties to have its own places of worships in this Moslem-majority country of Indonesia. Furthermore, the state is powerless to look after its people, especially those who are Christians.
The fact is, the freedom to religious choice in Indonesia does not exist.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Thursday, January 24, 2008
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.
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.
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