Jakarta Post Equates Islam With Islamist Fanaticism!


A prominent headline in the Jakarta Post this week briefly gladdened my heart…

Apology from Jakarta Post

oooooooooo

sorry

————

But only briefly.

I had hoped their Editor, Endy, had finally decided to say sorry for the JP’s failure to condemn the Hitlerian book-burning committed a couple of years ago by his newspaper’s parent company, Gramedia, at the behest of Islamist fanatics.

Grovelling Gramedia’s Book–Burning Bonanza – Appeasing Fanatics 

  • burning booksGramedia’s Hitlerite book-burning

  • …………………..

But no, it was just that the JP was apologising for its sloppy reporting 0f the recent executions.Apology from Jakarta Post .

Now I wake up this sunny Saturday and wonder if we’ll see another apology soon for THIS indefensible headline.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

More celebrities, rock stars turn to Islam

000000000000000000000000000

This alarming news had me worried.

…………….

  • TURNER JAGGER
  • ………..
  • Was Mick Jagger about to undertake a pilgrimage to Mecca – I’d much prefer him to bring the Stones to Jakarta so I could enjoy their brilliant music once again.

—

–

Was, perhaps, k d lang, the Canadian lesbian, about to cover her glorious beauty (!) with a burka?

———

Not so!

In fact the JP report is not, as far as I can see, about apostasy at all.

……..

Apostasy_myspace

……………..

None of the celeb singers etc. mentioned ( I may be wrong but am open to correction) are Christian or Hindu or Buddhist. It seems that the people concerned are by no means ‘converts.’

On the contrary.

Up till recently, they have, apparently, been like the Indonesian Muslims I mingle with every day, nice, normal people who say their prayers but don’t shove their religion down other folks’ throats.

What the JP means by ‘turning to Islam’ is that they have endorsed the most extreme and fanatical outlooks, most notably (for stars of the music industry) 

Kang Ucay, the former lead singer of Bandung-based pop-punk band Rockcalled et Rockers, who now goes by the name of Noor Al Kautsar, serves as the coordinator for the Bandung chapter of Indonesia Tanpa JIL (Indonesia Without JIL). Indonesia Tanpa JIL is a conservative Islamist movement opposed to the liberal Islam, promoted in Indonesia by Jaringan Islam Liberal (Liberal Islam Network)  http://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2016/05/27/more-celebrities-rock-stars-turn-to-islam.html

For ‘conservative,’ please read radical. Conservatism means attachment to traditional values, which in Indonesia are distinguished by an easy-going tolerance among creeds.

In fact, there’s much misuse of the term Islamisation here, when what’s meant is Arabisation. Though to be fair to Arabs, many of them enjoy music, unlike another gaggle of celebs cited by the JP, viz.

Some other musicians who have decided to lay down their instruments recently set up a movement and identified themselves as Al Ghuroba, or The Strangers. These former musicians’ primary campaign theme is the prohibition of music.

———–

Of course, we have often covered kill-joy nonsense, most often from Aceh, the only Indonesian province with sharia law…

‘Immoral Activities – Sitting in Coffee Shops Laughing and Talking…’ 

=

Mustafa-Ahmad-Ketua-MPU-Kabupaten-Aceh-Utara.

Aceh’s Mad Mullah – ‘Dancing is EVIL – It Involves Body Movements!’ 

—————

…but also from other parts of the archipelago…

Islamist Kill-Joys, Buoyed by Gaga Ban, Now Turn On Indonesian Stars 

However, outwith the ranks of frothing fanatics like that mullah, Indonesians, Muslim or not, DELIGHT in music, especially dangdut, this country’s most beloved genre.

I append one example of the many popular practitioners. She’s named Cynthiara Alona. And she’s Aceh-born!

..

===============

She’s a great dangdut singer – since foreign readers know little or nothing of that music, I’ve searched around and got you a link to one of her performances.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsHfGZPh624

Dangdut tv shows command audiences of millions, and, in a 90% Muslim country, most of them are likely to be Muslims.

The Jakarta Post headline is surely a slur on all those who adore their music and see no inconsistency with adherence to their faith.

Why should a handful of fanaticised ‘celebrities’ opting for outlandish extremes be said to be ‘turning to Islam?’

The JP should issue another of its rare apologies!

I’m of course NOT Muslim – as regular readers will have long since guessed! – but my final quote comes from a prominent Muslim who ought to know what he’s talking about.

Syafiq Hasyim of the State Islamic University (UIN) Syarief Hidayatullah said that celebrities’ newfound piety, especially those who chose to become preachers, may be motivated by pragmatism.      

“There are two types of piety, exclusive and inclusive and the latter is always better. But I suspect that for some of those preachers, they have financial motivations,” Syafiq said.