Good Muslims Speak Up For Threatened Christian Governor
Wearing the iconic blue and red plaid shirts, the protesters carried signs that read, “We are Muslims who forgive Ahok” and “Release Ahok”.
This is good news.
I do try to get across the truth about Indonesia, which is seen by many people overseas as a hot-bed of extremists.
Not so.
Most Muslims here, and I know and count as friends a fair number of them, have no interest in backward bigotry. The opinion polls here show that, while Ahok has lost ground in next year’s gubernatorial election campaign…
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…he has millions of Muslim voters still ready to support him.
Indeed, a survey published last week –
http://jakartaglobe.id/news/jakartans-fairly-satisfied-ahok-governor-poll/
– has him ahead again.
oooooooooooooo
“We were trying to display support for Ahok and send a message to the judges and other people that there are Muslims who support tolerance and a fair trial,” Yayong Waryono of the Bara-Badja (Volunteer Front for Basuki and Djarot)
(Basuki is Ahok’s formal name, Djarot is his running-mate)
Yayong said they decided to stage a rally because they were concerned with the hundreds of anti-Ahok protestors “trying to put pressure on the panel of judges”.
We really need to ponder that ‘pressure’ too, after President Jokowi himself chose to appear on the same platform as Indonesia’s chief IslamoNazi, Habib Rizieq…
So Has Indonesia Come To This? Paradise Lost?
…before a mob bent on exacting punishment for a ‘crime’ that in most of your countries would not be considered a crime at all.
Prosecutors claimed that despite the blasphemy allegation that stirred public controversy, it was the crime that brought Ahok to court, not the public pressure. http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/12/21/ahok-supporters-finding-new-strength.html
‘Public pressure?’ Is that even the right phrase to apply to the fulminations of hate-groups whose leaders have said Ahok should be killed.
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