Religion Dispatches
…side for them). I can think of two powers that would have to be involved: Indonesia and Turkey. Indonesia, because it is the world’s largest Muslim democracy, and is far enough away to be presumed neutral. More important still is Turkey, the power in the region with the diplomatic skill and flexibility to handle this charge. If we ask ourselves, who else would the Egyptian people trust, we would find ourselves forced to admit that in the last wee…
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…ir bodies on the auction block. So I resumed wearing hijab until I went to Indonesia. To be certain, there are the politics of women’s dress everywhere, including in Indonesia. But I lived in a small suburban town, almost a village, and at least close enough to a village where the overwhelming majority of women are Muslim. Many do cover if they go to the city or to their jobs. But where they lived communally, head-covering was not a part of their…
Read More…. But not just physically better prepared, ritually as well. Before I left Indonesia, I worked to get a lot closer to the required five times daily prayers than was my own norm. I cannot function normally through out the day without that pre-sunrise fajr prayer, but honestly speaking none of the others have that same regularity. They are more touch-and-go inconsistent. Making this decision while still in Indonesia was a piece of cake. Everywhere y…
Read More…r what their religion. There are also different greetings. In Malaysia and Indonesia, the day of celebration translates into Hari Raya. They both give some variation on that greeting I described when I talked about forgiveness: maaf zahir dan batin, “forgive me any offenses, whether knowingly or unknowingly.” They also say selamat Hari Raya, selamat being the sort of universal word for peace, good, safety, etc. In Arabic they say kullu ‘aamin wa a…
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…amination of each context avoids generalization and oversimplification. In Indonesia, Griswold looks past the easy characterizations of the country with the world’s largest Muslim population, questioning the idea that the country is transforming into a modern secular democracy by arguing that the classic traits of a weak state—poor governance, corruption—are leading Indonesian Muslims to delve deeper into religion “instead of secular society…to re…
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…at opens across North Africa, through the Middle East, India and closes in Indonesia. The concept originated in 1991 with Argentine evangelist Luis Bush, and was expanded upon by his fellow New Apostolics C. Peter Wagner and George Otis Jr. These zealous dominionists called it the “primary spiritual battleground in the world today…the Church’s final evangelistic frontier.” When the “spiritual warriors” of Servant Group International headed out of…
Read More…Lincoln. Huckabee realized later that Obama spent part of his childhood in Indonesia, not Kenya, and despite failing to take on Malzberg’s birtherism on the air, admitted that he knows Obama was born in Hawaii. Here’s Huckabee’s statement, in which he goes on to wonder if Obama is a real American: “Governor Huckabee simply misspoke when he alluded to President Obama growing up in ‘Kenya.’ The Governor meant to say the President grew up in Indonesi…
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…aid. “Norwegians believe in God, Allah, everything and nothing,” he added. Indonesia: Government investigating Grindr and similar apps In the latest step in 2016’s wave of anti-LGBT rhetoric and action by religious and political leaders, the Communications Ministry announced that they would investigate Grindr and 17 other gay social networking apps. The police charge that the apps were being used to run a prostitution ring with underaged boys. The…
Read More…ity and combating gender violence have been held up by Christian deputies. Indonesia: Anti-LGBT Campaign Expanded to Ban on LGBT TV Characters The anti-LGBT campaign by some religious and political leaders continued, with the House of Representatives agreeing to a ban on LGBT characters in television shows. “We have to ban it early before it becomes a lifestyle,” said one politician. “It’s dangerous and can ruin the morality of the younger generat…
Read More…arbitrariness and abuse of power in Tanzania and other African countries. Indonesia: Government rejects most UN recommendations; ban on unmarried sex could snare tourists Human Rights Watch criticized the Indonesian government for accepting two vague pro-human-rights recommendations made by the UN Human Rights Council during its Universal Periodic Review, while rejecting more specific calls to “repeal or revise legislation, notably the relevant p…
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