Quote:He also hasn't held back in lashing out at the organisers of the protest - calling them corrupt and dismissing the entire stunt as politically motivated. Is this how you describe "pandering" FD?
Again Gandalf, the protestors were calling for his head because of what he said about Islam. Of course he is going to make it about anything but Islam. Criticising corruption etc does not mean he was not swayed by the threats to his life. Why do you keep dodging this point?
Quote:Blasphemy laws are quaint laws that exist in one form or another in most countries around the world. Even the free-est of countries have archaic, anti-freedom laws on the books. But the measure of a nation's democracy/freedom and secularism is not based on what anti-freedom laws are on the books, but by the extent to which these laws are taken seriously and pursued. And this is to a large degree reflected by the attitudes of the wider public. But as we see so often in many places, not just Indonesia, and not just Islamic, such laws will always be cynically exploited for political purposes. You insist this is all about Islam - about a fanatical group of faithful vying for blood for purely religious reasons. Yet if you add up all the elements - the faux outrage, the bribing and the cleaning up of corruption - its not a stretch at all to suggest this is merely a cynical use of a religious law for essentially non-religious purposes (ignoring for a moment your predictable attempts to redefine Islam to the absurdly meaningless - eg corruption and stealing is a specific tenet of Islam)
You are doing a good job of telling the difference between religion and politics. In another recent thread you were unable to make the distinction. Muhammed himself, and his successors, cynically exploited religion for political gain.
BTW, having blasphemy laws "on the books" is a far cry from 150 000 people protesting against freedom of speech
Quote:Yes its unfortunate that there is this sort of occasional regression in Indonesian politics, but it misses the bigger picture: successive election results and the makeup of the national parliament - where even moderate Islamic parties are not mainstream, and hardline Islamists parties (such as the nutters who organised this protest) are outright rejected - is whats really important in terms of how tolerant and secular this particular Islamic society really is.
And yet they still enforce blasphemy laws, and people are still afraid of the mob. Islam is fairly young in Indonesia, but it is still doing what Islam has done further west.
Quote:Tens of thousands of worshippers have gathered at mosques, churches and temples in Jakarta and at the national monument to pray for unity and peace, as tensions simmer over blasphemy charges against the Christian and ethnic Chinese governor.
So, less in total than the number that attended the protest? Did freedom of speech get a mention anywhere?
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Jakarta Governor questioned by police (Read 20847 times)
