Refection : Agaknya di negeri-negeri Islam tidak ada patung [manusia], 
terkecuali di Turki dan Syria. Di Turki, pada umumnya adalah patung Mustafa 
Kemal Ataturk dan di Syria di sebuah kampung Golan yang diduduki oleh Israel 
ada patung orang Druz. Kalau ada patung, tentu berasal dari kekuasaan kerajaan 
Romawi zaman bahula. 

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=129648&d=16&m=12&y=2009&pix=world.jpg&category=World

Wednesday 16 December 2009 (29 Dhul Hijjah 1430)


      Facebook campaign targets Obama statue in Jakarta park
      Niniek Karmini | AP
     
        

      JAKARTA: A statue of President Barack Obama as a boy erected in a Jakarta 
park has been targeted in a Facebook campaign by thousands who say it should be 
removed.

      The Facebook group named "Take Down the Barack Obama Statue in Taman 
Menteng Park" had attracted more than 10,000 members by Tuesday since the 
43-inch (110-centimeter) statue of 10-year-old Obama dressed in shorts and a 
T-shirt was unveiled in the downtown park on Thursday last week.

      Heru Nugroho, the group's creator, said he would use the support on the 
popular social networking website to demand that Jakarta Gov. Fauzi Bowo remove 
the statue.

      "Everybody knows that Obama is a world leader, but he is not our national 
hero who deserves to be awarded a statue," Nugroho said.

      "This has hurt our national pride because there are many Indonesian 
figures who gave worthy service to this nation but no statue has been built for 
them," he added.

      Many Indonesians are proud of the fact that Obama lived in Jakarta from 
1967 to 1971 with his American mother, his Indonesian stepfather and his 
half-sister.

      He went by the name "Barry," attended the local elementary school near 
where his statue now stands and owned a pet monkey.

      Ron Mullers, a Jakarta resident who came up with the idea of the statue 
and raised money for it, said it was supposed to inspire local children to 
follow their dreams.

      "It's ridiculous. I'm shocked," Mullers, chairman of the local 
nonpolitical Friends of Obama Foundation, calling the move against the statue 
political.

      Mullers likened the backlash to the controversy over whether Obama 
deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. Obama accepted that accolade in Oslo the same 
day as his statue was unveiled by Jakarta Mayor Sylviana Murni.

      Murni ruled out moving the statue, saying that it has been erected the 
correct approvals and without political motive.

      "Everyone in this country can express their opinions freely and give 
awards like statues to anyone freely," Murni said. The governor was overseas on 
business and was not available for comment Tuesday.

      The statue cost more than $10,000. The money was donated by eight 
Indonesian patrons, a television station and a disaster relief charity.
     

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