***Many others, however, drunk on religion, have “crashed” into more people just as brutally throughout the country.
***The situation of religious freedom is like the situation on the street. The state does not enforce the law when there is an offence; and the space of tolerance of minority is increasingly cramped. Religion, juggernauts and the street violence Moh Yasir Alimi, The Jakarta Post, Semarang | Fri, 01/27/2012 10:31 AM The fatal car crash in Gambir, Central Jakarta, on Sunday gives us a vivid illustration that can help us understand the nature of religious freedom in Indonesia. A driver, intoxicated after consuming alcohol and crystal methamphetamine, has been implicated in the wrongful death of nine people after she allegedly lost control of her car and crashed into a crowd of people. Many others, however, drunk on religion, have “crashed” into more people just as brutally throughout the country. I am sure you still remember the Ahmadiyah brutality in Cikeusik, West Java, in 2011, which resulted in the death of four Ahmadis. I am sure you also remember the members of GKI Yasmin, who are still experiencing intimidation and cannot access their church, although they have won a ruling from the Supreme Court. The mayor of Bogor still barricades the church with Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) officers to prevent the church followers from entering and violent groups also still regularly visit the church to intimidate GKI Yasmin members as they conduct religious services. The Jakarta Post reported that a Sunday mass held at the house of a congregation members attended by around 50 members of the GKI Yasmin church was forced to stop when a group of protesters arrived and demanded that the congregation halt its service. Like Apriyani Susanti, the driver in the car accident, the people in Cikeusik and Bogor were drunk and drove a huge machine called religion and crashed into many Muslims and non-Muslims they supposed were different in their beliefs. Like Apriyani, who allegedly drove after consuming crystal meth, the perpetrators of violence were drunk after they consumed highly intolerant religious views easily found in many urban areas. New residential complexes in urban areas have created concentrated religious enclaves, which can also lead to an enclave selling highly intolerant religious views. That is why places of worship in this new settlement become a matter of religious conflict. Religious interpretations can be like crystal meth when they are emptied of spiritual teaching and civil principles, which are the inner core of religious teaching. A drug rehabilitation center can tell us a few facts about methamphetamines and their effects on human body. “It is one of the hardest addictions to overcome. (It) stays in the fat tissue of your body for years after use. (It) affects the body and mind as a stimulant which dramatically affects the central nervous system. (It) releases high levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine into the part of the brain regulating feelings of pleasure. (It) usually causes increased activity, decreased appetite and a heightened sense of well-being… After taking meth, you are so exhausted that you become depressed, sometimes overwhelmingly depressed” (www. rehab-drug.net). Intolerant religious views and justifications of religious violence can have the same effects on a nation as crystal meth has on the human body. It affects the central nervous system of the nation. It is difficult to overcome if not addressed instantly and there is a feeling of exhaustion and depression after using it. Let’s not leave the nation in depression in the future because of our current tolerance of religious violence. The stark contrast between religious violence and the deadly car accident is the responsiveness of the police and the political elites. While the police deftly sprang on the deadly car accident following public outrage, in the case of religion, the police have been very slow. While in case of the Jakarta crash, the police quickly suggested charges and years of imprisonment for Apriyani; in the case of violations of religious freedom, the state tends to play down cases. House of Representatives’ Speaker Marzuki Alie called for stern punishment of Apriyani and urged the police to conduct random blood-alcohol breath tests on motorists. Meanwhile, the House he is leading has postponed several times an urgent meeting supposed to discuss a solution for GKI Yasmin. He also never called the police to sweep for intolerant religious views. Religion is like a vehicle used to crash other people and gain political and economic interest. It doesn’t matter whether it sacrifices the lives of others. Religion should help its followers achieve enlightenment; not desensitize them from having empathy for the grief of other human beings. Religion should develop the capacity of its adherents to develop inner worship, compassion and solidarity with humanity. The essence of religion is the lifting up of humanity above its greed and animal-like instincts. But in the hands of irresponsible people, religion is transformed into a vehicle to destroy humanity. I agree with a colleague who said that faith is like gold bullion. In the hand of monkeys, gold bullion is used only to hit and hurt other monkeys to fight over crumbs. Both religious violence and the fatal Jakarta crash were caused by lawlessness. The perpetrators were emboldened by a corrupt mentality and intolerance of the weak. On the street, drivers trivialize safety because they can bribe their way out of violations. And their intolerance of pedestrians is also low. The space for pedestrians is too cramped and they often to compete with vehicles. The situation of religious freedom is like the situation on the street. The state does not enforce the law when there is an offence; and the space of tolerance of minority is increasingly cramped. The results are that incidents of sectarian violence are no longer isolated in Indonesia, but are taking place at an alarming rate, as observed by the Human Rights Watch. As the police will dig deeper into the drug networks through sniffing out the places where Apriyani Susanti partied before she crashed, the police should also dig deep into the network of violent groups who have sold their “methamphetamine” of religious views that justify violence. The goal is to reverse course from the violence that has been perpetrated against religious minorities in the nation. Otherwise, the accumulation of intolerance will transform a religious discourse into a “juggernaut”, an engine of enormous power that threatens to run out of control and become mercilessly destructive and unstoppable. The public should realize that using faith creates larger brutality and more suffering than the Tugu Tani car accident. The writer is a researcher at the Center for Cultural Pluralism, Democracy and Character Building, Semarang State University. http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012 ... lence.html [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Post message: prole...@egroups.com Subscribe : proletar-subscr...@egroups.com Unsubscribe : proletar-unsubscr...@egroups.com List owner : proletar-ow...@egroups.com Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! 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