200,000 join blasphemy protest against Christian governor in Indonesian capital

What is he supposed to have actually done though? Anything beyond being a Christian?

Anything beyond being a Christian?

That's all it takes in an Islamic governed nation. The Qu'ran and Mohammed's ideology quite literally dictates it.

"Ahok’s blasphemy case took a step forward Thursday when it was formally accepted for trial. The offense is punishable by up to five years in prison."

Indonesia is certainly a success story in the Muslim world. In Saudi Arabia you'd get executed.

Could this be called 'progressive'?

"Moderate" Indonesia strikes again.

Who care? So much for freedom of speech. Ooh, that is a saying from a free country's constitution. "Dp as the Romans do, or ............."

**>"The blasphemy controversy erupted in September when a video circulated online in which Ahok criticized detractors who argued the Quran prohibits Muslims from having a non-Muslim leader."

“I’ve been called to defend Islam,” she said. “As a Muslim, I feel guilty if I refuse a demand to defend my religion. I believe Ahok insulted the holy Quran and it’s hurt us!

Holly cow! Is this really happening in the 21st century. They just proved Ahok's point with the whole hoopla. If you are not one of us (If you are a christian),you are surely against us.

Pew Research has done some excellent polling of attitudes in the Muslim world, so if you want a clear picture I recommend you look at their data. It is eye opening to say the least. As for Indonesia, this is a country where 3 teenage schoolgirls were beheaded for the crime of walking to school. Oh, and for being Christian too.

I guess a "moderate" Muslim is one who isn't willing to do the actual killing, but is willing to hold the coat of the one who does.

Hysteria rules, or is threatening to rule, looking at conspiracy theories around the world.

Horrible to think, but I have a suspicion that at some stage someone will try to harm or even kill this poor Governor, just for being of a non-Muslim faith. Why is it that in times past Muslim/Arab/Turkish governments found it quite easy to tolerate and accept Jews and Christians and Hindus living under their government? But not in the 21st Century.

Islam, still stuck in the 13th century.

Why is it that in times past Muslim/Arab/Turkish governments found it quite easy to tolerate and accept Jews and Christians and Hindus living under their government? But not in the 21st Century.

Good question. I wish I knew the answer. Perhaps a resentment at others moving forwards in terms of prosperity and freedoms.

The Koran is very clear that it's every Muslim's obligation to stand up and fight anyone deemed a threat to their religion.

"Why is it that in times past Muslim/Arab/Turkish governments found it quite easy to tolerate and accept Jews and Christians and Hindus living under their government? But not in the 21st Century."

I don't think life as a dhimmi was a picnic in those days but it was better than life under the Christian butchers. Dhimmi status saw you treated as an inferior. Maybe it's actually the case that in terms of thinking, things haven't changed that much rather than having taken a step back.

What is he supposed to have actually done though?

In a speech for the upcoming election Gov. Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, said (and I am paraphrasing here) "Those who interperate a verse for the Koran as meaning that a muslim cannot vote for a non-muslim are wrong."

This what then reinterperated by the Islamists as, "The verse in the Koran which says a muslim cannot vote for a non-muslim is wrong."

You will notice the subtle but telling difference there. Hence the charges of heresy.

The true transcript has been released in the media and on television, but the hardliners have the bit between their teeth and the masses are on the move.

Very hard to tell where this will lead, but Indonesia made a huge mistake by allowing the Saudi Wahabi movement to set up.

The genie is out of the bottle.

gary

Awwww, how cute. They think only Muslims are intolerant. They've already forgotten that for the past 8 years there were Americans outraged at the mere rumor that President Obama was Muslim.

Jimizo Yes true, but at least they let you live and weren't as crazy fanatical as now.

That's quite a photo... 200,000 backward fanatics! However when they go to a western country will they demand rights and that their way not be interfered with?

The Qu'ran quite probably does not mention voting anywhere. There wasn't any voting in Muhammad's time. Someone later interpreted it to mean whatever, and when the mass start moving....

The blasphemy controversy erupted in September when a video circulated online in which Ahok criticized detractors who argued the Quran prohibits Muslims from having a non-Muslim leader.

Why do I smell the CIA?

"Why do I smell the CIA?"

I don't know. Why do you?

I don't know. Why do you?

History pal, history.

The CIA recruited Malik to drive a "political wedge between the left and the right in Indonesia"

Violence in the name of religion shouldn't be tolerated by anyone, religious or not, but those inside the religion doing the violence must step up, be vocal against it, and "fight" internally to stop it.

Any country that let's it's direction be guided by religion, which is nothing more than superstition, will ruin it's future. We are a lot more intelligent and advanced compared to the time when these ideas about religion were dreamed up. Certainly they contain a lot of good ideas about how to be a better person and treat other people nicely. But in the same breath they mandate the destruction of people who believe in different ideas. Very silly.

Just like when that British teacher in Sudan allowed her student to name his teddy bear "Muhammad" and the people (and please read "the common everyday people" and not the so called extremists) wanted to lynch her with swords, machetes and who knows what else.

Reading the comments here so far, one thing that haven't been pointed out yet is that it's not only him being a non-Muslim that's the issue, it's also him being ethnically Chinese, the usual scapegoats of the country. It's been seen in the 60s and the 90s. I even have a Chinese Indonesian friend, who was an international student and classmate of mine in high school, whose family suffered from a pogrom. He too is Christian, as many Chinese Indonesians are. He now works at an international hotel in Ningbo, China and told me he'd rather try to find peace there instead of going back to Indonesia. His story is not so uncommon.

Robert S Abenz. Being rich is crime? The Indonesian Chinese are rich because of they are working hard than Indonesian peoples. Indonesian Chinese children are educated and education is very important for them. There's nothing wrong with rich Robert. Jealous doesn't help peoples to become rich. You have work hard if you want to become rich.

"but at least they let you live and weren't as crazy fanatical as now."

Islam spread largely through four stages of military conquest throughout history, and we're talking war, violence and genocide and immediate executions against those who didnt want to convert. Sure, there were some episodes of peace, which the revisionists today never fail to magnify as if nothing else was going on.

There is also the false narrative that the Ottoman Empire was "tolerant," but of course they ignore such inconvenient truths as the Genocide of the Armenians, the Genocide of the Assyrians and the Genocide of the Greeks, a series of bloodbaths in the early 20th century that laid the groundwork for the misery the Mideastern Islamic world finds itself today. All in the name of religion.

"Why do I smell the CIA?"

To be fair, one gets the impression that "conspiracy" is an odor you are smelling constantly, and without regard to the circumstances. I imagine that you are even correct on occasion (something something stopped clocks something twice a day...) .

There is also the false narrative that the Ottoman Empire was "tolerant," but of course they ignore such inconvenient truths as the Genocide of the Armenians, the Genocide of the Assyrians and the Genocide of the Greeks, a series of bloodbaths in the early 20th century that laid the groundwork for the misery the Mideastern Islamic world finds itself today. All in the name of religion.

Don't forget institutional slavery and castration of male slaves.