Ramadhan and Maryam

Happy Ramadhan, friends and families.

Got an interesting link as one of the first “test” in the holy month! I think it’s completely misleading. I don’t know the current statistics but the number claimed by the campaign seems bogus — what’s the source? Is it credible? When was the research done? What’s the methodology? What’s the proof?

I’m honestly enraged to see this video, as I’m really afraid it’ll trigger not only misunderstanding for foreigners but also discord among Indonesians. And worse, fertilising fundamentalism and hatred.

Who’s Mercy Mission? The British-based organisation is suspected to be promoting salafi values (read: radical right). Yet they want to raise $ 2 million and set up an Islamic tv in Jogja, my hometown! The city that supposedly is the most tolerant, plural, and mature compared with the others in Indonesia.

Of course there are Indonesian moslems who decided to convert to other religion(s), but vice versa there are non-moslems who became moslems.

By the way, the words salah, iman, and Allah is absorbed by Bahasa Indonesia and used by all religion here. So the claim in the video is again misleading.

Damn it, to attract more sympathy, they even use a fictitious image of a headscarf-wearing girl who’s framed to be naive, gullible, and finally converts to Christianity at the end. They named her Maryam. After Mother Mary.

Comments for the video are moderated and I’m pretty sure my counter arguments will not be shown. So I flagged the video after watching it angrily.

To be honest, the animation is good, the propaganda is convincing especially for those who do not understand about Indonesia — of which, unfortunately, means a lot of people in the world.

Any thoughts?