Comments: Arson attack on Ahmadiyah mosque

Fri, 06/05/2009 1:39 PM  |  Reader's Forum

A mosque belonging to the "deviant" Islamic sect Jamaah Ahmadiyah in Kebayoran Lama, South Jakarta, has been damaged in an arson attack. There were no injuries in the incident. Kebayoran Lama Police chief Comr. Makmur S said that the incident occurred during dawn prayers on Tuesday.

Witnesses told police that eight Ahmadiyah members were performing the dawn prayer on the second floor of the two-story building, when two men sprayed the mosque with gasoline from a jerry can and lit the fire. The fire damaged a rug, a chair and a bicycle.

Your comments:
Nations choose their own paths toward a progressive future. I urge Indonesian politicians to sit back and rethink their political philosophies. Short-term appeasement of religious fanatics will take down the whole nation one day. If the government gradually loses ground to the anarchist behavior of extremists, they may lose everything to them in the future.

Indonesian leaders should come out of day-to-day politics and show the world a vision for the next hundred years. You must promote a society where you can compete with Australia, Japan, China, Malaysia etc, both economically and socially ... and for God's sake, leave the minorities in your country alone.

See what is happening in Iraq, Pakistan, Lebanon and Palestine. As an Ahmadiyah community member let me tell our opponents: You cannot make us go down in any way.

We are far ahead in discipline, organization and education from the rest of Muslim people under one leadership. We have experienced it before and we are ready for it now. We know our message of love for and hatred for none will prevail, which we have been practicing for more than a hundred years.

Mirza Imran Ahsan Karim

I wish this would receive the same attention from the police as their prosecution of Antasari. They had the clear objective of damaging private property. Although I doubt it, considering the police have looked the other way during other fanatics' attacks on this group.

David K

One of Cambodia's precious gems -- June 2, p. 28

The prime minister's insult might be considered typical in a country with continuing gender inequality, but that didn't mean Mu Sochua was going to take it lying down. For 20 years, Mu Sochua has been a voice for exploited Cambodians. As the Vietnam War spread to Cambodia in 1972, the then 18-year-old was exiled, with no chance to say goodbye to her parents, who later vanished under the Khmer Rouge regime.

She spent 18 years overseas, studying and working in Paris, the US and Italy and in refugee camps along the Thai-Cambodian border.

Your comments:
Public speaking and debating should be taught in schools everywhere, in every classroom in the Kingdom of Cambodian, to let all classes of people know that those who hold positions in government should serve, protect and respect the public, not insult them.

This case shows that we are very poor when it comes to discussion, negotiation and solving any problem in any relationship.

If we cannot find any common ground, we just take to insulting each other in public.

Mike Chung

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