This is a comment on a demand by Muslim groups to apply sharia law in Bekasi, West Java. There are a lot of violence and barbaric practices like slavery and mistreating women in any older religious text.

The question is the interpretation and how literally those religious groups follow those texts.

That's why there are many moderate Muslim in Indonesia and around the world that are peace loving and will be a great neighbor for anyone. The problem is those aggressive hard-line Muslims with a narrow mind and limited understanding of the world, and insists on having their ways applied to their city, their state, without any regard of their neighbors and countrymen with different view or beliefs.

I have no doubt Muslim can be tolerant. But the problem is when you build a country with laws and constitution based on Islam laws and beliefs. They force everyone to follow a system based on religious beliefs with no input from other faith, no possible way to change it according to other views and belief.

Richard
Jakarta