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n other parts of the world, people are rushing to properly equip themselves in readiness for the Mayan Apocalypse prophecy.

But in Jakarta, it is business as usual, with most residents believing the world is not going to end anytime soon.

Eduart, 31, a resident of East Jakarta, said he did not believe Armageddon would take place on Dec. 21, as predicted by the Indian Mayan tribe. “There have been several other predictions of doomsday previously, but none were real. I don’t think this prediction will be true either,” said Eduart, who is a Catholic.

In addition, he said, no one could know exactly when doomsday would arrive.

Luthfi Permana, 31, also took the prophecy lightly.

He said he had not any of the signs of doomsday according to his own religion. “I don’t think I or other people have seen that signs that Islam taught me,” he said.

Luthfi added another reason why he did not believe in the prophecy was because it was mentioned in the 2009 science fiction movie, 2012. “If I’m not mistaken, people started to talk about it when the movie focused on the Mayan prediction, but I don’t take it seriously,” he said.

Set in 2012, the film includes references to the Mayan calendar and portrays a set of catastrophic events at the end of the year.

The doomsday prophecy is based on an ancient Mayan calendar that was found in what is now Guatemala, Central America.

The calendar lasts for more than 5,000 years but comes to an end on Dec. 21, prompting fears that it forecasts the end of the world. The panic buying of candles and essentials has been reported in China and Russia, along with an explosion in sales of survival shelters in America.

In France, believers have also been preparing to converge on a mountain where they believe aliens will rescue them.

In China, a man stabbed 23 children last week because he was believed to be “psychologically affected” by doomsday predictions.

Meanwhile, The National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN) said it had not observed any
irregularities in solar activity, despite rumors that tomorrow would be the end of the world.

The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) has also asked people not to be provoked by the Mayan doomsday prophecy, saying that the end of the world could not be predicted.

“It’s all clear about doomsday. Religion has taught us that it can’t be predicted, so there’s no need to believe it,” MUI chairman Ma’ruf Amin said as quoted by tempo.co.

“There would have been signs if Judgment Day was coming, and those signs have not yet arrived,” he said.

If doomsday really is coming on Friday, 27-year-old Miranti Puspa said that like it or not, she had no other choice but to face it.

“I will be terrified, who wouldn’t be? But we can’t do anything. It will happen eventually,” she said.