Your comments on the views of Jeremy Menchik, a professor from Boston University'€™s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, who said in his 224-page book Islam and Democracy in Indonesia: Tolerance without Liberalism that democratic values such as freedom and equality were more common in secular states.

Islam adheres to no ideology. Islam is neither liberal nor socialist. In term of social structure, Islam believes that rich and poor people are inherent to societal structures and that these structures last forever. This may confuse some theorists.

Bahar Nelson

Why is our government silent on the closures of churches in Aceh? Do we have no Constitution, no Pancasila that is supposed to prevent such things from happening?

Oddly, in countries and places where they are in the minority, these extremists self-righteously demand protection, terrorizing the innocent by carrying out random acts of killing, with the tacit acceptance of their community at large.

Many Muslims claim their religion to be a progressive and peaceful one; one would not know this from their conduct.

Pancasilaist

'€œIndonesians have become significantly more tolerant toward Christians and Hindus, but the exact opposite has happened in terms of the Ahmadis and communists.'€

Nonsense. In 1965-1966, communists were mass-murdered with stakes through their bellies. How have Indonesians become less tolerant to communists since then? Also, I doubt the worshippers at closed churches in Aceh and West Java would agree.

Jakarta Logic

Many Muslims are loyal to the non-Muslim countries in which they live, of course, but that is in spite rather than a result of Islamic teaching. Unlike other faiths, Islam is not just a religion, but a political system as well.

The state is intended to be inseparable from religious rule. Islamic law, or sharia, is complete and not designed to coexist with or be subordinate to other legal systems.

Goblues

According to the theoretical definition, Indonesia is a secular state, not an Islamic state. Religion in general and Islam in particular are, however, used as political instruments, as are nationalism, and, once, socialism. These tools are used in the efforts to build a perceived '€œconsensus'€.

The basis of Indonesian politics is to avoid confrontation; if a confrontation occurs there will be an overreaction, as seen with the current LGBT issue. The same is true of any group that sticks its neck out.

During the Roman empire, this was called '€œmob rule'€. All leaders were afraid of them and did all they could to keep them occupied and happy. Same thing here. Democracy, sure, but there is still a long way to go to get it right.

Orang Biasa
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Topic of the day

Overseas job fraud

Overseas employment is not always a good opportunity for Indonesians as workers have to remain wary of fraudulent practices plaguing offers to work in countries that can provide greater prosperity. The police revealed on Friday that they were investigating three separate cases of the illegal transportation of Indonesian workers to South Korea, the Netherlands and Turkey. What do you think?

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