Friday, March 8, 2013

Jakarta Condones Religious Violence


In reading this article I was a little confused.   The Sunni Muslim are harassing and killing religious minorities but for what cause?  The Shia, Christian, and Ahmadiyahs are the ones being persecuted but for the sole reason that their religion differs from the Sunni Muslims.  They aren't oppressing the Sunni in any way or performing any actions that would demand this maltreatment .  To top it all off, the government, and more importantly the president, is doing little to nothing about it.  A top government official was quoted saying, “I don't care [about] human rights as long I protect those who voted for me as their leader." 
This blatant disregard for human rights is not only bad in itself, but also encourages others (namely the police force) to share the same views.  When riots occur that the police know will happen and do nothing about, that’s one of the best indications that a country has a problem.  I believe that as long as a person is not forcing their beliefs on you and their beliefs don’t obligate them to do something harmful to the community, religious tolerance should be fairly easy.  There is very little to gain from murdering those who think differently. 
Diversity is at the soul of what makes life interesting so we should try to preserve it!  The decision to tolerate or oppress is something everyone makes daily.  However, it is those who hold positions of power and authority that we look to as an example so it is extremely crucial for these men and woman preach and practice tolerance.  Maybe if the president would step up and make human rights a topic of interest in Indonesia these problems could be easily fixed.

http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/03/06/jakarta-condones-religious-violence

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