I had mentioned recently the curious absence of Muslim objection to Valentine's Day this year, but it turns out that I spoke too soon. Yesterday saw a number of protests against the day, mostly in central Java, the hotbed of nutcases here. The Iowa of Indonesia, I suppose. There were a number of objections as well on internet platforms such as Facebook. One woman commented that Valentine's Day is a day of "free sex" celebrated in the West, and not appropriate for people here. Who knew? A day of free sex? I guess she imagines that it is kind of like The Purge, except that people run around having free sex rather than killing one another. A preferable sort of riot, it seems to me, although St. Valentine himself would be scandalized, to say the least.
Funny how people, ignorant of realities, victims of propaganda, come up with these strange ideas about other peoples and countries. And there's a lesson in this as well for westerners who view Muslims (or what have you) through the lens of alarmist tales and popular stereotypes. It was said recently, for example, that "prayer rugs" were found on the Mexican border. Horrors! My initial thought was "But that's a good thing, isn't it? Prayer is a good thing, right?" But the message more generally conveyed was "Eee Gad, there are terrorists on the border and these prayer rugs prove it!" You know, here in Indonesia, I have never even seen a prayer rug. I guess that means there are no terrorists in the most populous Muslim country in the world? Maybe they are all on the Mexican border, right?
Funny how people, ignorant of realities, victims of propaganda, come up with these strange ideas about other peoples and countries. And there's a lesson in this as well for westerners who view Muslims (or what have you) through the lens of alarmist tales and popular stereotypes. It was said recently, for example, that "prayer rugs" were found on the Mexican border. Horrors! My initial thought was "But that's a good thing, isn't it? Prayer is a good thing, right?" But the message more generally conveyed was "Eee Gad, there are terrorists on the border and these prayer rugs prove it!" You know, here in Indonesia, I have never even seen a prayer rug. I guess that means there are no terrorists in the most populous Muslim country in the world? Maybe they are all on the Mexican border, right?
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