It has been awhile since I’ve posted. I’ve been busy with teaching and just life in general in Medan. Just want to give some information for anyone who has found my blog through searches about the situation here. I do not think the media has been showing the reality of the protests. It is such a small number of people gathered around the consult to protest the anti-Islam video that was posted on YouTube by an American and then later translated into Arabic by an Egyptian and shown throughout the Arab world. There are 250 million people in Indonesia and 200 million which are Muslims. A total of about 250 people showed up today at the consulate in Medan to protest via flag burning and speech. While I do not agree with the rhetoric, they do have a right to express their opinion. This however, does not excuse the violence that has occurred in other parts of Indonesia, especially Jakarta and Makassar. But, among the many protesters throughout Indonesia only a very small handful have turned to violence.
Perspective needs to be shown here. If you were to zoom out on any of the number of scenes that the media is feeding the public you would see how insignificant the protests are. Again, I’m not excusing the violence that has been going on but by the sheer number of people living in Indonesia, they are in no way represented by the acts of these few.
Indonesians burn American flag outside US Consulate in Medan to protest anti-Muslim film
MEDAN, Indonesia – Indonesians continue to protest an anti-Islam film, torching an American flag and tires outside the U.S. Consulate in the country’s third largest city of Medan.
About 200 people from various Islamic groups gathered Tuesday. Some unfurled banners saying, “Go to Hell America,” while others trampled on dozens of paper flags in North Sumatra’s provincial capital.
They demanded that Washington punish those involved in the privately produced American-made film “Innocence of Muslims,” which ridicules Islam and depicts the Prophet Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a pedophile.
On Monday, violence erupted outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta when hundreds of protesters mostly from hardliner Islamic groups gathered. Some hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails in the first violent demonstrations over the film in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country.