Indonesia: Funding pulled for traditional pre-Islamic performances. Turkey: V.S. Naipaul withdraws from event after Muslims enraged over his saying they don't value pre-Islamic culture.

V. S. Naipaul has had to withdraw under pressure from an event in Turkey because Muslims were outraged over his saying that Islam "has had a calamitous effect on converted peoples. To be converted you have to destroy your past, destroy your history. You have to stamp on it, you have to say 'my ancestral culture does not exist, it doesn't matter.'"

Meanwhile, in Wonogiri, a regency in Central Java province in Indonesia, newly elected district chief Danar Rahmanto is withdrawing public funding for traditional, pre-Islamic Javanese performances. Muslim leader Ahmed Sukino explained: "The traditional ceremonies are misleading people. And the offerings to the sea include a buffalo's head and harvest produce. Rather than let the food be wasted like this, why don't we give it to the poor?" He was in effect saying, in Naipaul's words, "my ancestral culture does not exist, it doesn't matter."

"Wonogiri Pulls Funding for Traditional Performances on Islamic Groups' Urging," by Candra Malik for the Jakarta Globe, November 25 (thanks to MMC):

Wonogiri, Central Java. Bowing to pressure from local conservative Islamic organizations, the new head of the Wonogiri district in Central Java is withdrawing his administration's support, financial or otherwise, for traditional events.
District authorities have in the past supported and also chipped in for the holding of several time-honored ceremonies and processions, but newly elected district chief Danar Rahmanto is changing all that.

"I will only remove three cultural events from local government budgets, but I won't forbid the people of Wonogiri to run them in a self-financing arrangement," he told the Jakarta Globe.

The district administration had in the past few years annually earmarked some Rp 3 billion ($340,000) for all tourism programs, including the three events which are all major happenings on the district's tourism calendar.

Danar said he was morally bound to the political contract he had entered with a number of Islamic organizations and three political parties, namely the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), the National Mandate Party (PAN), and the United Development Party (PPP), for their support in the regional elections.

Other organizations that backed Danar's candidacy were the Koran Tafseer Assembly (MTA), the Indonesian Islamic Propagation Institute (LDII), Muhammadiyah, the Indonesian Mujahideen Council (MMI), the Indonesian Brotherhood of Hajjis (IPHI) and the Youth of Kabah.

MTA chairman Ahmad Sukino said the group has asked the new district head "to keep his promises."...

"The traditional ceremonies are misleading people. And the offerings to the sea include a buffalo's head and harvest produce. Rather than let the food be wasted like this, why don't we give it to the poor?" Sukino said.

He added that traditional ceremonies were not going to help people get closer to God and would not guarantee them protection.

Wonogiri PPP chairman Anding Sukiman said the party would withdraw support for Danar if he did not pull budgetary support for the events. "This is a political consequence," he said.

Islamic hard-liners in Central Java have previously launched attacks on popular all-night-long wayang [shadow puppet] performances, saying they were rife with drinking....

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7 Comments

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Bob Gill | November 26, 2010 8:01 AM | Reply

"He added that traditional ceremonies were not going to help people get closer to God and would not guarantee them protection."

Funny, one could say the EXACT SAME THING about Islam. And at least people who offer stuff to the sea gods aren't going on about the need to blow up and murder non-sea god worshippers and how those that disrespect the Aqua Buddha go to hell while those who kill for them get 69 mermaids to blow them for all eternity.

libero | November 26, 2010 8:32 AM | Reply

VS Naipaul's two books, 'Among the Believers' and 'Beyond Belief', published respectively in 1981 and 1998, are two of the most prescient and important pieces of literature for understanding the darkness of modern Islam. It is no wonder that the oh-so-touchy Turks, those proto-Europeans, apparently, disinvited him. There is nothing worse than a kuffar who tells the truth about Islam.

Anyway, if you have not done so, get onto Amazon and order these two books. Sir VS Naipaul is quite simply one of the greatest and most fearless writers of the twentieth century, and our age.

nishant | November 26, 2010 8:46 AM | Reply

Indonesia, like much of South east asia used to be Hindu or Buddhist a few centuries ago. The Mahabharat is still the national epic of Indonesia, and much of their art and dance forms are Hindu, but not for much longer judging by how things are going there. Indonesia is an example of what happens when one culture and identity is destroyed by another which professes to be the one true religion.

A couple of articles which describe what has happened there are linked below. These are by Sadanand Dhume, author of 'My Friend, The Fanatic'.

The Colonized Mind
http://www.guernicamag.com/pages/1413/the_colonized_mind/index.php

Indonesian lessons for secular India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-toi/all-that-matters/Indonesian-lessons-for-secular-India/articleshow/5256318.cms

DefenderofIslam | November 26, 2010 9:01 AM | Reply

Here is than video for you hater to watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s0fzgd5sNw&feature=channel

Bhobby | November 26, 2010 9:47 AM | Reply

Muslim Ahmed Sukino says offering a good meal to the god of the sea won't help people get closer to the god and they should instead give it to the poor. But I would think that the reason the devotees of the god of the sea want to do that is because they already do feel close to the god and so they desire to express that feeling of closeness by giving the god some good food to "eat". The Muslim Sukino's statements als remind me of the episode in the New Testament where one of Jesus' devotees is putting oil on him as a symbol of hospitality and friendship and someone says hey stop, sell the oil instead and give the money to the poor. And Jesus says no, let it continue, I'm here for only a short time, but the poor are always there to be helped. I think that somehow the resemblance, the reverse similarity, of the Muslim Sukino's mentality with the Christian mentality may not be accidental.
What offerings do Muslims make to Allah? Besides millions of corpses and carcasses of dead human beings murdered by Muslims.

Gorkhali | November 26, 2010 10:49 AM | Reply

VS Naipaul, was first introduced to him when I read Miguel Street as a child. Didn't think much of it, then through the years saw his reawakening of his Indian roots, his Hindu ancestry and eventually his truth about Islam.

Don't really care too much for the Turks. They are a people no different than the Persians: confused converts. Not being Arabs, they will always be converts, nothing more. A conquered people.

Now you have Indonesian Muslims, a people who are no better than mindless zombies wanting to destroy their Hindu past and take on the projects of their slave-masters, the Muslim Arabs.

The Indonesian Muslims don't realize for a second that they are slaves, and if they keep at it, they will always be slaves. Like good dogs, they are doing their masters bidding while Allah waits to greet them at the gates of Hell.

gravenimage | November 26, 2010 7:44 PM | Reply

Muslims are not "enraged" because they contest the truth of what V. S. Naipaul is saying. Muslims state over and over again how much they despise "Jahillya"—the pre-Islamic state of "ignorance".

What enrages them is that a filthy Kaffir has the temerity to openly make any observations about Islam—that these comments might be critical makes it all the worse, as far as the Ummah is concerned.

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