“Moderate” Indonesia.
“Indonesian city orders top staff to ‘pray or get a new job,'” AFP, September 20, 2018:
An Indonesian city has ordered its top civil servants to visit their local mosque for dawn prayers or risk being sacked, underscoring the growing influence of religion across the world’s biggest Muslim majority country.
Senior bureaucrats in Palembang, co-host of last month’s Asian Games, are now required to visit their local mosque at the crack of dawn — and they’ve been warned that a smartphone app was in the works to sniff out the less-than-devout.
The order, which may be a first for Indonesia, is aimed at helping bureaucrats better relate to residents’ concerns while the early wake-up call could also boost productivity, city spokesman Amiruddin Sandy told AFP.
“By praying together at dawn with regular people, we get a chance to hear from them directly,” he said, adding that common complaints ranged from water not running to broken street lights….
CogitoErgoSum says
Big Brother is watching.
StellaSaidSo says
Until the Saudi money started pouring in, Indonesia (Aceh excepted) could fairly be described as ‘moderate’. Many Indonesian Muslims are alarmed at the influence the hard-liners now have.
gravenimage says
Unfortunately, Chinese and Christians have long been persecuted and threatened even in moderate Indonesia.
StellaSaidSo says
Indonesia is a large and fragmented country (13,000+ islands), divided into 34 provinces. Conditions which prevail in one area do not necessarily apply in another. Compared with their co-religionists in other Islamic countries, Indonesian Muslims have a fairly relaxed approach to religion, and religious tensions have tended to be localised. The situation has changed somewhat since the Saudis began to invest heavily, bringing strict Wahhabism along with their fancy new mosques.
When did you last visit?
abu taleb says
Not really, even before that, the Chinese and Christians have been persecuted. It has not been in news, but it has been started since 1950s during the taking over of Dutch owned companies in Indonesia.
Only because Soekarno and Soeharto did not support the Islamists, the Islamists did not manage to implement the Islamic law. But later they slowly gain the influence and enforce the Islamic law everywhere
Robin Datta says
How ’bout if the senior bureaucrat is a kafir, a mushrik, an ahl-ul-kutb, a munafiq or a murtid?
CogitoErgoSum says
Yes, maybe fewer Muslims will want to apply for civil servant jobs and the non-Muslims will fill the positions. Maybe it’s not such a bad rule.
Salome says
I doubt they’d make it to the senior ranks. Can’t have infidels giving orders to muslims, can we?
CogitoErgoSum says
Do you remember the time the Muslims in Indonesia held massive protests because a Christian governor said Muslims don’t believe Christians should be in leadership positions? He was convicted of blasphemy. See this link:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/10/jakarta-protests-christian-governor-ahok-guilty-blasphemy
mortimer says
This is intolerable and surely those important persons will find a way to fix the wagon of the fanatics.
gravenimage says
I would not count in it, Mortimer. Generally things do not turn out well for those who resist Islam in the Muslim world, whether they be Muslim or Infidel.
Marina says
What if some of them have left islam secretly. What a painful situation for them.
gravenimage says
Indonesia city orders top civil servants to go to mosque for dawn prayers or risk being fired
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So much for Indonesia being “moderate”. It also ensures that none of those top civil servants will ever be Infidels.
More:
The order, which may be a first for Indonesia, is aimed at helping bureaucrats better relate to residents’ concerns while the early wake-up call could also boost productivity, city spokesman Amiruddin Sandy told AFP.
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What a lot of twaddle. This is all about enforcing Islam.
Indiana Tom says
“By praying together at dawn with regular people, we get a chance to hear from them directly,” he said, adding that common complaints ranged from water not running to broken street lights….
Maybe they need to have government officials in the West join common parishoners at the local church?
DHazard says
Muslims and Allah don’t really seem to care WHY people are practicing Islam. Just appearing outwardly to be a Muslim is good enough. For every believing Muslim I’ll bet there are two (or more) that are just going through the motions out of fear of death and social ostracism. And I’ll also bet those silent but doubtful Muslims have Christian coworkers who know all about this hypocrisy. This Indonesian venture is a weird and clumsy policy, similar to those seen in other parts of the World, where “Western values” are modified to accommodate (i.e. shut up) Muslims. In this case, however, it’s another move toward a poorly defined goal of replacing democracy with sharia. This in turn leads to vote buying with promises of more Islam and Shariah and where secular restraints are ignored or abolished. In any case, Muslim one-upmanship is inevitable leading to a downward spiral, sucking everything and everybody back to the 7th century.
sidney penny says
Bit like MMM
Moderate Modern Malaysia
StellaSaidSo says
No longer MMM, and for the same reason – Saudi money.
J.W.K. says
Why is this surprising? Over time even the most timid rat becomes emboldened when it can pilfer and do its dirt WITH IMPUNITY.