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Politik agama sama-sama menguntungkan yang menyerang dan yang diserang dan sama-sama merugi juga. Politik agama bisa dimulai dari korban yang memancing serangan, agar dapat diuntungkan. Atau dimulai dari penyerang untuk merugikan korban. Cara yang pertama yang sulit dilihat. Semua Negara, Ideologi dan Parpol Mempolitikkan Agama... Baca Di Sini

Pater Beek dan Komplotannya: Dinasti Politik Terkuat Indonesia dan Snouck Hurgronje-nya Zaman Orba dan Reformasi??

Jumat, 11 Oktober 2013

DIASPORA MURID PATER BEEK DAN KAUM SOSIALIS
http://meilono.50webs.com/politik/diaspora.html

Murid-murid Pater Beek yang dulu mendorong kelahiran Golkar,
Kini banyak masuk ke PDIP perjuangan.
Apa sasaran mereka? Kristenisasi?
Kecemasan akan terjadinya marjinalisasi umat kristen/katolik pernah di tulis dengan baik oleh mantan anggota dewan direktur CSIS J Soedjati Jiwandono. Ia menangkap, sejak sebelum pemilu 1992, ada kecemasan diantara kalangan katolik, tentang prospek peranannya di masa depan. ;

Gejala marginalisasi itu katanya, dilihat umat katolik dari berubahnya Golkar dan suasana anggota DPR/MPR setelah Pemilu 1992. ”Disitulah [Golkar dan DPR?MPR-Red] banyak orang Katolik sejak awal orde baru berpartisipasi dalam kehidupan politik,” tulis Soedjati dalam bukunya ‘Gereja dan Politik’.

Tokoh katolik lainnya Romo Dick Hartoko, pernah menuturkan tentang keterlibatan seorang pastur dari ordo Jesuit Pater Beek, dalam pembentukan Golkar. ”Awal mula dari Golkar adalah ide seorang romo Jesuit Beek,” ujar Dick seperti ditulis tempo. Menurutnya, Beek punya kedekatan dengan salah seorang pendiri CSIS Ali Moertopo, yang ketika itu aktif di Opsus dan BAKIN.

Sumber tekad yang dekat dengan kalangan militer menuturkan, di seputar 1950-an, Pater Beek telah banyak mendidik Sarjana Katolik yang militan. Pendidkan dilakukan di asrama mahasiswa Realino, yang terletak di Yogyakarta. Pusat pendidikan kemudian dipindah ke Klender Jakarta Timur, melalui wadah Yayasn Samadi.

Dalam buku ‘Soemitro dan Peristiwa Malari’, mantan Pangkopkamtib ini pun menyebut-nyebut nama Pater Beek. Soemitro mengungkapkan, ia menerima banyak laporan tentang siapa di belakang studi bentukan Ali Moertopo. Laporan yang di terimanya menyebut, lembaga itu dibentuk Ali bersama Soedjono Humardani, sebagian golongan katolik, dan sekelompok orang Tionghoa yang umumnya berafiliasi ke Pater Beek.Tak bisa di pungkiri, lembaga yang di maksud Soemitro adalah CSIS.

Masih menurut Soemitro, hubungan Pater Beek dengan orang Katolik lainnya tak selamanya serasi. Bahkan, mantan pejabat beragam Katolik juga tak menyukai kelompok Beek ini. Dick Hartoko pun mengakuinya. Dick sendiri cuma mau mengamati gerakan Beek ini tanpa terlibat.

“Jendral Sutopo Yuwono menurut pengakuannya pernah meminta Vatikan supaya Pater Beek dipindah dari Indonesia”. tutur Soemitro. Beek pun sempat ditarik, tapi tak lama kemudian balik lagi pada 1974, tahun ketika peristiwa Malari meletus.

Sumber tekad mengungkapkan, menjelang peristiwa Malari, BAKIN menemukan suatu dokumen yang terkenal dengan nama dokumen Pater Beek, yang berkaitan dengan tragedi itu. Dokumen ini menyebutkan beberapa nama yang terlibat dalam organisasi itu. Nama–nama itu antara lain Liem Bian Kun, Cosmas Batubara, Thomas Suyatno, Leo Tomasoa, Batubara, Fredi Latumahina, Harry Tjan Silalahi dan Jacob Tobing.

Beberapa nama tersebut, kini masih banyak yang aktif di Golkar.Tapi ada juga yang di PDI Perjuangan, seperti Jacob Tobing.Tapi ketua PPI ini menolak bila dikatakan punya kaitan dengan Beek. ”Itulah yang membedakan saya dengan kader lainnya” tuturnya.

Sumber tekad di tubuh PDI Perjangan, Jacob memang tak begitu menonjolkan gerakan katoliknya. ”Ia lebih mirip sebagai seorang Kapitalis Demokrat, yang mirip kebanyakan orang PSI,”tuturnya.

Maka itu, kata sumber ini, Jacob pun mudah membangun jaringan dengan sosialis lainnya. ia menyebut di tubuh PAN ia banyak berhubungan dengan Christianto Wibisono dan Goenawan Mohammad di Golkar dengan Fredi Latumahina dan Marzuki Darusman. Di lingkaran Habibie dengan Adnan Buyung Nasution, serta pengusaha James Riadi dan Glenn Yusuf. Hubungan sejenis juga terjalin dengan pengusaha Jacob Oetomo.

Sementara di PDI Perjuangan, Kelompok Jacob ini berkolaborasi dengan sayap Protestan dan Purnawirawan militer seperti Sabam Sirait dan Theo Syafei. ”Mereka bekerjasama pula dengan orang sosialis seperti Arifin Panigoro, tuturnya sementara Meilono, ia diidentifikasi sebagai orang-orang bergaris PNI yang khas gaya Moh Hatta yang juga cenderung sosialis.

Kelompok–kelompok inilah, kata sumber yang pengurus DPP PDI-P ini, mampu menyudutkan kader-kader. Mereka, katanya, berhasil memberi masukan langsung ke Mega, ataupun lewat Taufik Kiemas. “Adanya kelompok-kelompok semacam inilah yang melahirkan banyaknya caleg non-muslim. Meski sebenarnya itu hanya akses,” tutur sumber ini.

Sumber ini telah mengingatkan Mega bahayanya bagi PDI bila memakai orang-orang ini. “tapi Mega tak berdaya,” ujarnya. Menurutnya, gerakan kelompok kapitalis demokrat dan sosialis ini, memang tak beda jauh dengan kelompok Beek di masa Orde Baru. Hanya saja, tujuannya bukanlah Kristenisasi, melainkan eksistensi kelompok dan kepentingan ekonomi. Perbedaan lainnya, yang kini lebih dominan pun bukan lagi katolik, tapi protestan.

Selain itu, kata dia, pengaruh purnawiran milliter ditubuh partai ini tak bisa dianggap enteng. Ia mensinyalir, mereka masih menjalin hubungan dengan KBA (keluarga besar ABRI), yang kini berada di hampir seluruh partai peserta pemilu. ”Belum lama ini purnawirawan militer di berbagai partai itu kumpul,” ujarnya.

Terhadap berbagai sinyalemen ini Jacob tegas menolak. “Tidak bisa kita menganalisa separti itu. Itu keliru. Saya tidak mempunyai basis PSI sama sekali,” paparnya kepada tekad.

Pengamat politik dari UGM Affan Gaffar pun melihat kemiripan antara PDI Pejuangan sekarang, dengan Golkar diawal Orde Baru. Parameter yang dipakainya, kesamaan dominasi Kristen/Katolik, yang tercemin dalam susunan DCT.

Pengamat politik dari LIPI Indira Samego, menilai dominasi tersebut punya tujuan laverage politic, untuk mempengaruhi kebijakan negri ini dimasa mendatang. “Jangka pendeknya ya mengurus Habibie,” ujarnya.

Apakah dominasi itu ingin memainkan Islam politik gaya ICMI? Meliono Suwondo berani menjamin hal itu tak akan terjadi. “Saya tak bisa jamin mereka akan mengembangkan agama mereka. Tapi saya berani jamin mereka tak akan melakukan Kristen politik lewat PDI Perjuangan,” ujarnya. Bahkan, janjinya, sebagai seorang muslim ia akan berusaha keras membentengi Mega bila hal itu terjadi.

Tentang banyaknya caleg-non muslim itu sendiri Meliono punya alasan lain. Ia melihat, dalam kenyataannya banyak kader Muslim yang bagus tak masuk PDI. Hal itu, menurutnya, karena berkembangnya pandangan PDI itu tidak Islami. Sehingga kader Muslim yang baik lebih suka lari ke partai lainnya. “kalau ada kader Muslim yang bagus disini ya pasti dijadikan caleg,” tuturnya. Anehnya adik Gus Dur yang ketua PDI Perjuangan justru tak masuk caleg.


Sumber

Radical Muslim group run by Israeli Jews!

Jumat, 20 September 2013

So for years on end no Muslim group, “radical” or otherwise, has threatened Matt and Trey or Comedy Central about the image of Muhammad that has been available for all to see every single day.

All of a sudden last week a group called “Revolution Muslim” threatened violence against Comedy Central if they aired an image of Muhammad which forced Comedy Central to censor the show and now you have even liberals talking about those “radical Muslims” and their threats of violence.  Karl Rove couldn’t have done it any better.

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Buddhist radicals attack Christian church in Sri Lanka

Led by a Buddhist monk, a group of radical Sinhalese Buddhists attacked a Protestant church in Sri Lanka during a prayer service, according to media reports. The pastor and his mother were injured in the attack.

A Buddhist attorney told AsiaNews that “such attacks show that there is a political agenda that aims to unite the Buddhists.”

Earlier this year, a Catholic bishop warned of the rise of a “Buddhist Taliban” in Sri Lanka.

The nation of 21.5 million is 69% Buddhist, 8% Muslim, 7% Hindu, and 7% Christian; almost all Christians are Catholic.

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Istilah Baru Dalam Politik Agama: Jihad Seks



Berita ini sebenarnya sudah merupakan berita lama lihat di sini.  Lalu menurut media ini dibicarakan langsung oleh Menteri Dalam Negeri Tunisia. Berita ini dapat dikatagorikan berita politik agama, karena saat ini Tunia sedang dipimpin oleh kalangan islamisme yang sedang berhadapan dengan islamisme yang lain. Walaupun berita ini mungkin saja berasal dari isme yang lain.


Wanita Tunisia Ber-'Jihad Seks' di Suriah

Sejumlah wanita Tunisia melakukan "jihad" tak biasa. Menurut Menteri Dalam Negeri Lotfi Ben Jeddou, para wanita ini pergi ke Suriah untuk menghibur pejuang oposisi yang tengah bertempur menggempur rezim Bashar Al-Assad.

Di sana, mereka mengobarkan "jihad seksual" dengan  melakukan hubungan badan dengan 20, 30, atau 100 laki-laki. "Setelah itu, mereka kembali ke Tunisia dalam keadaan hamil," katanya.

Ben Jeddou membeberkan fakta ini di Majelis Konstituante Nasional pada hari Kamis. Namun, ia tidak merinci jumlah wanita yang kembali dalam kondisi ini. "Yang jelas mereka menyatakan langkah mereka sebagai jihad al- nikah dan pulang dengan berbadan dua," katanya.

Jihad al-nikah, yang memungkinkan hubungan seksual di luar nikah dengan banyak pasangan, dianggap oleh beberapa aliran Sunni Salafi garis keras sebagai bentuk sah dari perang suci. Media France 24 menyatakan jumlah perempuan Tunisia yang berjihad dengan cara ini mencapai ratusan orang.

Ben Jeddou juga mengatakan bahwa sejak ia memangku jabatan pada bulan Maret, dia telah berhasil mencegah enam ribu dari mereka untuk pergi ke Suriah. Yang terakhir, sekelompok gadis Tunisia dicegah saat hendak melakukan perjalanan ke daerah yang dikuasai pemberontak di Suriah Utara untuk menawarkan diri "menghibur" pejuang oposisi.

Christians face threat from radical Hindus

Indian Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde says his nation faces an increasing terrorism threat from self-proclaimed “right-wing” Hindu groups, and that’s bad news for Christians here.

In a report on India television network NDTV Shinde said ultra-nationalist Hindu groups have formed camps to train operatives to carry out attacks.

“Groups like RSS are a threat to India,” he said.

That would be Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which states on its website: “Sangh is not a mere reaction to one or another social or political aberration. It represents a corpus of thought and action firmly rooted in genuine nationalism.”

The group states its movement is a response to colonialism and any anti-nationalist movement in India, including religious movements.

William Stark, Asia analyst for the Christian human-rights group International Christian Concern, says the RSS itself confirms the home minister’s statement that it’s a violent group.

“Attacks are common in India. Hindu radicals, generally linked with the group RSS, attack pastors and other Christians for converting to Christianity,” Stark said.

Stark added that one of the tragedies of the growing terrorist threat is that many of the attacks are covered up by the government.

“Often these attacks go uninvestigated by the police. In most cases the police go through the motions of an investigation, but really don’t want to uncover any evidence,” Stark said.

Animesh Roul, an India-based terrorism analyst who directs the Society for the Study of Peace and Conflict, disputes the home minister’s opinion, claiming RSS isn’t really violent.

“RSS is a right-wing Hindu group, but neither violent nor covert. Again, it’s not transnational in nature, but, yes, over the years it sympathizes with Hindu-related issues elsewhere,” Roul said.

“They do some moral policing and of course raise their voice against any misuse/abuse of Hindu gods or goddesses, in Indian culture abroad,” Roul said.

He said RSS mostly is volunteers working for the idea of a Hindu nation.

“The other groups with Hindu angle are Bajrang Dal … and it’s a little vocal,” he said. “However, it shouldn’t be tagged as violent group or terror group.

“There were couple of cases where the right-wing Hindu groups targeted Christians, like in Orissa and the Graham Staines murder case, but it’s rather localized,” Roul said. “When religious conversion or any kind of rivalry is involved, especially if the conversions are to Islam or Christianity, this is when they react.”

But a former navy intelligence analyst-turned-Christian human rights activist disagrees, explaining the RSS is a danger, extending even beyond India’s borders.

He asked not to be named for security reasons.

“RSS even has cells operating in the United States and other countries. They watch the Indian community in the U. S. and see if there is any Christian influence coming from them,” the human rights activist said.

“When they see anything in print or on the Internet that reveals Christian activity in India, they notify their groups in India so RSS can act against the Christian activity,” he said.

Islamisme Jepang: Dubes Jepang Sebut Pesantren Simbol Peradaban Islam

Dubes Jepang: Pesantren Simbol Peradaban Islam

Duta Besar (Dubes) Jepang untuk Indonesia Kojiro Shiojiri menyatakan, lembaga pendidikan pondok pesantren (Ponpes) yang banyak bertebaran di berbagai pelosok Indonesia, merupakan simbol peradaban Islam.

"Keberadaan lembaga pendidikan khas Nusantara ini, sangat membantu pencerdasan kehidupan bangsa Indonesia," katanya sebagaimana disampaikan juru bicara yang juga asisten khusus Astushi Sano, saat mengunjungi Ponpes "Fathan Mubina" di Ciawi, Kabupaten Bogor, Jawa Barat, Rabu.

Dubes Jepang iu mengunjungi Ponpes yang berada di kaki Gunung Pangrango tersebut sebagai rangkaian kunjungan ke berbagai Ponpes di Indonesia.

Di Ponpes itu, ia menyampaikan ceramah dengan topik "Hubungan Indonesia dan Jepang".

Sebelumnya Dubes Jepang juga telah mengunjungi Ponpes Sunanul Huda (Sukabumi), Pesantren Buntet (Cirebon), Pesantren Darun Najah Ulujami (Jakarta), dan Perguruan Al-Azhar (Jakarta).

Lebih lanjut Atsushi Sano mengutarakan, kunjungan pihak Kedubes Jepang ke Ponpes sebagai upaya nyata dalam membangun saling pengertian dan menghargai antarberbagai peradaban dunia.

Salah satu pertimbangannya, selama ini muncul stereotip di dunia Barat yang mengaitkan Islam dengan stigma negatif, seperti terorisme dan radikalisme.

"Selama ini dunia Barat selalu mengaitkan Islam dengan terorisme, terutama pasca terjadinya aksi WTC 2002. Hal ini mendorong kami melakukan sesuatu, guna membangun dialog antara Islam dan Barat," katanya.

Karena itu, sejak 2003 silam, Kedubes Jepang di Indonesia, telah melakukan berbagai program guna membangun dialog peradaban dan menjembatani komunikasi antara Barat dan Islam.

Sejumlah program yang telah digagas antara lain pengiriman tokoh-tokoh muda Islam Indonesia untuk belajar ke Jepang.

Selain itu, lanjutnya, pada saat bersamaan Jepang juga melihat dari dekat kehidupan umat Islam di Indonesia yang notabene sebagai komponen terbesar umat Islam di dunia.

"Kami sudah mengunjungi berbagai pesantren di Indonesia. Kami lihat kurikulum di pesantren sangat baik. Selain itu, kehidupan sosial di pesantren juga sangat baik. Jadi tidak benar, bila aksi terorisme terkait pesantren," katanya.

Rangkaian kunjungan Dubes Jepang ke Ponpes "Fathan Mubina", selain diisi dengan ceramah dan dialog, juga diperkenalkan berbagai kebudayaan Jepang yang digelar selama sehari penuh.

Budaya itu antara lain peragaan baju tradisional khas Jepang "Yukata", baju tradisi musim dingin Jepang, "Oso gatsu", demo "origami| hingga pemutaran VCD perjalanan sejarah bangsa Jepang.

Sementara itu, pengasuh Ponpes "Fathan Mubina" KH Charuman Kamal menambahkan, kunjungan Dubes Jepang sebagai kunjungan balasan yang dilakukan pihak pesantren ini.

Beberapa waktu lalu, pesantren ini turut mengirimkan duta dalam program pelatihan manajemen bagi guru-guru pesantren di Indonesia yang diadakan di negeri "Sakura" tersebut.

"Kegiatan ini sebagai `follow up` kerja sama Jepang dengan komunitas pesantren di Indonesia. Melalui misi ini kami ingin menyampaikan pesan bahwa Islam merupakan agama yang ramah, agama rahmatan lil`alamien," katanya.

Menurut Kamal, pesantren yang dipimpinnya mengelola pendidikan dasar dan menengah dengan jumlah siswa mencapai ratusan orang.

Yayasan pesantren ini berdiri sejak tahun 1986. Namun untuk pendidikan pesantren (berasrama) baru digelar sejak 2004.

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China’s Muslim Uyghurs Forbidden to Fast During Ramadan

Chinese authorities in Xinjiang Province have issued a notice that any Uyghur cadres or workers found not eating lunch during Ramadan could lose their jobs.
It is part of the campaign of local authorities in Xinjiang, home to the Muslim Uyghur ethnic group, to force the Uyghur people to give up their religious rituals during the fasting month of Ramadan.
Ramadan is a holy month in the Islamic calendar, which begun this year on Aug. 22. It requires not eating during the daytime.
“Free lunches, tea, and coffee—that authorities are calling ‘Care from the government’ or ‘Living allowance’—are being offered in government departments and companies. But it is actually a ploy used to find out who is fasting,” said Dilxat Raxit, World Uyghur Congress spokesman, speaking to The Epoch Times.
According to Dilxat, Uyghur Communist Party cadres throughout Xinjiang had been forced to sign “letters of responsibility” promising to avoid fasting and other religious activities. They are also responsible for enforcing the policy in their assigned areas, and face punishment if anyone in these areas fasts.
For the first time, Dilxat said, the crackdown has extended to retired Communist Party members. Current cadres are required to visit them to prevent them from participating in the fast. If anyone violates the ban, local leaders will be held responsible and severely punished, he said.
Muslim restaurant owners are forced to sign a document to remain open and continue selling alcohol during Ramadan or have their licenses revoked, he said.
Uyghurs arrested during the July riots in Urumqi are also prohibited from fasting; those who insist on fasting will be force fed food and water while enduring insults for their misbehavior, he said in the interview.
Monks in mosques are forced to preach to others that fasting is a “feudal activity” and harmful to health, said Dilxat. Otherwise, their religious certification will be cancelled.
When asked about Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Hu Jintao’s recent visit to Xinjiang, Dilxat said: “Xinjiang’s situation has not yet returned to normal. Rather than asking the local Han people to respect the religion and culture of Uyghur people, Hu encouraged the use of military troops to suppress and further restrict our religious freedom. The communist regime often talks about ‘maintaining stability,’ but what they do is always different from what they say. They are actually the ones who are destroying stability.”
An Epoch Times reporter contacted the CCP’s State Ethnic Affairs Commission to see whether the restrictions claimed by Dilxat were official, or what the official stance on Ramadan was. The media contact wouldn’t speak on the subject, instead giving two numbers in Xinjiang that he said the reporter would be able to call to find out more. Both numbers were continually busy, and when the reporter called the State Ethnic Affairs Commission back, the man hung up.
The directives are communicated on official Web sites in the region, however.

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Hinduisme: Radical Hindus step up attacks on Christians

On their fifth day of silent prayer, the nuns of the Adoration Monastery heard the pounding in the public chapel next door, the sounds of glass shattering and the statue of Jesus being broken. After the sacrament crashed to the floor, the nuns found their voices. They screamed and called for Jesus.

The attack was one of many by radical Hindus against Christians over the past six weeks in India, a nation striving for religious tolerance but wrestling with bouts of sectarian strife that seem at odds with its drive to become a modern world power.

In the eastern state of Orissa, the country's worst clashes, sparked by the slaying of a prominent Hindu priest, have paralyzed the state and killed at least 20 people. In the past two weeks, the violence has spread to six other states, including southwestern Karnataka and the coastal town of Mangalore.

The clashes have polarized many Christians and Hindus nationwide. Radical Hindu groups accuse Christians of killing the priest and converting Hindus, especially those from lower castes.

Christians say they have become the victims of anti-minority campaigns designed to win votes for the Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, the pro-Hindu main opposition political party, in national elections next year. The party just won control of Karnataka four months ago.

"It is very inhuman, what is going on," said Mother Superior Mary Carmel, 57, of the Adoration Monastery, a convent where the 10 nuns leave only to vote or for medical care. "What we find is the government is totally against us. Instead of helping us, the police are victimizing us."

Many religions converge

In many ways, India is a multireligious marvel, with a Sikh prime minister, a Hindu president and a Roman Catholic ruling-party leader. Indian coins proclaim "national integration," and TV commercials celebrate harmony between religions. But since India gained independence from the British in 1947, violence has flared every decade or so between the Hindu majority and Muslims, Christians or Sikhs.

Now, as India sets its sights on becoming a world economic power, such violence is a major embarrassment. Many moderates here question whether the country will ever accept a person's right to religious freedom, guaranteed by the constitution.

The central government has been blamed for allowing the violence to continue. This month, New Delhi officials warned the Orissa and Karnataka governments to stop attacks on Christians or face dismissal. Still, more churches have been ransacked.

Hindu fundamentalists say converts from Hinduism are somehow less Indian than Hindus. Seven states, including Orissa, ban conversion.

"The converted Christians, the converted Muslims, become cruel," said M.B. Puranik, an official with the radical Vishwa Hindu Parishad, or VHP, and in charge of the party in the Mangalore area. "Their nationhood, their loyalty, is not to the nation. Their loyalty is to the Vatican. Their loyalty is to Allah. Conversion is the enemy of the nation."

Catholic officials deny actively recruiting. Evangelical groups, especially in the south, have been very active trying to find converts, in one case setting up an illegal Christian orphanage after the tsunami for Hindu orphans. But Alwyn Colaco, a pastor with the Full Gospel Pentecostal Church in Mangalore, denied that anyone is forced into Christianity.

"That is a No. 1 lie, the No. 1 biggest lie," he said. "Everyone's free to propagate their religion. People are given enough time to evaluate and choose what they want."

About 2.3 percent of Indians are Christian, compared with 80.4 percent Hindus, according to the 2001 census. In the 1961 census, 2.4 percent of Indians were Christian.

Violence may worsen

Anti-Christian violence could worsen in the run-up to parliamentary elections next year, analysts say, citing past experience. The BJP grew from a minor party to the major opposition party 16 years ago, largely through pro-Hindu policies that sparked riots. The party has been accused of being complicit in violence against both Muslims and Christians to win votes.

Ravi Shankar Prasad, the national BJP spokesman, said riots were unfortunate but blamed clashes on the conversion efforts and the death of the Hindu priest. He accused Christians in Karnataka of handing out pamphlets insulting Hindu gods. He denied that the BJP used communal divisions to manipulate voters.

"That is wholly wrong, a motivated campaign, patently false," Prasad said.

V.S. Acharya, home minister of Karnataka, told journalists last week that the central government crackdown on the violence was an "overreaction." As home minister, he is in charge of police in the state. Acharya also met with Hindu priests demanding the state ban conversion.

Ashit Mohan Prasad, the police official who oversees Mangalore and three districts of Karnataka hit by the anti-Christian violence, said police were independent and doing everything possible to prevent future clashes.

India's young Hindu radicals

Inside the Mangalore city jail, Subhash Padil, a 29-year-old foot soldier in a far right Hindu organization, leaned in to make himself heard through the wire mesh of the visitor's window. Half a dozen of his fellow inmates crowded around him.

With an orange lungi wrapped around his waist, sarong-style, and a saffron towel draped over his shoulders, Padil dressed in the guise of a temple priest. His moralistic protestations against his incarceration for an alleged attack on a birthday party held at a local bed and breakfast last year make him sound like one, too.

“When we came in, the girls were half naked and everyone was drinking,” he said, through a translator. “They claim it was only a birthday party. But if that was all that was going on, why would they hold it at a guesthouse instead of at home?”

Last July, journalist Naveen Soorinje caught Padil and other alleged members of the Hindu Jagarana Vedike on video as they roughed up a group of 20-something party-goers they claimed were up to no good. For exposing the Hindu group's violent answer to moral policing, the journalist spent more than six months in jail.


The real shock, however, was the virulence of the young Hindu radicals he exposed.

More than half of India's 1.2 billion people are under 25 years old, a potential demographic dividend that optimists say could add two percent per year to the country's gross domestic product over the next 20 years.

But contrary to conventional wisdom, it's not all Facebook, MTV and sexting in “Youngistan” — Pepsi's clever tag for this generation now coming into its own.  Instead, even as English-speaking India appears to be growing ever more tolerant of dating, live-in relationships and even intercaste marriages, Mangalore's birthday party battle and similar conflicts across the country hint at a simmering culture war beneath the surface of India's economic growth.

“If they truly suspected that there were drugs at the party or that the boys were taking pictures of the girls in compromising positions to blackmail them, they should have stopped to assess the situation and confirm something like that was really going on,” said Soorinje, who was finally released from custody after months of protests from civil rights organizations and other media personnel.

“But you can see from the video that they just stormed through the gate and started the attack.”

The Morality Police
A small, coastal city in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, Mangalore seems like an unnatural hotbed for Hindu radicals. It's only about 200 miles from Bangalore, the IT hub that has become the public face of India's economic rise. And thanks to dozens of educational institutions like St. Aloysius College, whose colonial-era towers overlook the Arabian Sea from the center of town, the city throngs with young, upwardly mobile Indians studying to be doctors, nurses, executives and engineers.

On a typical afternoon at a local branch of Cafe Coffee Day, the unofficial capital of Youngistan, several couples from the local colleges sit together, their heads drawn together over the excuse of a notebook. In one corner of the cafe, a Muslim girl sits with her bearded boyfriend, strappy pink sandals peaking out from beneath the head-to-toe black of her chador, while in another, a Hindu guy with a soul patch has pulled his chair around the table to sit next to his girlfriend. And later that night, at a local bar called Froth on Top, the crowd of young college students drank pitchers of beer, looking no different from any such group in any country around the world.

But there's more here than meets the eye.

Over the past five years — according to news reports collected by the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), India's oldest and largest human rights organisation — Mangalore and the surrounding coastal area has witnessed more than 100 incidents of so-called “moral policing,” similar to the homestay attack in July.

“If a boy and girl walks together, that is not Hindu culture, they will say,” said Swebert de Silva, principal of St. Aloysius College, where students have protested against the self-appointed moral police.

“Or women drinking in a pub. Or young people gathering together and drinking a little beer. That is not Hindu culture.”

Most of the incidents compiled by PUCL involved members of radical groups such as the Hindu Jagarana Vedike, Sri Rama Sene and Bajrang Dal. In January 2009, for instance, around 40 alleged members of the Sri Ram Sene attacked young men and women drinking at a local Mangalore bar called “Amnesia — the Lounge,” claiming they were violating Indian culture. In August 2011, some 30 to 40 alleged members of the Bajrang Dal reportedly broke up a birthday party being held at a local farmhouse, claiming it was a rave.

“If I'm married and I'm having children of age 20 or 25 and I flirt with a girl who is the age of 14, and my intention is to spoil her, and some alert social activists ... stop us, how can you say it is moral policing?” said Franklin Monteiro, a local leader from the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“First they will ask whether they are married or they are lovers, or whether they are having the permission of their parents,” Monteiro said. “These three questions they will ask first. If they belong to the same [religious] community, they [the vigilantes] will leave, just like that.”

But in contrast, in dozens of cases compiled by PUCL, members of various right-wing outfits reportedly dragged young people off buses, sprang on couples and hauled them into the police station, or beat them up on the spot.

Many of these attacks stemmed from the real or imagined perception that a Muslim boy had sought a connection with a Hindu girl — which right-wing ideologues have characterized as “Love Jihad.” And in almost all of these instances that involve the local police, the authorities appear to have tacitly sanctioned the vigilantes' actions by holding the couple for questioning, calling their parents to retrieve them, or releasing them only after ascertaining that both the boy and girl are Hindus.

“Nobody is stopping it,” said Suresh Bhatt, vice president of the Karnataka chapter of PUCL. “We're terribly concerned that the lawkeepers, the police and the politicians, are turning a blind eye.”

Activists from PUCL and other like-minded organisations trace such incidents of moral policing — as well as dozens of reported attacks on Muslims accused of slaughtering cows and on Christians accused of trying to convert Hindus — to the recent rise to power of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Karnataka.

The BJP and the Hindu Jagarana Vedike, Sri Rama Sene, and Bajrang Dal are all official offshoots, or ideological allies, of a massive, informal political “family” known as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), PUCL activists said.

The increase in these interreligious skirmishes — whether they're related to the bogey of “Love Jihad,” cow slaughter, or conversion — is part of a well-planned RSS campaign strategy, according to critics.

“For us, the final is the Sangh Parivar (RSS family), we are all activists of the Sangh Parivar,” said the BJP's Monteiro. “For us, the final and the most holiest part of life is to protect this country, as well as the culture of this land, which has been practiced by our elders.”

In Mangalore, the campaign began in the late 1990s, when a communal clash between Hindus and Muslims offered the RSS and other proponents of its ethnic nationalist ideology of “Hindutva” or “Hinduness” an opportunity to woo low caste Hindus away from competing socialist and communist movements, according to K. Phaniraj, a professor at the nearby Manipal Institute of Technology.

But since 2008, when the BJP came to power in Karnataka, the lines have blurred between the grassroots exploitation of tensions between religious communities and official sanction from the authorities. When the government proposed a bill to ban cow slaughter, for instance, local police tacitly allowed hooligans to enforce the ban, though it never became law.  And for more than a month last year, the official police website for the district that includes Mangalore featured a photo collage highlighting the supposed public service activities of the RSS (which the group's opponents say are nothing more than recruitment efforts).

“I call it Hindutva fascism,” Phaniraj said. “I make no bones about it.”

Class and caste, town and gown
As disturbing as that sounds, that aspect of the issue is little more than politics as usual forIndia, where the RSS and Hindu nationalism has been a potent force since 1925.

And though various speeches reported by local media suggest otherwise, some RSS members and sympathisers say that the organisation has quietly shunted to the side the outright fascist ideas of Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, one of its principal early ideologues. (In his written works, Golwalkar calls for non-Hindus to adopt Hindu culture or submit to remain “wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation” and appears to endorse Hitler's decision to purge Germanyof the Jews, though perhaps not his methods).

“There might be a small section of the RSS which is anti-Muslim,” said 31-year-old Brijesh Chowta, an RSS member who cautioned that his statements represented only his personal views. “But if you look at the organisation, they say Hindutva is not a religion. Everybody can practice their religion, but it's about being Indian first.”

What's new, and of greater concern to the more liberal citizens of Youngistan, is the idea that India's modernization may not be diminishing the ranks of the true believers, and their conservatism may be contagious — encouraging Christian and Muslim fundamentalism.

At a recent regional meeting, 80 percent of the 85,000 uniformed “volunteers” that turned out were between 16 and 35, according to a 28-year-old member of the RSS who lives at its center in the city and works for the organisation full time. (He asked not to be named because he is not an official spokesman.)

Meanwhile, the regular attacks on Muslims that accompanied the Hindu vigilantes' moral policing sparked local college students to adopt the burqa and chador as a kind of badge of honor in the tussle between modernity, freedom and identity.

And the socio-economic dimensions of the conflict hint that it may soon grow more serious.

Apart from the alleged political machinations of the Hindu right, there is a class-and-caste, town-versus-gown element to these incidents of moral policing that some observers believe augurs trouble on the horizon.

While educated, upwardly mobile young people move forward to take better jobs, free themselves from the authority of their parents and embrace more liberal attitudes toward love and sex, another group may be growing increasingly lost, hopeless and angry.

According to Soorinje, the journalist jailed for his reporting on moral policing, for instance, four of the young men facing charges for the alleged attack on party-goers at the homestay in July do not have electricity in their homes.

“The reason that young people are attracted to these kind of [radical conservative] outfits is the uneven development we see in Mangalore,” Soorinje said.

“While we have so many colleges and shopping malls, the backward and uneducated tend to take what the leadership says about 'Love Jihad' and so forth at face value, because young men and women socializing together like the college students do is completely outside their sphere of knowledge.”

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Semua Parpol, Negara dan Ideologi Mempolitikkan Agama

Sejarah menuliskan, hampir semua partai politik, negara dan ideologi di dunia ini mempolitikkan agama. Setiap entitas itu mempunyai penapsiran sendiri mengenai mengenai agama dan pemeluknya yang mereka perjuangkan. Rata-rata mengaku ingin mendukung kelompok moderat dari sebuah agama. Walaupun agama yang dianut di sebuh negara itu sudah berlaku moderat.

Mereka menafsirkan makna moderat melalui pemahaman mereka sendiri. Sehingga banyak yang terjebak dengan radikalismenya sendiri. Sesuatu yang dapat dilihat sebagai radikalisme kaum moderat. Walaupun istilah itu tidak selalu benar.


 
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