Majority rules: Let get into the spirit of tolerance

When it comes around every year, Ramadhan is a special time to contemplate, when we can work on promoting good deeds and do away with sinful ones.

For me, another thing to put away this fasting month has been my alarm clock, which I planned to use to wake me up for the predawn meal.

It proved unnecessary, as my neighbors will not let it -- or me -- rest.

When I moved into my neighborhood a year ago, I had no idea that the local custom was to wake up people for the predawn meal with a din that would in all likelihood be able to raise the dead.

Pounding on drums incessantly, they sound like a marching band as they come down the street at about 2:15 a.m. I had wanted to keep to my own schedule, waking up at 3:30 a.m. for my meal, with a good 45 minutes before fasting began.

But living alone in a rented house with few acquaintances among my neighbors, I am afraid to say anything about the noise.

I have no choice but to grumble and stumble out of bed.

Retreating from my sleepless nights to a relative's house in a naval complex in North Jakarta did not prove much better.

Instead of drums, there were constant sahur reminders from the mosque's loudspeaker (which fully lived up to its name).

They began at 2 a.m., repeated every five minutes or so, reaching a peak with the call to prayer and the sermon. Each announcement had the sound intensity of a heavy metal concert.

My relative told me that a Christian in the neighborhood once complained, but to no avail.

"She cannot protest, we're the majority here," she said.

So being part of the majority means that we cannot tolerate, even listen to, the views of others, but they must dance to the beat of our drummer?

When I attended one of the country's Catholic universities, a fellow student whinged about back-to-back classes with two prayer times between them.

I quickly pointed out that all the lecturers permitted us to leave class to pray, and that the school, in its own show of respect to those of other religious beliefs, provided two prayer rooms for its Muslim students.

I remembered this experience when I heard of the shocking incident at Sang Timur Catholic School in South Jakarta, with a group blocking the entrance because of religious services held there. Students, naturally, were too frightened to brave the blockade go back to school.

I can understand that the hard-liners have no time for the views of others; their response to complaints about the early- morning wake-up calls, for instance, would be to turn a deaf ear.

But please note that there is a religious verse saying that we should respect our neighbors more than our relatives, because the former are closer to us. Nobody specified any religion for those neighbors.

Also heed the verse saying that religion is an entirely personal matter, and that we are responsible for our actions, whether we are saints or sinners.

So, my requests during this time, when we should be heightening our tolerance of others, is to please turn down the volume at my local mosque, so I can use my alarm clock once again and wake up when I choose to eat my meal.

Please leave the neighborhood diners alone, where people gather to relax and play some pool, instead of vandalizing them, as happened early Saturday morning in Kemang, South Jakarta.

And, most of all, let those poor students go back to school, so they can study and practice their faith in peace. -- Indira Husin