Prayer in two languages

Prayer in two languages

The recent arrest of a cleric in Malang who lead prayers
in both Arabic and Indonesian shows that there is no
tolerance of difference religious opinions in this country.

Why should a man be charged with a criminal offense for merely
praying unconventionally? By doing this, how could he have
despoiled organized religion or contaminated the authenticity of
the holy book when he has also recited the verses in their
original language -- Arabic. One should instead try to understand
his good intentions; he tried to make people understand what
these versus were saying.

Any attempt to guide believers away from a blind kind of
following, which makes the majority of the Muslim populace
ignorant, should be considered noble and, if it is not lauded,
should certainly not be condemned. Instead of wasting their time
and resources on such a matter, the police should crack down on
and outlaw the widely practiced and tolerated activities
involving sorcery and witchcraft that are clearly and explicitly
forbidden by Islam.

The legal system allows police to summon and interrogate
individuals based on reports they receive, no matter how
incredulous these reports may seem. This system may have
advantages but on the downside it wastes resources; not only
those used by the accused, who has to fight the allegations, but
also those used by the police. Perhaps the procedures could be
fine-tuned, by filtering reports to identify the really worthy
cases, so that the valuable time of all parties could be better
spent on productive activities -- in the police's case, working
for the security and safety of the public.

S.W. TJAHJONO
Jakarta