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