[BartSimpson]

This is from Al Jazeera so don't dismiss it out of hand as anti-Islamic propaganda...thank you.

http://english.aljazeera.net/video/asia ... 90503.html

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Indonesian film stirs religious controversy

TV network pulls movie about religion tolerance after Islamist group warns it could trigger nationwide violence.

A film about religious tolerance in Indonesia has been pulled from a major TV network after an Islamist group warned the film could trigger nationwide violence.

Question Mark tackles the issue of religious harmony by showing a Buddhist family, a Muslim family and a woman who converts to Christianity, all living together.

But the Islamic Defenders Front, a group with a history of violence, siad the message of pluralism is dangerous.

The organisation says it is insulting to show a Muslim playing the role of Jesus in a church play.

The group has forced one of Indonesia's main television channels not to air the film.

Salim Alatas, from the Islamic Defenders Front said: "We are worried that if Muslims feel insulted there will be burning and rioting, that's what we have to prevent.

"That's why the SCTV channel has cancelled the showing because they were afraid."

The Indonesian press council says Question Mark is educational because it can teach people about Indonesian values that tend to be forgotten.

The council wants the film, which was shown in theatres, to be broadcast on television.

A film about religious tolerance can't be shown because it will provoke violence from mainstream Muslims in Indonesia?

[andyt]

$1:

But the Islamic Defenders Front, a group with a history of violence, siad the message of pluralism is dangerous.

What exactly makes this group mainstream in your eyes.

[xerxes]

Good point Andy. The group in Indonesia sounds no different than Focus on the Family or the American Family Assoc.

[ShepherdsDog]

...or the way Hamas is mainstream in Gaza, Hezbollah is mainstream in Lebanon, the Muslim Brotherhood is Mainstream in Egypt or the Taliban is mainstream in Afghanistan and pakistan. The average citizen of these aformentioned locales are not comparable to your average Canadian, Briton and American. Most are poorly educated and very susceptible to the message that the extremists are spreading. They aren't bright enough to make educated choices.

i'd be more inclined to agree with you if you used Muslim populations in Western nations.

[sandorski]

Hopefully they put the Great White North in its place.

[Bacardi4206]

Damn that film preaching about religious tolerance, how dare they. Don't they understand how upsetting this is to muslims? Muslims, Christians and Buddhists all co-existing together peacefully? That's a direct slap to the face. Why don't them Indonesians get some sense already, gosh.

[Psudo]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

Most are poorly educated and very susceptible to the message that the extremists are spreading. They aren't bright enough to make educated choices.

This bold section is either a very poor choice of words or outright racism. You can't make blanket statements about the intelligence of entire cultures with any degree of accuracy. There are bright people in every culture, and there's no particular reason to believe people are less bright because they are Muslims living in Muslim-majority societies.

Even if you refer only to those who follow violent extremists, doing evil doesn't prove low intelligence. Lacking education or making bad decisions should not be confused with lacking intelligence.

[ShepherdsDog]

One has only to look at the cousin marrying, rifle toting rednecks in your own Bible belt to know that the 'overly' religious aren't very bright and have a poor understanding og their own religion and constitution. The same holds true in Muslim and Hindu societies, as well as the Third World catholic ones. They hang on the word of their mullah, imam, pastor or priest and don't bother thinking for themselves. Whether or not you think this is racist means diddly squat to me. it doesn't take a Ph.D in sociology to know that the majority of people would sooner have others make their descisions for them.

[Psudo]

You're demonstrating sample bias. "These people are stupid, so anyone like them must be stupid as well." It doesn't work like that.

[ShepherdsDog]

See a little of the world, and you'll see that it does.

[Psudo]

Well, the gay conservatives, liberal Mormons, and anarchist family men I know seem to dispute your reasoning.

Maybe we disagree about what experience proves because you hang out with conformists and I hang out with non-conformists, but the existence of non-conformists seems to dispute the validity of your generalizations.

[ShepherdsDog]

No. The non conformists in the areas that I mentioned usually leave or are forced out by the majority who prefer to have others tell them how to think. the initial post about supressing acceptance lends credence to my point. Look at Egypt. Their 'revolution' is in the process of being co-opted by the Muslim Brotherhood. The few educated ones who are secular and liberal are a tiny islands who are in danger of disappearing a sea of the unwashed, uneducated masses who burn Churches and loot embassies at the behest of their ring leaders.

[redhatmamma]

Sad that any group would be against promoting religious tolerance. I'd like to see it shown in the U.K. to gauge reaction there.

[GreenTiger]

andyt andyt:

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But the Islamic Defenders Front, a group with a history of violence, siad the message of pluralism is dangerous.

What exactly makes this group mainstream in your eyes.

The Islamic Defenders Front to me at least doesn't seem like any kind of a mainstream group. The fact that so many people might be offended by enlightened ideas such as religious tolerance then by all means it should be shown.

[Psudo]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

The non conformists in the areas that I mentioned usually leave or are forced out by the majority who prefer to have others tell them how to think.

That was true in the lives of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, too, but they still epically non-conformed.

Would you like some links about Muslim Goths to reinforce my point?