Here we are again. Extremist stop a music concert by threatening violence to the performer and anyone how attends to it. I am now speaking about the cancelled Lady Gaga music concert in Indonesia. A secular country that is getting overrun by Muslim extremist how act because nobody stands up to them. This is not the first music artist how gets into problems with extremist in Indonesia and other countries. As extremist use any and all excuses to spew there hatred on any and all things. Music and musical concert is just one example of this. What is taking place in Indonesia is an serious matte, as this extreme group has plans on making Shari’a law the only law in all of Indonesia. Where Shari’a laws have been implemented it means suppression of women rights, no human rights and total power of one religious group. Normally the same group that impose the Shari’a laws in the first place.
The loss of freedom to extremist groups can happen in two ways. Suddenly or slowly. In Indonesia it has so far been happening slowly. This erosion of freedom is something that Indonesia is going to start feel soon. As an success by this group in stopping events like concerts, books and so on just makes them more powerful. It might not makes them more popular. But it gives them more power in the long run.
[…]
The Islamist FPI had threatened violence if the concert went ahead, calling Lady Gaga a „devil’s messenger“ who wears only a „bra and panties“.
Habib Salim Alatas, the group’s FPI Jakarta chairman, said the cancellation was „good news“ for Indonesia’s Muslims.
„FPI is grateful that she has decided not to come. Indonesians will be protected from sin brought about by this Mother Monster, the destroyer of morals,“ he told AFP news agency.
He added: „Lady Gaga fans, stop complaining. Repent and stop worshipping the devil. Do you want your lives taken away by God as infidels?“
[…]
Indonesia’s conservative Religious Affairs Minister, Suryadharma Ali, also welcomed the cancellation.
„I strongly believe this cancellation will benefit the country,“ he said.
„Indonesians need entertainment and art which have moral values.“
[…]
People like Habib Salim Alatas are evil in human form. It is also an interesting fact that religious extremist have taken upon them self to decide what is moral and what is not moral. Based on the fact that extremist people have no right to set moral standards of other people, and control them on those grounds. Suryadharma Ali is also wrong. This is not going to benefit Indonesia, not even close.
It is worth noting that Taliban was and is an extremist group with the same goals as the extreme group in Indonesia. I at least do not see any difference between them and what is now taking place in Indonesia.
But it is just not Islam extreme groups that are a problem. Christian extreme group are also, and have been an problem for a long time. For instance, there appears to have been Christian extreme group in South-Korea that forced Lady Gaga to turn here concert into adult only (18 years). This type of extremism is the same type of extremism that is now taking place in Indonesia. It is just different flavor of it. But the goal is the same. Suppression of freedom in any type and form. I am against that type of thinking. As freedom (with the responsibly that comes with freedom) is a right that everyone should have.
BBC News on this.