Beliefs

*If you read this blog with your children (or anybody else’s children) looking over your shoulder, you should just know that there is an image that I am about to post that is probably not suitable for little eyes. Proceed with discretion.*
Even though the nation I live in is somewhere around 90% Muslim, the city I live in has one of the highest non-Muslim populations of all the major cities on Java. In fact, this town is only about 50% Muslim, or so I’ve heard. The rest is a mix of Christian, Catholic, and Chinese traditional religions. The people of this town are very happy about their ability to get along with one another. To a fault. While I do appreciate the peace that is found here and the relationships that are formed across religions, there is a permeating sense of religious apathy.
You have your way and I have mine. We all worship the same god. We are all going to heaven.
There is very little strict adherence to the religious code of any faith in this town. Most of my female Muslim friends wear shorts and tank tops, and none of them cover their heads. I would estimate that less than half of the Muslim women in this town wear appropriate head coverings. In fact, I only know of ONE family in this town of 160,000 in which the wife wears the full on burqa – the billowy, black, tent-like outfit that leaves only a narrow slit for the eyes. Most women who do cover their heads use only a simple jilbab which covers the hair and neck but leaves the entire face exposed.
The point I’m getting at here is that sometimes it’s easy to forget that I live in the largest Muslim nation on earth.
But sometimes I see things that remind me. Like when I go to Solo and I spot very wealthy looking men walking around the mall with 2 or 3 wives in burqas trailing behind them, all holding the hands of multiple children. Or when I go to Madura and see parents beating their teenage daughter in the street while her boyfriend, whom she was just caught having sex with, stands by and watches, and I learn that her father can legally have her beheaded for her actions that day.
Or when I see pictures condemning “scandalous” women on Facebook, which was the case last night. A friend of a friend made and posted this photo yesterday:

It is entitled: The Response to People who Violate the Laws of Allah, the Punishment is Very Painful.
And here is what it says. (I apologize in advance to my native and/or fluent Indonesian speaking readers. I know I made some mistakes. There are a LOT of typos in the text above, and I didn’t know a lot of the words – I’m not up on my fire and brimstone vocab – so I don’t have everything translated exactly. I think I got the general idea though. Feel free to make corrections in the comments!)
“For any woman who shows the hair on her head to anyone except her husband and those related to her, her torture will be to be hung by her hair in the fire of hell until her brain boils for as long as she went unpunished on earth.
For any woman who continually draws attention to her chest which is intentionally uncovered or any woman who looks otherwise sexy, her torture will be to hung in hell by a rope made of hellfire tied around her breasts, calves and thighs, and she will be roasted by the fire of the hell of Allah. The pain is infinite.
For any woman who becomes a seducer and uses her body to excite and stimulate men, her torture will be to have a black face and she will chew on her own entrails.”

And NOW I remember that I live in the largest Muslim nation on earth and that not everybody is as relaxed about their beliefs as the people where I live are.
(Interesting side note - Upon clicking through to this man’s Facebook page, I was not at all surprised to find photos of naked women that he had posted on his wall.)