Net Neutrality--Google--Fairness Doctrine.

[Hammerskjold]

But... Reading the international news, there are lots of articles from the past 4-5 years about rising tensions between Islam and Christianity.

Ok I've read the links. IMO you have to pick out the truthy bits in between the lines.

Like the ones about tensions the focus IMO is really about the:

-migrant
-business
-social jealousy (kinda nebulous sounding there but my best guess is combination of economic factor with a dash of anti-migrant sentiment)

The xtian vs muslim may or may not be the trigger, but more often than not IMO that's just the surface tension. Xtian v muslim can often be just phrasing to really mean pribumi conflict. Not in all cases, and not in all locations obviously. But just keep in mind when they say this group etc, it may not actually mean that particular group.

It gets complex. It's like a long running soap opera at times. With a dash of The Sopranos.

The thing to watch for (even if unpublished in one of that link) is any mention of government\army agents in play. IMO those are the important power players to watch for.

Maybe they are the ones spun that way that catch my interest, but I doubt its just total BS. I brought up the Islam\religious part, because
that is our topic.

Well I thought the topic was net neutrality.

Ok seriously now.

Is it total BS, no. It'd be easy to spot if it is. It is IMO, a bit of truth mixed with 'truthiness' and some spin and angle. You answered a lot of your own question really, it's designed to catch your interest because it is catchy and sexy. Religious Conflict! is much sexier sounding than Here's an in depth report on the complex factors and factions at play in a region most people never hear about with analysis from ZZZzzzzz...zzzzz.zzzzz.

It was just speculation on the internet, and a 24x7 news cycle. More news spun making the politico-zombies crazy, whether they be amped up by Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich on the mega-mosque, or some internet site run by adherents of Abu Bakar Bashir.

The net can be used to foment some real ugly shit for sure. But it can also be used by people to connect and share their experiences an maybe, at least attempt to build a bridge of understanding.

As always, if not more important nowadays, is to verify the info coming in due to the sheer speed and volume we're dealing with.

Look, I mentioned 'pribumi' a couple of times. At the risk of oversimplifying it, it's a familiar tune we should all know by now. Divide, and conquer. If there is nothing to divide with, make something up.

I just think a significant portion of humanity don't really want to invest themselves in knowing the truth, they just want to believe in someone/something and be told what to do.

Well yeah, where have you been lately?

I don't know if I can be a 'source'. I can only share some of my personal experiences growing up there at that particular time frame and location. Some things might have changed, some things, might not.

When I read these 2 articles for example:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/worl...le1645844/

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0...51,00.html

My spidey sense tells me the news is not that there are extremist mullahs trying to gain a foothold in Indonesia. There's always some faction or someother trying to gain a foothold.

My take is that even these mullahs don't dare to try a complete ban on smoking, because Indonesians love their tobacco. And the government don't mess around when it comes to serious tax revenues from tobacco. (That's probably one of their big and secure source of cash money.) Because srsly guys, guys srsly, Indonesians love their smokes.

Second, some of these mullahs 'declarations' I suspect are equivalent to that oddball crazy extremist priests who wants to boycott cheerleaders in a football game because it's immoral and sinful. Ie: no one really gives a flying flock in most cases. More so if it happens to be in a football crazy town.

And when they say 'many observant muslims', it might not mean the majority. It may mean, the flocks who observes and follow the anti-cheer priest rantings. Even the Westboro Baptists Church have some followers.

Personally, what I would monitor are the power players in gov'mt and or the army. Nothing gets a toehold, let alone a foothold in their turf without their knowledge.

Consider it more like a gang looking out over their own turf, not necessarily out of concern for the citizens. Their priority is usually power, and how to get more of it for themselves. If they are consulting or allowing some extremist ugly stirrings, my first suspicion is they're trying to create a distraction for something else. (Time to count the silverware in the presidential palace.) So what else is new, this kind of thing is not unique to Indonesia after all.

edited for spelling missed steak.
edited ps.

The 'approvals announcements' of some of these extremist mullahs...are almosts laughable. Most of them can be categorized as attempted power play, or attempt to gain support. Mostly they seem to be along the same lines as the Vatican approving the Beatles and The Blues Brothers amidst the child abuse scandal. Anyone with an ounce of healthy skepticism would either yawn, or do an eye roll.