According to a Yahoo article the people of Indonesia are getting more strongly Islamic in the last year or 2. Indonesia is a republic and is officially secular, recognizing 5 religions (Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Catholicism and Christianity). As the world's most populous Islamic nation, Indonesia can register in the news when a religious flare up happens.
Chris and I were just watching the 6 o'clock news in Indonesian as well as a bunch of trailers for programs coming up. One program featured a singing cast on Muslims dressed in religious attire, but with the look and feel of a western soap opera. I said to Chris that Indonesia just does not have the hard-line feel of places like Iran or Pakistan. Ika is from Central Java which is strongly Islamic and 2 of her relatives converted to Christianity without any ill feeling at all from the relatives. Still, there seems to be a hardcore of troublemakers who grab the headlines and give the country a bad name. In my experience Balinese people and other Indonesians seem very tolerant of other religions. That is the rule, the troublemakers are the minute exception.
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