IndonesiaMatters.com against muslim ?
At first I was happy to find another website that blogs in English and informs the outside world about Indonesia. However, when I started to read more of its article, it reminded me of muslim-haters such as faithfreedom.com and such.
A few examples:
[ The Crusades and Liberal Islam ] (see comments by Patung, its owner)
[ Tennis Team won't play is Israel ] - (quoted: “The Indonesian refusal to recognise the existence of Israel rears its ludicrous head again”)
It’s absolutely Patung’s rights to express his/her opinions. But with “Indonesia” in its website title, while the articles doesn’t reflect what many Indonesian think; well I was just hoping that he’d be able to be more neutral.
Or at least makes it clear that the website contains his personal opinions; which may not necessarily represent most Indonesian.
I’ve dealt with many muslim-haters before; some are just mislead / misinformed, some have flawed logic, but some intentionally use any way to destroy Islam. I’ll engage in a discussion here in my spare time, and we’ll be able find out who’s who.
July 18th, 2006 16:13
here’s the comment that I posted there:
July 18th, 2006 18:39
Hi Harry,
I do have an “About” page that says it’s written by me, but perhaps I should make things clearer on that though. The use of the word “Indonesia” is not restricted I think and it’s pretty obvious that it’s not a government site or anything so I don’t see any problem there. What the majority of Indonesians think is not my concern, why should it be? I’ll admit I’m not sure whether I want to do it as blog (=personal) or as a straight news site, but the line between those two is somewhat blurred these days. Ultimately everything we write contains our own opinions, etc.
I can’t immediately reply to your comment on my site as I am currently having a problem with it.
July 18th, 2006 20:41
can you just replace the name of your blog to something more approriate ? especially if you like to make a headline story that trigger controversy !
July 19th, 2006 00:18
Hello Patung,
Because your website name is “Indonesia” matters.com, it’s as if you’re speaking for all of them. While, as you said earlier, it’s pretty much your own personal website.
Different story if it’s my.patung.com or whatever, then of course you’re totally free to express yourself. But with your current website, people might get the wrong idea about the rest of us.
In journalism there’s this method called “reporting”.
Basically, you just report things as it is. This is more neutral then a standard article / column.
Might be a problem with your ISP ? eg: they employ a transparent caching that’s too aggressive / serves stale files.
You might want to try accessing it again with different ISPs.
Salam,
Harry
July 19th, 2006 03:57
wow, the writer seems to suffer from a really chronic islamophobia. i wouldn’t waste time on it.
July 19th, 2006 05:38
priyadi - usually I do that, but this is also the chance to bust many hoaxes/misinformation. I saw that many contents there are the same with other islamophobic websites.
however, the responses from muslims so far are usually of anger - not logic.
so here’s a try for that.
another comment I made on an article on that website, muslim radicalism in 2005 :
July 20th, 2006 06:56
Islamophobic… a new disease that not only infected westerners but also Asians and (some) Indonesians alike…
July 20th, 2006 12:05
To counter Islamophobic is to preach the peace face of islam.
To expect one blog to be neutral and objective is too naive.
July 21st, 2006 04:38
Well, naive sekali malah
tapi poin saya bukan itu. Silahkan dibaca lagi baik-baik, trims.
July 25th, 2006 19:06
And I just found this really offensive post, about ME:
(http://www.indonesiamatters.com/493/muslimah-gothess/)
Why would someone put up a really cheesy post criticizing about someone’s life (in this case, mine) and put some nasty prejudice about it on a blog called “Indonesia Matters” as if my personal life really generalizes the whole thing about Indonesia. Very untolerable. And he actually took, or let’s say, stole my picture. It’s a copyright infringement.
This is a serious thing over cyber space, and whoever this person is, I think he needs to learn his lessons alright.
Regards, Dee
July 26th, 2006 04:48
Dee - I’m really sorry to hear that. btw; my best wishes on your plan, hope you’ve found your soulmate.
August 3rd, 2006 11:34
hehehe, it seems setting up your own racist blog can get you featured in national magazine
http://www.tempointeraktif.com/hg/mbmtempo/arsip/2006/07/31/SEL/
go to article on “10 blog pilihan”
August 4th, 2006 03:25
Quite a surprise indeed, so I have sent an email to Pak Budi regarding this. Shown below :
Note that the article in Tempo says “Blog jurnal semacam ini sangat bermanfaat bagi orang asing untuk memahami masalah penting di Indonesia.“.
That’s why I’m concerned with IndonesiaMatters.com
August 4th, 2006 10:21
Kayaknya percuma ngributin “Tempo”. Bukannya mereka sering memberitakan informasi miring tentang Islam.
August 31st, 2006 04:32
Treespotter seems to agree on this topic as well.
August 13th, 2008 04:01
I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you down the road!