Cempaka Culture and Tourism: Internet Savvy Indonesian Cleric Embraces New Media for Old Debates

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …”

Friday, December 17, 2010

Internet Savvy Indonesian Cleric Embraces New Media for Old Debates

Jakarta Globe, December 17, 2010

In a picture taken on December 15, 2010 Ahmad Mustofa Bisri, also known as Gus Mus and Kyai Gaul on Twitter, an influential Muslim cleric and a respected figure from the country's biggest Islamic organisation, the moderate Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), shows an Islamic application in his iPad in Jakarta. Bisri is among a number of Islamic leaders -- conservative and liberal -- who are turning to the Internet in the struggle for the hearts and minds of the faithful in the world's largest Muslim-majority country. (AFP Photo/Bay Ismoyo)

To most Indonesians, Ahmad Mustofa Bisri is an influential Muslim cleric and a respected figure from the country's biggest Islamic organization, the moderate Nahdlatul Ulama.

But to his 7,000-odd followers on Twitter, the 66-year-old is "Kyai Gaul", or the Trendy Cleric, who thumbs daily Islamic greetings on his iPad and Blackberry.

Bisri is among a number of Islamic leaders -- conservative and liberal -- who are turning to the Internet in the struggle for the hearts and minds of the faithful in the world's largest Muslim-majority country.

"I set up an account last month because I like to make friends with everyone. I don't position myself as a mufti, a religious authority. I only share what I know," said Bisri, who is better known as Gus Mus or "Brother Mus" -- short for Mustofa.

"It's important for those who understand the faith to spread the word. Those who don't know, but say they do, may mislead," he added.

Besides microblogging site Twitter, he has been preaching religious tolerance and moderation on social networking site Facebook, where he has 2,600 "friends" and 62,000 "fans".

Islamists from hardline groups like Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia and the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) also have a Web presence, using the modern medium to advocate ancient capital punishments like stoning for adulterers.

The battle for Indonesia's Islamic identity is just one way the Internet is shaping and transforming public debate in the country of 240 million people, where Web usage has exploded in the past five years.

With its booming economy and burgeoning middle class, the archipelago has rapidly become one of the world's biggest Twitter users, according to online research firm comScore.

Of 41 countries surveyed, it had the highest percentage of Internet users at home and work accessing Twitter in June 2010, or more than 20 percent of its 45 million people online, comScore said.

No one who wants to be anyone -- not even the stick-wielding, fringe-dwelling religious fanatics of the FPI -- can afford not to have a Twitter account and a Facebook page in Indonesia.

And almost inevitably in a country as diverse as Indonesia, questions of faith consistently top the list of trending topics of debate.

Twitter "wars" are being waged on a daily basis between liberals who promote pluralism and religious tolerance, and conservatives who advocate a stern interpretation of Islam and strict moral values.

Some of the old elite are uncomfortable in the brave new world of instant communication and user-generated content.

Scandalised by the release online of a local rock star's homemade sex videos earlier this year, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono warned that the Internet "frenzy" was a threat to the nation's moral fibre.

But blogger Purwaka, known online as Blontank Poer, says the more open flow of information and opinion is good for a country that emerged from the tight grip of military strongman Suharto only in 1998.

"Twitter wars are good wars," the 42-year-old said.

"The winner is the public. They gain a better understanding of Islam and can make their own conclusion after hearing different opinions from experts on the faith," he added.

From homosexuality to atheism and the treatment of minorities, Indonesians are finding they can talk about subjects online which they would be reluctant to discuss in their offices, classrooms and around their kitchen tables.

Communications Minister Tifatul Sembiring, a conservative Muslim, is one of the nation's most prolific and controversial Tweeters and boasts 120,000 "followers" -- or other users who subscribe to his comment stream.

He drew international ridicule with a post describing how, as a pious Muslim, he had reluctantly shaken hands with US First Lady Michelle Obama at a state reception in Jakarta last month.

One of his critics, liberal Muslim scholar Ulil Abshar Abdalla, Tweeted to his 35,000 followers: "Enough, enough, from now on, shaking hands with non-mahrams (those unrelated by marriage) is allowed."

"It's halal (permissible) if it's the level of Michelle Obama," he added.

Gus Mus advised the minister to "calm down" and put his beliefs in perspective.

"Calm down, sir. God is too BIG to supervise your handshaking with Mrs. Michelle," he commented.

Sembiring later clarified his position in a series of Tweets, which only generated more howls of embarrassment from his liberal opponents.

"I'm fine as long as there's an open debate and people convey their messages politely, without curses and insults," the minister told AFP.

"I'll usually talk to them but if they continue insulting me and refuse to act in a civilised manner, after two to three times, I'll block them."

IT researcher and free-speech advocate Donny Budi Utoyo said that while Muslim leaders had different views, those engaged in social networks shared an ability to cope with criticism and the cut and thrust of the new media.

"Both the liberal and conservative leaders who have joined Twitter so far seem to be open people who know how to smile. If they're attacked, they respond in a positive manner," he said.

"This reflects the maturity of mind that is needed for any process of dialogue to be effective."

Agence-France Presse