Indonesia executes six drug convicts, five of them foreigners

Indonesia executes six drug convicts, five of them foreigners
Widodo has pledged to bring reform to Indonesia

Ban appeals to Indonesia to stop death row executions

Ban appeals to Indonesia to stop death row executions
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has pleaded to Indonesia to stop the execution of prisoners on death row for drug crimes. AFP PHOTO

Pope: 'Death penalty represents failure' – no 'humane' way to kill a person

Pope: 'Death penalty represents failure' – no 'humane' way to kill a person
The pope wrote that the principle of legitimate personal defense isn’t adequate justification to execute someone. Photograph: Zuma/Rex

Obama becomes first president to visit US prison (US Justice Systems / Human Rights)

Obama becomes first president to visit US prison   (US Justice Systems / Human Rights)
US President Barack Obama speaks as he tours the El Reno Federal Correctional Institution in El Reno, Oklahoma, July 16, 2015 (AFP Photo/Saul Loeb)

US Death Penalty (Justice Systems / Human Rights)

US Death Penalty (Justice Systems / Human Rights)
Woman who spent 23 years on US death row cleared (Photo: dpa)



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"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. …

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Unite Shiites and Sunnis in Indonesia

Jakarta Globe, Salim Osman - Straits Times, August 16, 2012

Indonesian Shiite cleric Tajul Muluk, right, was sentenced to two years
in prison for blasphemy in Sampang, East Java, on July 12, 2012. His
conviction  signals Indonesia's objection to Shiism becoming rooted in
the country. (AFP Photo).
               
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One day in December last year, Shiite preacher Tajul Muluk had to be rescued by the police after a mob torched his house, his Islamic boarding school and mosque in a violent rampage in Sampang, East Java.

He was not hurt. But in a twist of events, the preacher was subsequently detained by the police for allegedly insulting Islam in his teachings. His attackers, however, got away scot-free.

Last month, a district court sentenced the preacher to two years' jail for blasphemy against Islam. His conviction was based on the evidence of witnesses who testified he had told his followers the Qur'an was not original, that Muslims should pray three times a day instead of five, and that pilgrimage to Mecca was not compulsory.

He denied ever telling his followers that, and described the allegations as lies politically fabricated to convict him as a deviant.

The cleric became the first Shiite Muslim to be convicted of blasphemy in Muslim-majority Indonesia.

This is unprecedented as Shiism is part of Islamic orthodoxy, born during the political split over leadership succession after the death of Prophet Muhammad. Its status as a branch of Islam was reaffirmed by a conference of Shiite and Sunni clerics in Amman, Jordan, in July 2005. The recognition was also endorsed in December that year at a conference in Mecca to end the argument over whether Shiism is Islamic because of its theological differences with mainstream Sunni beliefs.

This has been acknowledged by the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), the highest authority on Islam, which has never declared the sect as deviant, unlike its fatwa on the Ahmadiyah community for its belief in a prophet after Prophet Muhammad.

The case was reported in major newspapers in Jakarta but its significance escaped the attention of many Indonesians, who were fixated on the governor's election.

MUI chairman Umar Shihab followed the case closely and said the conviction was wrong. "(Shiite) religious teachings are not contrary to Islam," he said. "If he was indeed convicted because of his teachings, that would be regrettable."

Many others would find it baffling too in reconciling the prosecution of a Shiite as a deviant with Indonesia's treatment of Iran, a fellow Muslim country with Shiism as its official religion. Both are close allies in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the grouping that also includes Saudi Arabia.

Shiites are a minority in Indonesia, noticeable only after Iran's Islamic revolution in 1979 when some Sunnis converted to Shiism and Indonesian scholars returned from study in Qom, the seat of Shiite learning in Iran.

Before the Iranian revolution, there were small communities of Shiites, mainly Arab descendants from Yemen, who kept a low profile in deference to the Sunnis.

But Shiism is not entirely alien to Indonesia. Several of its elements are found in classical Indonesian literature and even in cultural traditions. One such tradition is the commemoration of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, Prophet Muhammad's grandson. However, the Shiite faith is not embedded in the religious beliefs of Indonesian Muslims.

The 1980s conversion of several activists raised the Shiite minority's profile. They have carved out a space for themselves as a well-defined religious community, with their own schools, mosques and civil society groups, publishing Shiite literature in Bahasa Indonesia that strengthens their presence.

In Sampang, a hamlet on the Madura island in East Java, Shiite converts started a community some years ago. Their presence caused a stir in this conservative Muslim region, sparking conflict with the Sunnis.

Since then, Sunni clerics in East Java have been campaigning to get them to return to Sunni Islam. They managed to get the local MUI chapter to declare Shiism as a deviant sect but it was not endorsed by its Jakarta headquarters.

Tajul's conviction signals Indonesia's objection to Shiism becoming rooted in the country. It wants to clamp down on Shiite growth to keep Indonesia Sunni in orientation.

A sectarian divide among Muslims could one day expose the country to religious strife on a scale found in Iraq and Pakistan. Already, signs of such a conflict have been manifested in Indonesia by the random attacks on Shiites and their religious centers.

While concerns over potential sectarian strife are legitimate, the authorities have to grapple with the existence of thousands of Shiite converts who call Indonesia their home. They have the right to be protected and practice their Shiite faith as guaranteed by the Constitution. An "Islamic ecumenical" movement should be encouraged to bridge the gap between the two sects to avert future conflict. Such a rapprochement would go a long way towards maintaining harmony.

Eventually, Indonesia will have to fall back on its national motto "Bhinneka Tunggal Ika" or "unity in diversity" to strengthen tolerance and the spirit of co-existence. The motto should mean the acceptance of not only diverse religions, but also diversity within one religion, that is, Islam.

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