West Papuan People Do Not Need Islamophobic Leaders

Indonesia is a multicultural state. According to the official statistics, there are 1,340 tribes in Indonesia. Although Indonesia has the most Muslim population in the world, Indonesia is not an Islamic state. For comparison, Indonesia is more like Turkey or Syria than Saudi Arabia or Iran. The Indonesian women are not forced to wear headscarf by the state. Some eastern provinces in Indonesia are Christian-dominated provinces, they are East Nusa Tenggara, North Sulawesi, West Papua, and Papua.

Papua as the most eastern island in Indonesia is a Protestant Christian-dominated island. Both Protestants and Catholics make up 60.80% of total population in West Papua Province and 83.15% in Papua Province. Despite Protestanism is the majority religion in West Papua, there are also West Papuan Muslims. Although there are different religions in West Papua, they live in harmony. Even the harmony is not only between the native Papuans but also between the other islanders (Javanese, Buginese, Ambonese, Balinese, etc) and the native Papuans.

A West Papuan calling for prayer in a mosque

New santris (Islam religion disciples) from Nuu Waar (another name for Papua)

Look on the picture below. Benny Wenda ever said on his untrustable Free West Papua Campaign page that Indonesian government took these West Papuan children and converted them to Islam because of Indonesia's Islamization policy. There is no Islamization policy in Indonesia. Every citizen has rights to spread his or her religion. Although the door is like a jail door, it does not mean they are jailed. How if it was just a door? We admit that there were many pesantrens (Islamic boarding schools) in Indonesia in bad conditions and sometimes have poor facility.

Benny Wenda said on his Free West Papua Campaign page that these children were taken from their families to be converted to Islam

Most of the pesantrens are run by Islamic organizations or individuals. The government of Indonesia rarely even almost never runs any pesantrens. Next questions, who runs this pesantren on the picture above? How if it belonged to Fadzlan Garamatan whom Benny Wenda said from "radical Islamic organization" named AFKN (Al-Fatih Kaaffah Nusantara)? Who is Fadzlan Garamatan? Fadzlan Garamatan is a West Papuan Muslim. He is an ustad (Islam religion teacher). He goes to parts of West Papua spreading Islamic teaching. As Indonesian citizen, he has rights for it. He is not a radical guy like Benny Wenda said.

Fadzlan Garamatan

Fadzlan Garamatan and his santris

Does Indonesia have Islamization policy like Benny Wenda ever said? Let us see Jakarta as the capital of Indonesia. We can consider that capital is the mirror of a country. Jakarta as the capital of Indonesia, there are Muslim mosques, Protestant churches, Catholic churches, Buddhist temples, Hindu temples, and Sikh gurdwaras. So Islamization program which Benny Wenda ever talked about is just a bullshit to get sympathy from Christian majority countries, especially from the radical Christians.

Jin De Yuan Temple of Jakarta

Cathedral Church of Jakarta

Sikh gurdwara in Jakarta

Hindu religious procession in Jakarta

During MSG Forum in Honiara few weeks ago, Octovianus Mote as secretary general of ULMWP gave untrustable and full of religious hatred speech. "In the next five years, Papuans will be less than 29% of the population in our own land. Our Melanesian identity, our Christian identity, is under threat of a large wave of migrants from Indonesia and the Muslim-dominated Asia," he said. Has he also counted the West Papuans who live in the other islands? There are large population of West Papuans living in Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Manado, and Ambon. Even there is also small population of West Papuans living in Madura which well-known as a Muslim-dominated island.

His speech sounds full of religious hatred because he said "Christian identity". MSG is not a Christian organization. It is an economic organization for Melanesian countries. What does he mean with these words? Is he going to make West Papua a Christian state? Is he going to wipe out the Muslims like what happen in Central African Republic? Did Jesus Christ teach us to hate the other religion followers? West Papuan people do not want West Papua become a "second Central African Republic". West Papuan people do not need Islamophobic leaders like Benny Wenda and Octovianus Mote.

We do not want this also happen in West Papua

We want two biggest religions in the world live in harmony