Reading Habit and Library: Lesson #5 from India

Reading Habit and Library: Lesson #5 from IndiaAn Indian professor once was invited to deliver a general lecture in Malang Islamic University (UIN - Universitas Islam Negeri) East Java. From Surabaya airport he went to Malang city by bus. After coming back to India, he told us, Indonesian students in India, his impression thus:

Between Surabaya and Malang, I was so amazed to see so many hypermarkets, great supermalls and big restaurants. I saw a restaurant which is so big that I never see it before in India. What “amazed” me even more was that I did NOT see any public library at all.

He then blasted (with “emphaty”) a question that unable us to answer with pride: “So, what are you people doing other than shopping and eating out?”
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Kosovo a Muslim State in Europe

Kosovo a Muslim State in EuropeFinally, people of Kosovo struggle to gain independent realised, thus becomes the only Muslim-majority nation in Europe. Despite its claim as embrcaing the “laid-back” version of Islam, some of its neighbors feel “unsafe”. Considering many factors, this pre-conceived notion is understandable.

That’s said, I think the existence of independent Kosovo is good to let European people in to more understanding towards Islam and that Muslims, many of them, just like any other who are busy to make a dissent living for themselves and their family. Every single Muslim represent a mozaic of Muslims as a whole, it’s NOT a homogeneous entity as one in other parts of the world might or is led to think.

Blogger Indonesia of the Week (80): Rob Baiton

Rob Baiton as Blogger Indonesia of the Week #80Frankly speaking, I dislike anonymous blogger or ghost blogger as I prefer to call it, particularly those who blog/write on such sensitive issues as politics and religion. Speaking of the latter topic without giving a clear name and identity, to me, does not represent a good intention, and thus credibility. A writer or a blogger who rigorously writes on those issues while hiding one’s true identity and name –such as the one behind indonesiamatters.com deserves our suspicion of having a hidden agenda. Specially when one is critical to certain  religion while generously flattering or defending another most of the time.
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Omar and Osama bin Laden

Omar and Osama bin LadenMedia loves controversy because it drives attention from readers. ‘Bad news is a good news’ says the villain in the James Bond’s “Tomorrow Never Dies”. Bad news does not necessarily only means natural disaster, war, collateral damages, terrorism or anything that could easily be comprehended as closely related to blood and death. It could aslo stand for anything that consists of a sort of paradoxical meaning from the perceived understanding of common people about something or someone.  That’s why the recent brouhaha of Umar (Omar) bin Laden son of Osama bin Laden who offered to bridge peaceful solution between his father and the West got so much attention from the media, and the readers because it offers the extreme paradox from what the world, particularly the West, perceived with the word “bin Ladin”
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