Indonesia - Page 6

A Turkish ambassador this week called for his country and Indonesia to be deemed permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

Government and independent officials in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Islamic country, have dismissed assertions by the United States and human rights group that China is abusing millions of predominantly Uighur Muslims in internment camps as “American propaganda,” a report by an Indonesian think-tank revealed this week.

Some caliphate-seeking “Islamists” in the world’s most populous Muslim country, Indonesia, are the “first” to step up to the plate and provide assistance during natural disasters on the largest island nation in the world, the Associated Press (AP) celebrated this week.

An anonymous “person knowledgeable about the matter” told the Wall Street Journal in a report published Monday that Kim Jong-nam, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un’s late older brother, was a CIA informant before his 2017 assassination.

North Korea’s Ambassador to the United Nations Kim Song held a press conference at U.N. headquarters on Tuesday in which he demanded the return of the Wise Honest, a cargo vessel seized by the United States for shipping coal in violation of U.S. and U.N. sanctions.

Indonesian police struggled to contain thousands-strong riots late Tuesday against the re-election of moderate President Joko Widodo over hard-line military general Prabowo Subianto. The unreast has killed six and injured hundreds since Islamic groups called for “constitutional jihad” against Widodo this weekend.

Incumbent Indonesian president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo was officially declared on Tuesday the winner of the election held April 17. His opponent Prabowo Subianto refused to accept the results, alleging “structural, systemic, and massive” voter fraud was responsible for Widodo’s victory.

Doan Thi Huong, the second of two women accused of murdering North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un’s half-brother, Kim Jong-nam, in 2017, was released from prison in Malaysia on Friday. Her co-defendant, Siti Aisyah, was abruptly released in March, with all charges dropped.

Indonesia’s presidential election on Wednesday – the largest single-day election in history, with almost 193 million eligible voters casting ballots for 245,000 candidates spread across 17,000 islands – appears to have returned incumbent President Joko Widodo to office. The race was strongly influenced by Indonesia’s slide into hardline Islamism.

The Jakarta Post on Monday reported on a rash of desecrations directed at Christian graves in the city of Yogyakarta, a spree some local residents believe was a targeted act of intolerance rather than random vandalism. A rising tide of hardline Islamism has become a major factor in the impending Indonesian presidential election.

Google has removed an app from the Google Play store which encouraged gay people to go through “conversion therapy,” following complaints from LGBT groups. Google still hasn’t removed an app which allows users to report “heresy” to Indonesia’s strict Muslim government, however, nor has the company removed a Saudi Arabian app which allows men to track women and limit their movement.

An off-duty pilot in the cockpit of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 that crashed in Indonesia the next day, killing 189 people, reportedly saved the plane the day before by telling the crew “how to disable a malfunctioning flight-control system.” 

A group of unmarried couples were publicly whipped in Indonesia’s religiously conservative Aceh province after they were caught behaving amorously — a crime under the region’s strict application of Islamic law.

The crisis facing aviation giant Boeing intensified this week as 737 Max 8 aircraft were grounded around the world following the deadly Ethiopian Airlines crash on Sunday. President Donald Trump issued an emergency order following suit on Wednesday afternoon as they were banned by almost every other country in the world.

The case against Siti Aisyah, one of the two women charged with murdering North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un’s half-brother with a chemical weapon in February 2017, was suddenly released and sent home to Indonesia on Monday. Aisyah has been jailed in Malaysia for the past two years as the prosecution moved forward.

Six couples were publicly whipped in Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province Monday for relations outside marriage, with at least two women unable to walk after the painful punishment.

Songs by pop megastars including Ed Sheeran, Ariana Grande, and Bruno Mars are now banned in parts of Indonesia after authorities deemed their content “pornographic” and unsuitable for public consumption. 

An Instagram account that published comic strips depicting the struggles of gay Muslims in Indonesia has disappeared following a frenzy of outrage online in the world’s biggest Muslim nation.

Instagram deleted an account on Wednesday publishing comic strips about the struggles of a gay Muslim boy in Indonesia after it sparked outrage among the country’s Islamic population.

Between 300 and 550 Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) jihadis remain active in the Philippines, a testament to the lingering threat posed by the jihadi group despite efforts by U.S.-backed local forces.

The Chinese government invited representatives from 12 neighboring, mostly Muslim-majority countries this week to tour some of the internment camps built in western Xinjiang province to indoctrinate, torture, and exploit the labor of Chinese Muslims.

A Pakistan university will celebrate “Sisters’ Day” on February 14 instead of Valentine’s Day in an effort to promote “Islamic traditions,” rejecting what is widely seen as a Western import in the Muslim-majority country.

Indonesian officials raised the danger level for the Anak Krakatau volcano on Thursday to the second-highest level, increasing the size of the no-go zone around the volcano from two to five kilometers.

A tsunami triggered by a volcanic eruption caught Indonesia by surprise on Saturday night, killing over 370 people and injuring almost 1,500 more.

The government of Indonesia inaugurated a military base in the Natuna Islands on Tuesday, in the South China Sea and near disputed territory that China has increasingly colonized using the manufacture of artificial islands and illegal coast guard patrols.

Australia’s conservative prime minister on Sunday stood by his decision to recognise west Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, despite criticism from neighbouring Muslim countries.

Heavy flooding triggered by torrential rain washed out several bridges in the Indonesian province of West Sumatra.

An app currently available on the Google Play Store allows users to report incidents of religious “heresy” to the Muslim-majority Indonesian government.

Trade tensions between China and the United States are a hot topic of conversation at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit, which kicked off on Tuesday in Singapore.

Many children in Indonesia are missing out on crucial vaccines because of a “vaccine fatwa” imposed by power Islamic clerics, Science Magazine reported on Thursday. 

A huge protest march in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Friday brought thousands of Muslims to the streets waving black flags emblazoned with the shahada, the Muslim declaration of faith (“There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger”).

Australia has been warned that any attempt to move its Israel embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would risk a backlash in Indonesia including “mass rallies” and boycotts of Australian products.

The pilot of Lion Air flight JT610, a Boeing-737 MAX believed to have crashed with no survivors after flying out of Indonesia, requested an emergency landing minutes after takeoff, officials confirmed Monday.

Up to 1,000 Muslims in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, took to the streets Friday to “demand justice” for the burning of a flag bearing the Tauhid, an Islamic concept affirming that there is only one God.

Indonesian presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, a former general and chairman of the opposition Gerindra Party whose brother is a wealthy businessman, plans to make an issue of China’s Belt and Road infrastructure program when he challenges incumbent Joko Widodo next year. Subianto believes some of the Chinese projects are unnecessary.

Australia’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital would strike a “really big blow” that “will affect bilateral relations” with neighbouring Indonesia, according to a message exchange between Foreign Minister Marise Payne and her Indonesian counterpart.