The Jakata Globe reported on 28 Sep 2010 that
"Islamic Hard-Liners Protest Indonesia’s Gay and Lesbian Film Festival".
The group "Islamic Defenders Front" also known as FPI of about 100
protested at the venues. The Q! Film Festival director John Badalu is
expecting the protestors at the venue - Erasmus Huis. The religious
fundamentalist website of FPI declares that it was fighting "adultery,
homosexuality and lesbianism in Indonesia" concealed as a film festival.

It is fortunate that such religious fundamentalist groups are not
allowed in Singapore to raise its ugly head. If they had succeded, a sight of them demonstrating at the Singapore's Esplanade
would have damaged our reputation and reduced our multi cultural space. However, in Indonesia,
religious fundementalism has taken a foothold, and such hardline
sympathies are
common.
Should freedom of speech be defended if it ultimately causes harm and
violence against the innocent purely based on hardline religious
motivations without any conscience nor moral inhibition. The freedom and
peace enjoyed in Singapore is God's blessing. This freedom is fragile as seen in the AWARE incidents where a very large church
(4000 strong) almost succeded to take over a small woman rights group (less than
100 strong).
Religious fundamentalism is often about the majority misusing its power,
and size in order to scapegoat a small minority group for blame. We
often transfer our sins to the innocent lambs to be slaughted and
thereafter enjoy a good meal.
The religious fundamentalist often hide behind masks. When we hide
behind masks of religious fervour to represent a particular religious
group, we loose our basic and common humanity. It also takes away our
individual rights, responsibilities, opinions and theological
reflections. Wearing a mask makes it annonymous, hence takes away the
individual accountability for harmful actions. We become
part of the group with our individuality and dissenting opinions lost.
When our humanity is lost, we loose our capacity for relationship, love, and
connection with those we now maligned on the cover of a mask. We loose
what makes us human. It is said that religions are ultimately about
love, when the opposite is often true that religion often descends into fundamentalism
causing grave harm. We loose our humanity and merged ourselves with religious
extremism. We become hardened, without a heart for people. We
become little gods imposing our hardline religious views on others to
follow.
We often rationalise our harm by creating a delusional religious reasons. In
this case, the FPI accussed the gays and lesbians of promoting adultery
in order to gain popular support. Similarly, Christian groups often have
an anti-gay agenda which comprises of spinning the truth by asserting
that gays were responsible for all kinds of social harms eg divorce,
family breakdown, abuse of children etc. They needed to create an
illusion of harm that there is somehow a gay agenda against Christians to justify their own evil actions against gays. For
Christianity however, making a false witness resulting in harm is a
grave sin which we will have to answer to God here on earth and in
heaven. We have sinned not only against an individual but a whole tribe.
Hiding behind our religious masks does not make us less guilty. God sees
passed the masks and holds us individually accountable for the harm
done.
When Jesus came down from heaven, He took away the mask from God, for
hitherto no one has seen God, The religious fundamentalist could not see
God, because they expected God to be like them, full of judgement, Yet
God revealed Himself to be a God of mercy, a God of grace beyond our
wildess imagination. Jesus died for us to pay for our sins, showing the
ultimate demonstration of love. He rose again, signifying the acceptance
by God of the sacrifice, so that we too can be a child of God, our face
to longer hidden from God by the masks of our sins.
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