Another Note about Egypt and Middle East Power Struggle

For those that following my tweets must known that I had a good conversation with a close friend of mine about Egypt. It was an interesting short discussion. It is an eye opener about an increasing trend of a thinking by some general Moslem in my country now think.

Egypt is a case in how Social Media can turns a country upside down. I went into details a lot. Apparently, I was kind of hesitant to write it because I didn't want to be harassed. I didn't (and still don't want to) hurt anyone with my writings. It ain't worth it!

If you want to read deep understanding about what's happening in the Middle East, a writing by Don Warrington is there for you to read.

ANOTHER UPDATE about current state of relationships which Egypt conflict based on.

Yeah,  basically it is a power struggle between factions. Most of them are religious factions. But, don't forget about the military. They're playing actively also. Also, don't forget about other countries.

How could this happens? Basically, that's because humans want supremacy. They come in a pack and try to rule other packs. This to attain their most need: existence.

An existence is every human struggle to fulfil. Some may attained that with enlightenment, with self-acceptance and self-fulfilment. By getting accepted with oneself. But, for most people, they struggle with competition in a rat-race all of their lives - either by their own conviction or getting dragged by.

Some of these poor people have the ability to manipulate. They use this ability to turn masses doing in their favour. With a little flame-baiting, the masses could be set to do nasty stuff.

Information Getting Carried Away

How to push these to do crazy nasty stuffs that you might not think it could be done by people who worship All Loving God?

Have you ever been felt being cheated? I do. Been living in a Junta for 30+ years have taught me about information manipulation.

The basic step of information manipulation is to acquire this:

Make sure that the masses won't question anything.

This could be achieved by information blocking and repression. In case of religious belief, we can achieve this easily. No one would ask about God and His authority. Thus, when you stamp your teaching with it, you could discern any doubt and cast it away easily.

In my country example, here's the best example.

Everyone knows of Soekarno, the first president and the proclamator of our independence. But, not ever in my own life have ever heard people asking: "where did he died?" "why did he died?"

Even more, I didn't even doubt anything about the Junta proposition. I just accepted easily that this was the real government. Never have I saw nor asked myself of the real letter that said the late president had ever given his position. I even never knew that he was exiled.

Just like that and climate change -- was formerly known as global warming -- religious sect would dismiss any idea conflicting with its purpose by blurring the information about the idea.

Those are a little bit touchy examples. I will give a little bit neutral example of information distortion. Let's talk about Secularism. 

Conflicting Modern View with Status Quo

As a man brought in a religious country I can remember how my teachers explaining about secularism.

"Secularism is a way of thinking of separating the state with religion. It was introduced in Europe as the product of Renaissance."

This definition did its best of explaining what secularism is. BUT, this is the pattern of many of my teachers (especially coming from PMP/PPKn teachers)

"Indonesia is a religious country. As a state of Islam, we don't forget God in anything we do..."

Yeah, you heard this right. The real statement should have been said "As a state with majority is Islam" and it was being shortened with "a state of Islam". This total confusion really made them believe that Indonesia is an Islamic country. It wasn't and I hope it won't because we already have Pancasila.

Anyway, I won't put the subject more on that. The idea of that is: why would they dismiss the idea of Secularism? My best bet is because they themselves have no idea about what "secularism" is meant to be.

How can they be like that?

Indonesia like many countries with strong religious attributes usually runs by many religious organizations -- btw, religious organization means organization with religious setup, not necessary a religious one.

Anyway...

Many of these religious organizations related to government as their source of power and income. Using their masses as assets, many of these organizations are in bed with politicians. Their influence are what the politician needs and the politician authority is what they need. Thus, they begin the symbiotic relationship. 

This is a really strong relationship. A religious organization can silence people and politician can drives a country. With that in common, no wonder they tend to do things badly, just like what happened in dark age Europe.

Disturbing Status Quo

It was clear to me in my youth before I was into Christianity that religion has always a way to legitimate a ruling. A king/queen is always bestowed with some crazy dude with power. With this legitimacy, people could be swayed to obey.

Monty Python described it clearly in "Holy Grail". Modern states require majority votes. But, the traditional view of the Holy Being approval still stands. By taking advantage of people need to have approval of their great god, many religious leaders climb their ways with their scheme.

If it was only a person from an organization, a questionable cause will be heavily questioned. But, nobody would be expected to ask if there was a cause that was sealed with "in the name of our god". Who would in their right mind to ask god's authority?

Take for instance the case of the fight between two supreme leaders of HKBP. One was backed from the government and one was

That's why secularism is dangerous to these people. Many religious leaders, not just Islam but also Catholics and some Protestants also despise that idea. The religious organization has in bed with the political states since ancient time. Nobody likes the idea of losing power.

Take for instance the fight in HKBP for Ephorus seat. The fight involved the government, punks and even some highly regarded people. Even the generals of the army involved!

Why?

Because there is this thing about us, the Bataknese. Even if we might be a bloodlusted warriors, there are principles that imprinted in Bataknese DNA: Fear your parents and fear your Lord. There are cases even the mightiest punk will never dare oppose his father and mother.

Religion is The Most Effective Obedient Tool

My friend in theology once told me this story. In the time of student fights (tawuran in the 90's) often the students hijack a bus. My friend has the privilege once to be on that bus.

The students was taking money from the passengers. As a theology student, my friend was devastated because theology student is a poor. When the student came to my friend seat, the student took my friend's backpack.

When the student tried to loot the backpack, he saw a Bible. Suddenly, he wrapped the backpack again. The student returned the backpack and apologized.

My friend thought this: "WTF? If you fear The Lord, you shouldn't do this from the start!" [Emphasize word was mine, my friend language would never like this]

Another case of obedience is Metal. We all know that Metal is a music of rebellion. It is a music that so into the rebellious teenagers and marginalized people. That's why metal so into anti-Christ, Satan and anarchy.

Here's the thing in Indonesia: Metal Satu Jari. (One Finger Metal)

This kind of metal is the metal who followed Prophet Muhammad. It was called as a Dakwah Underground (Underground Preaching) strategy. It was coined with a famous movement name: One Finger Underground Movement. [I don't have the link on English, all on Bahasa. Well, they are underground not just for name. You could use Google Translate. :)]

It is like Contemporary Christian music, but in metal community. We can see that even the metalheads of Indonesia think highly of their God. They might be like anarchy, but that's it. They aren't that well when concerning religion that their parents implanted into their early days of life.

Back At Teheran

Now, as we can see that conflicting human ideas and power struggle will always take the religious aspect as their arsenal. This especially true in the regions where the people are considered God-fearing people.

In the Middle East, there are two factions of Islam: The Sunni and The Shi'ah. The Arabs are the Sunni and The Iranian is the Shi'ah. Today's Islam is held by the Sunni and the Shi'ah long been oppressed. These two are like Catholic and Protestant church at early days. But, each look at each other throat.

And even if I said about old Islam struggle, there is also Imams.

Imam is like high priest of Islam. Each Imam would like a general in military or a pope in Catholic. The Imam has the highest authority among their followers. He is considered a blessed scholar whom inherit the will of the Great Prophet.

Each Imam would have their decree about things. This decree known as Fatwa is what shaped the current Islam factions. If the Imam is an extremist, he would made extreme fatwas about Jihad, a religious rally against blasphemer. But, if the Imam is a modernist, the teaching would about loving.

These Imams compete each other. Even if they weren't, their prominent followers would. Some of Imam would have a high regard and influence other Imam to join his cause.

In the Egypt, modern Imam and extremist Imam are taking each other throat. And they will be backed or being a shadow puppeteer of any actions in Egypt. They will struggle to be the supreme in Egypt because Egypt has the long history of Islam.

Its university is number one in the world when it comes to Islamic teaching. Its border is what determined Israel. And it's a country of many past Islam leaders.

So, yeah, just like Israel and Palestine over Jerusalem, this is also a conflict of taking the most resourceful country. Like a battle for a hill.

My Stand

I stand for humanity. These idiotic behaviour is the thing that ache me and worry me. Instead of making right for humanity, people struggle for themselves. That's the sign that his belief system is broken.

Be it Christian, Muslim, or any other religion, the idea is about improving humanity. That's why I said that I respect Uje and his cause. But, these power struggles are the anti-thesis of religion.

I know that this is a market for opportunists. Them like chaos. Them are weapon dealers, global corporate funders and many more.

Are they psychopath?

I would [manly] cry to tears to watch little children sleep in the street at night. I can't imagine living a life in other people's blood. How can they sleep at night?

Btw, my own Jihad is to make my country prosper. I've made this resolution that even when I saw homeless person in the street, I can said to my self: "I've done what I could to prevent this."

I'm just a few. Not much people talk about building prosperity. So, if my cause is failing apart, at least I've tried to.