Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Ignorant, gutless Bigots

Anonymous kindly left another comment, this time on the post "Lessons from Dili", as follows:
Amazing. You aren't very smart. Not a peep mention that the biggest problem in East Timor is called Islam. that's because you kow-tow to the media, and refuse to identify the biggest problem there, because the media doesn't want to piss off the Islamists.

I posted it as an example of the sort of ill-informed, ignorant, bigoted morons doing the rounds at present. I hope anonymous comes back and learns something about his world.

I guess the coward assumed, if he has the thinking capacity – Eat Timor is near Indonesia. Indonesia is Muslim, so East Timor is Muslim. Sorry champ, no cigar!

The majority of the population is Roman Catholic. According to the 2002 statistics, 749,000 of the country’s total population of 792,000 are Roman Catholics.

Current statistics are not yet available about the other religious minorities represented in East Timor, mainly Protestants, Muslims and Hindu-Buddhists. A smattering of Muslims and Buddhists are also present in Dili.

Now our religio/geography master probably didn’t know, or care that the Prime Minister of East Timor is a Moslem.

Not a peep mention that the biggest problem in East Timor is called Islam… Well an informed media would hardly report a situation which only existed in the mind of a gutless bigot.

But there is hope for everyone to better their knowledge and understanding. Here are a couple of links which might explain the interplay of religion and politics in East Timorese society.

East Timor (09/05)

East Timor - People and Culture

I think, after this episode, I might just quietly delete any idiotic anonymous posts. I guess most people have seen enough by now.

UPDATE: Our friend the IGB has been back to visit the previous post, Lessons from Dili, with some more corrections to my story:

the East Timor massacre of thousands of Christians occurred at the hands of Muslims. Are you denying this fact?
Blaming me as being a bigot is showing your readers that you are nothing but a liberal smokescreen and it also proves that you can't take criticism without tossing up the smokescreen act and admitting that you know less about East Timor than you make out to know.
I'm reposting here in case any more IGB come past. Fact:
The actual slaying was of East Timorese by the predominantly Muslin Indonesian and West Timorese.

It also jogged my recall:

Be mindful on this Memorial Day that the East Timorese people fought bravely beside the allies during the Second World War.

True, like me, they were Australians the ET’s fought with. But also remember how closely our countries were linked in that struggle. Australian and American veterans still come together annually in remembrance of those battles. As they do for Veitnam, and will do for many of the current actions.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't blame you. Nothing says I don't know what the hell I'm talking about like comments filled with insults and abuse.

Cartledge said...

kvatch, would that not risk displacing Vatican City from the guiness Book of Records, as the smallest city?
Apart from that, you did manage to learn something today, good going.

Praguetwin said...

Please forgive me. I'm a little confused here. The IGB says that that Christians were killed by Muslims. Then you say the E. Timorese were killed by..... Muslin Indonesian and East Timorese.

Am I missing something here?

Cartledge said...

Nothing to be confused about. East Timor was a colony of Portugal and the population predominantly Roman Catholic.
When ET declared independence from Portugal in '74 Indonesia invaded and made them a colony of Indonesia.
Indonesia is predominantly Muslim, but it would be a long stretch to call the events a religious confrontation.
When the UN sponsored an independence vote in ’99 pro-Indonesian or anti-independence forces set about destroying the country and the people.
Finally Australia led an International force in to stabilize the place and oversee independence.
It was the pro-Indonesians, who were more than likely also Muslims who did the damage.
But again, I see this as a power thing as opposed to a religious war.
West Timor is still Indonesian territory by the way, with part of ET territory actually isolated in there.

Cartledge said...

Or put more simply PT the E. Timorese were killed by..... Muslin Indonesian and West Timorese.

Praguetwin said...

Thanks Cartledge.

As one of my friends says about me, "for a smart kid, he aint to bright."