Ted Meinhover

Indonesia is a truly amazing country. It is so convenient that there is this political construction, this imagined community of “Indonesia,” making it possible for me to clump so many different people, languages, religions, completely different climates and political systems under one title. How productive it is to organize masses of humanity in this way, I’m not sure.

Full of so many complexities,  it is none the less often ignored by the world at large, which fails to see the importance of the massive country. One reason why Indonesia does pop up on the global media’s radar, however, is because of the huge population of Muslims that defines its demographics. It is unfortunate that global relationships today result in tension between “the West” and “Islam,” and this becomes the reason for the New York Times to run this story in Sunday’s edition.

It’s well done, and worth a look. Indonesia, in my opinion, should be paid attention to for many reasons. This is certainly one of them.