It seems utterly appropriate, and quite wonderful, that as I'm working on this post, I'm sitting in the main room of my house, listening to something wonderful. The door is open to let in the (slightly) cool evening air, and I can hear the melodic buzzing sound of the call to prayer over the loudspeakers of my neighborhood mosque, while also listening to my next door neighbor, strumming his guitar with a group of friends, all of whom are singing Christian Hallelujah-y songs. There's also a really big lizard skittering across the wall, and that has nothing to do with anything, except that its really big and it has a pretty snazzy orangey-yellow pattern.

Recently, every time I pick up the Jakarta Post, I read an article or an editorial about protests in Islamic countries. When I check my gmail, it seems there is always another message from the US embassy warning me away from large gatherings of people. Friends of mine in other parts of Indonesia have had brief encounters with demonstrations, but here in Samarinda I have felt completely safe.

The news, the protests, all of it has gotten me caught up in a lot of interesting discussions about the movie, “Innocence of Muslims” (though I have yet to talk to anyone who has actually seen it, Google has blocked it in Indonesia), about tensions between Islam and the West, and about freedom and persecution in general.

It has been a fascinating subject to think about academically, and then a slightly scary subject to think about when I remember these protests and demonstrations are really happening. The Indonesian Muslims that I've talked to condemn the violence, but they also don't understand why the United States would allow a film like that to be made in the first place. Why can't our government do something to stop something so hateful from being made? (or don't they want to?). There is a general feeling not of violent rage, but just of sadness.

Editorials in the newspaper here talk about the fact that our American value of individualism and our constitutional freedom of speech don't seem as clear in parts of the world where people don't have as much freedom from government censorship. The editorials also talk about freedom of speech vs. a freedom from being hurt. People feel legitimately hurt by the blasphemy of this video, in fact, Indonesia's President SBY announced plans to address the UN at the upcoming conference asking that the UN adopt an international protocol affirming that intentional insults to religion are not freedom of expression, but are intentional attempts to create violence. This is the idea that these provocations not be recognized as causing violence, but as being violence.

A friend of mine, who has the bahasa skills to delve into all these thorny issues sent out an email, quoting a man he talked to about the movie (italics are my friend's comments):

“I listen to President Obama talk about freedom of expression on television and I think of course freedom of expression is good! Freedom of expression exists and it is a right, but I have rights also! I am HURT! HURT! HURT! My soul is HURT! Is freedom of expression more important than freedom to not get hurt?(When I write hurt, the phrase he was actually using was “melukai hati” or “hati dilukai” – which means to injure one’s heart or a heart is injured.) This is not freedom of expression, it is freedom of aggression, freedom to hurt people. That doesn’t exist! And President Obama says he can’t do anything about it because of freedom of expression. Yes he can! The CIA can kill people, it’s easy, they kill everyone who says things they don’t like. How hard is it for the CIA to walk up and stab the person who made this film. Then I could believe President Obama.”

He also said,

“In Indonesia we are better than other Muslim countries. We have freedom of expression. We can insult our government. But we don’t have freedom to insult religions, and we don’t want it. Freedom doesn’t mean you can kill people or rob from them – and religions are far more important than people. Religion is the most important thing. So if there is no freedom to hurt people, why is there freedom to hurt religion, which is more important?”

What this guy is saying seems pretty important, because while the conversation in American might be about freedom of speech and the intention of what one could say (and the intentional violence in might provoke), in Indonesia, they also see the film inself as violence. And as such, they are fairly wondering why the US government would let someone commit such violence without consequence. Most of them also deplore the violent reaction to the film, and people have assured me that Islam is a peaceful religion and violence is wrong.

Today I also had an interesting conversation with one of the teachers at school. She was in Australia right after the Bali bombing and simply because she walks around with her jilbob (headscarf) on, people assumed she was a Muslim (which she is) and went so far as to flip her off and yell “f – you” at her as she walked down the street. Talking about it today, she says she understands why people were upset, lots of people had just died. But still, to take out that sort of anger on a complete stranger seems so wrong.

She also talked about airport security. Whenever she travels internationally, she has come to expect extra security screenings and delays, just because of what people see when they look at her. This teacher's experiences aren't exactly connected to the film, but they do speak to the tension that exists between Islamic peoples and western cultures.

It all leaves my brain feeling a bit stuck. I believe very strongly in the importance of freedom of speech, those sorts of freedoms are one of my favorite things about my country. But I'm also starting to understand how hurtful statements and media like the “Innocence of Muslims” film are to Muslim people. It makes me wonder what will happen next. In our ever more connected, globalized world, hateful content can be created and spread so easily. What rules or values should apply when messages can fly around the world at the click of a button?