So Lady Gaga's Indonesia concert was banned at the behest of Muslim religious groups.

But that's not the full story as Benedict Rogers explains in the New York Times.

>>...I flew 1,370 kilometers from Jakarta to Padang, West Sumatra, and drove a further 130 kilometers, a four-hour journey along rough, winding roads, to Sijunjung, to visit an Indonesian atheist jailed for his beliefs.

Alex Aan, a 30-year-old civil servant, is a gentle, soft-spoken, highly intelligent young man who simply gave up his belief in God….

He faces the possibility of up to six years in prison, charged with blasphemy, disseminating hatred and spreading atheism. Radical Muslims came to his office, beat him up, and called the police after reading about his views on Facebook.>>

(Indonesia's Rising Religious Intolerance,
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/22/opinion/indonesias-rising-religious-intolerance.html?_r=1)

Rogers goes on to describe mob attacks on Christians and Ahmadis.

>>One man described how he was stripped naked and beaten severely and a machete was held at his throat. He was dragged through the village and dumped in a truck like a corpse. Another man fled into a fast-flowing river, pursued by attackers throwing rocks and shouting “kill, kill, kill.”>>

Rogers describes the majority of Indonesian Muslims as "moderate" but warns of the dangers of "increasing radicalisation."

Increasingly Indonesia, a country with ten times Australia's population, is competing with this country for influence in the region:

>>Within days of expelling the Australian Federal Police, Vanuatu's Prime Minister Sato Kilman welcomed a delegation from Indonesia and offers to provide police and paramilitary training. Within 24 hours of that meeting, a Hercules aircraft loaded with equipment had arrived from Jakarta.>>

(Pacific diplomacy needs recalibrating, The Australian, 21 May 2012)

So what does this mean for Australia?

Indonesia has a rapidly growing economy. In future it, not Australia, is likely to call the shots in this region. Will it be a relatively peaceful democracy? Or will we face a powerful radicalised Muslim theocracy?

the religion of 'peace' and the religion of atheism have much in common.

I can blame no one for banning it, she is about as welcome as a head pain in my home.
Runner has me stumped! is he blaming another country for its religious belief?
Take the lass to your Church bloke, runner by name and action I think after watching her.

Hi Belly,

It's not about Lady Gaga

It's about mob persecution of everybody who is not the right kind of Muslim. That includes Ahmadiya, Christians and atheists.

Is our giant neighbour turning into a Jihadi state?

you cant 'give up belief in god'
you give up..judging the faulse god you made up

people who dont get god give up trying
tyhey never 'got'..god..in the first place

thats why jesus didnt come to found a church
church/temples/ashrams.sinnergogs..etc is the faulse god
god made real in the minds of the decieved..but a faulse god from go to woe*..

givingh up a wrong idea of god
dont mean he gave up the true good [god]
grace mercy etc..love light logic life

So what does this mean for Australia?
stevenlmeyer,
probably nothing now & in a few years it'll be too late. People just refuse to wake up.