Video Games

More than three million people in Indonesia, including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and top government officials, have flocked to cinemas since the middle of January to watch Ayat Ayat Cinta (Verses of Love), an Islamic romance by filmmaker Hanung Bramantyo.  The movie apparently deals with a host of sensitive issues such as Islam's treatment of women and multiple marriages as it recounts the story of Fahri Abdullah Shiddiq, an Indonesian graduate student at Egypt's Al-Azhar University, and his struggle to deal with life's problems through Islamic teachings.

The spokesman for the Indonesian president called the film an "antithesis" to the video Fitna which accuses the Quran of inciting violence.  Fitna, made by Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders and released on the Internet last week, was banned this week by the Indonesian government.  Indonesia has also threatened to block access to YouTube if the popular website does not remove all uploads of the Dutch video.

I wonder what the spokesman for the Indonesian president would say about the recent programme broadcast on Hamas's al-Aqsa television in which a Palestinian boy stabs President George W Bush to death in a new puppet show for children aired by Hamas-owned television in the Gaza Strip.  "I must take my revenge with the sword of Islam," the puppet child cries as he stabs the American president repeatedly.

Is it any wonder that the world is confused as to what Islam really stands for?