Balinese Hindus supporting Muslim religious ceremony highlights beauty of tolerance on the island (Video)

Balinese Hindus supporting their Muslim neighbors in celebration of the latter’s religious holiday became hotly discussed on social media. Photo: Denpasar Viral / Facebook
Balinese Hindus supporting their Muslim neighbors in celebration of the latter’s religious holiday became hotly discussed on social media. Photo: Denpasar Viral / Facebook

A public display of tolerance in Bali on Sunday has been the subject of online discourse in recent days, after a video showing Balinese Hindus supporting their Muslim neighbors in celebration of the latter’s religious holiday became hotly discussed on social media. 

In one video shared on Twitter, a crowd can be seen gathering just as they are about to begin a procession in observance of Prophet Muhammad’s birthday, visibly consisting of participants wearing Muslim attires and others in traditional Balinese wear. 

“‘Sewage water exchanged with milk.’ After Bali residents were shown intolerance with a Hindu religious ceremony being prohibited in Bantul, they responded by supporting a celebration of Prophet Muhammad’s birthday in Bali,” the user above tweeted. 

The user appears to have flipped an Indonesian saying, which would usually be “milk exchanged with sewage water” if it were to be directly translated, and is generally taken to mean as biting the hand that feeds you. 

He was highlighting a recent incident of religious intolerance, where a Buddhist and Hindu prayer ceremony in Mangir Lor village of Yogyakarta’s Bantul regency was cancelled after it was allegedly shut down by village residents. 

“[It looks like] Muslims who claim to be adherents of a perfect religion must still learn tolerance from their Hindu brothers and sisters,” the user continued. 

The tweet above has been retweeted over 13 thousand times since it was posted yesterday evening, with many other Twitter users jumping in on the conversation in the replies. 

I’ve just come back from Bali. In the domestic airport, there were many Indonesian tourists adorning the hijab [veil]. Bottom line, Bali is already Muslim-friendly. What’s embarrassing is to see many mosques neighboring Hindu temples. But are Hindu temples in Muslim-majority areas given the same ease? Embarrassing. 

Me and my younger sibling observe different religions.. I’m a Muslim, and he’s Hindu. We just laugh when people are being intolerant. We are astonished, is it because they are the majority and so they act that way? Thank you Bali.

This is why many foreigners feel at home in Bali. 

You can’t generalize “Muslims,” this is just a handful of people in my opinion hehe. Many of my friends are Muslim and they have tolerance. Like what I said when taking a religious studies course … Blame the person, don’t bring the religion. No religion teaches us to behave badly.

The discussion on tolerance in the Island of the Gods was also central to a controversy that surfaced recently, after a local media outlet misreported Indonesia’s new Tourism and Creative Economy Minister, Wishnutama Kusubandio, as saying that he plans on making changes that will transform Bali into a more Muslim-friendly destination. 

Many Balinese residents were immediately opposed to the idea, highlighting how the Hindu-majority province has always upheld tolerant values. 

“All this while, tourism in Bali has never looked at [tourists’] religion or origins. Everyone who comes here are treated well, and so far there has been no problem. So don’t go around disturbing the tourism concept here in Bali,” Bali Governor I Wayan Koster previously said in response to the controversy.



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