Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama has often come under scrutiny by certain hard line groups for being a non-Muslim leader. But Ahok showed his religious compassion and understanding yesterday by attending a ‘Maulid Nabi’ event commemorating the Muslim Prophet Muhammad’s day of birth.
Ahok even high words of praise for the Muslim prophet giving a speech saying how much he admired Muhammad’s patience and resolve, particularly in a story of how the prophet reacted when a Jewish man threw human feces at him.
“If I were the prophet’s friend, I’d have decapitated the Jewish man. But the prophet did not retaliate. When the Jewish man fell ill the next day, the prophet even visited him at his home,” Ahok said at the event in the Smesco building, as quoted by Warta Kota yesterday.
Such patience is something Ahok admitted he’s working on himself.
“Such a truthful character can be achieved when the brain, the heart, and the mouth [are synchronized]. But I often make mistakes, I sometimes don’t think about what I say, and I often get angry,” Ahok said.
Meanwhile Ahok, who is Christian, said there was nothing extraordinary about him attending an Islamic event. He said he’d always try to make time to attend any religious event.
Unless, that is, he was invited by the hard line Islamic group the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), with whom he’s had a long standing problem regarding religious tolerance.
“Their organization isn’t credible,” Ahok said, as quoted by Merdeka yesterday.
It remains to be seen if Ahok’s latest jab at the FPI will spark another war of words between the two.
