(Surakarta) The local city administration in Central Java, decided to spend a bit of money in which to update the city and as is the way of the bureaucrat they started off with cleaning up the area outside city hall. They pulled in an Islamic architect to design the new look for the city and guess what, the local shariah board aren’t happy. It appears that the mosaic laid down in front of city hall has offended them due to it resembling a cross. Yup so after holding a number of protests, the last yesterday the city council has seen the error of its ways and decided that the offending mosaic laid down only last month will be covered up with paint
In response the mayor Hadi Rudyatmo, who is a Catholic, said his administration never planned to have a cross-shaped road mosaic in front of his office.
“If I [had planned] a cross on a road, I would have blasphemed my own religion. A cross is very much respected by Christians. No cross is placed down below. All are placed up above.”He also stated that the mosaic was actually inspired by keraton (royalty) symbols of the Surakarta Sultanate and that its designer was also a Muslim. The public works agency's secretary, Mr Taufan Basuki, said the mosaic design had been integrated with the Pemandengan Statue, Gladag traffic circle and the Kasunanan Surakarta Palace hall, all located in the area.
"The design has to be seen as one, starting from the
Pemandengan Statue until the Gladag traffic circle. Not separately,He also
explained that the mosaic was designed based on the eight directions of a
compass with the Pemandengan Statue as the centre point. The eight directions
are shown with the yellow lines of the mosaic.
The ethical latte brigade keep on screaming that the west is intolerant and racist towards others and using that drum beat demand that mosques and other vestiges of the Islamic faith be allowed to be built as if they were in their home countries , despite not fitting in with local building rules , yet as we have seen time and time again, that courtesy isn't mirrored in the countries these people come from, or for that matter in areas in the west where there are large Islamic populations. tolerance is a two way street , yet to the faithful , it can only be a oneway street when it concerns them.
