By Gary Howard
Just wanted to post this piece from a while back. Indonesian students are rightly upset about U.S. foreign policy, which has not altered one bit since Obama took office.
From AP:
Scores of Islamic students staged protests outside Jakarta’s parliament and in at least three other major Indonesian cities on Friday against President Barack Obama’s upcoming visit to this predominantly Muslim country.
The students carried banners branding Obama as an enemy of Islam and an imperialist in downtown Jakarta as well as in the provincial capitals Padang, Yogyakarta and Surabaya. Read more…
These folks apparently didn’t get that “change” memo.
They also threw shoes at large pictures of Obama’s head. An Iraqi journalist was sentenced to a year in prison for throwing his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush during a news conference in Baghdad in 2008.
Protest organizer Ahmad Irhamul Fikri, spokesman for the Coordinating Board for Campus Proselytizing Institute, said bigger rallies will be staged next Friday in more Indonesian cities ahead of Obama’s March 20-22 visit. Read more…
Maybe more of those Americans who screamed and protested so loudly against the wars during the Bush years should take a cue from these kids in Indonesia–and call the administration to task for its continuation of those policies.