Throughout the years, Indonesia has been an inclusive melting pot of different cultures, religions, and ideologies. Indonesia currently holds the rank of the largest Muslim population in the world. What is so interesting to me, is that Islam came to Indonesia not by war, but by trade. The people of Indonesia are people of inclusivity and open-mindedness. Or at least they were.
Starting during the mid-2000s (with the help of the internet) fundamental Islamic conservationism is on the rise. This culminates in the 212 Movement, a large-scale demonstration against Ahok, Jakarta’s first non-muslim governor ever since the country’s independence, who had been accused as a suspect in a blasphemy case.
There’s also this whole thing with the 2014 elections, the 2019 elections, and the 2019 Revision of Criminal Code Bill, but I’m not gonna get into that for now
Since then, Islamic conservationism have become more and more mainstream. Public television is now heavily censored. The image below is a screenshot of the live coverage of the Miss Universe pageant show. It’s going semi-viral on Twitter.
This is one of my biggest fears: Censorship
We’re seeing it happen in many other countries including China and Saudi Arabia. I am very fearful that Indonesia is next.
So, I thought, what’s the best way to face your biggest fear? Make an AR app that turns it into a reality of course!
Recently I made Halal Vision, an augmented reality mobile app that tries to emulate what it would be like to live in a world ridden with religious censorship.
Below is a demo of the app:
With this app, I try to emulate a world where things that are not in accordance with Islamic law are censored, such as pork, alcohol, homosexuality, and revealing clothing.
