Green peace ain't gona be happy about this.

**Piggybank Cop** · 10-03-06, 11:04 AM

Muslims chop up 100-year-old tree rumored to have mystical powers

A 100 year old banyan tree, which was cut back by an Islamic youth group Sunday, still stands strong on Tuesday, Oct, 3, 2006. Muslim hard-liners chopped up a 100-year-old banyan tree in Jakarta to halt a rumor about its special powers from spreading among superstitious locals, prompting city authorities to report the attackers to police, officials said Tuesday.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

JAKARTA, Indonesia, Oct. 3 — A hard-line Muslim youth group chopped up a 100-year-old banyan tree in central Jakarta to prove it did not have mystical powers, as rumors had led some locals to believe, officials said Tuesday.

Islam is a strongly monotheistic religion and believing in any power other than God is considered a grave sin. Hard-liners in Indonesia often criticize other Muslims in the country for still practicing Hindu, Buddhist and animist rituals that predate Islam's arrival in the archipelago.
The sprawling tree's branches were hacked away Sunday, leaving just its trunk, said Sarwo Handayani, head of the city's park agency. The trunk was still standing but was badly disfigured.
Earlier, rumors had spread that cutting down the tree would bring bad luck because it was spared during a tree-felling drive to make way for a new bus lane in central Jakarta, she said. The rumors gained strength after people left offerings at the tree's base, she said.
Handayani dismissed the rumors as nonsense, saying officials did not remove the tree because the bus lane could be routed around it.
''This was an outrageous act,'' she said of the damage to the tree, adding that the city had reported it to police on Monday as an act of vandalism.
The head of the Muslim youth group acknowledged attacking the banyan, saying it did so to prove that there was nothing mystical about it.
''Surely, no one can believe that a tree is more powerful than a human,'' Zainal Arifin was quoted as saying by the Detik.Com news Web site. ''We did this to propagate Islam.''

**gozling** · 10-03-06, 11:36 AM

are kids going to start eating sacred cows next?
sorry.. bad joke...

seems kids are going nuts all over...

**conalabu** · 10-03-06, 04:10 PM

NO wonder Power Rangers and Barney never took over there.

**cwtlady** · 10-03-06, 07:47 PM

Originally Posted by 1sgkelly

The head of the Muslim youth group acknowledged attacking the banyan, saying it did so to prove that there was nothing mystical about it.
''Surely, no one can believe that a tree is more powerful than a human,'' Zainal Arifin was quoted as saying by the Detik.Com news Web site. ''We did this to propagate Islam.''

Isn't that a bit much. Just wait a few years, and when the tree doesn't do anything then that would prove it doesn't have mystical powers.

A little too extreme for me.

**JLK** · 10-03-06, 08:36 PM

they can't help it, they are stuck on stupid.

**TXCharlie** · 10-03-06, 08:42 PM

Originally Posted by gozling

are kids going to start eating sacred cows next?
sorry.. bad joke...

seems kids are going nuts all over...

Sacred cows make the best hamburgers, so I guess sacred trees would make some great garden mulch

**Ducky** · 10-03-06, 09:36 PM

The tree wasn't weaker than a human, it was weaker than the axes. I vote we take the guys and smack them into the tree a few times and see what's the worse for wear.