“Let’s not give up on our brothers and sisters”

Last week I went to an Indonesian cinema to watch the movie called Neerja, which tells the heroic and true story of Neerja Bhanot, a 22 year old Indian flight attendant. During a flight from India to the US, her plane makes a stopover in Pakistan where a group Palestinians of the Islamic Abu Nidal organization hijacks the airplane. Neerja courageously saves the lives of almost every passenger, but she herself doesn’t survive the hijacking.

The movie provides a detailed description of how the terrorists prepare themselves mentally for the hijack. Before they attack the airplane they gather one more time and pray together to Allah. Thereafter, phrases like Insha Allah and Allahu Akbar are repeatedly used during hijacking.

When it was made clear to the audience that the movie characterized the terrorists as Muslims, a tumult occurred in the cinema…