Task A:Maria Hertogh Riots

This riot broke out about a simple custody between Maria's real parents and her adopted parents but ended up as a religion and racial confrontation.Maria was 13-year old when her parents were imprisoned during japanese occupation.Maria came under the care of a malay woman,Che Aminah and her husband.Maria was born in java 1937 to Dutch-Catholics.Che Aminah brought Maria up as a muslims;named her Nadra.In 1949,Maria mother;Adeline Hertogh claimed her back.This matter was brought up to the High Court an Maria was placed under Social Welfare Department.In 1950,Maria returned to her real parents.Che Aminah opposed and sent an appeal.Two months later,the court returned Maria to Che Aminah.Under Che Aminah care.Nadra married a Malay teacher.As Maria should be subjected to Dutch laws which do not permit any girl under 16 to be married, her Muslim marriage was made invalid. The court then put her in the care of the Good Shepherd Convent, pending her return to the Netherlands.Maria's case was presented as a religious issue between Islam and Christianity and that aroused the religious antipathy of local Muslims. Calls were even made in the Sultan Mosque to start a holy war to return Maria to Amina To everyone's surprise the judge only took five minutes to threw out Aminah’s appeal. legal avenues yielded no result.On 11 Dec 50, the Appeal Court sat to hear Maria’s case.To everyone's surprise the judge only took five minutes to threw out Aminah’s appeal. The very short duration and the judgment convinced the crowd that the colonial legal system was biased against Muslims.The riots began.Any sight of Eurasian,would be attacked.Malay policemen were blamed for being biased, the colonial authorities for being insensitive in placing a Muslim girl in a Christian Convent and the press for over sensationalizing And it ended up with a Commission of Inquiry being set up in 1951.What is important to realize in a multi racial and religious society is that Governments irrespective of whether it is colonial or otherwise are occasionally bound to come up with decisions that would not satisfy all sections of the society.