Indonesia: 37 dead in sectarian violence (Muslim vs. Christian; al-Queda helping Muslims)

VIOLENCE between Muslims and Christians that has left at least 37 dead in the east Indonesia's Ambon city has subsided but sporadic gunfire and explosions were heard overnight, residents said today.

"This morning the city is calm but last night I heard sporadic shots and explosions," a resident said, as others said fighting had been confined to one section of the city separating Muslim and Christian communities. "Clashes are only taking place in one area but I wonder why security forces have not been unable to stop them. What will happen if the violence spreads to other areas?" Maluku Bishop Petrus Mandagi said.

A banned parade by Christian separatists sparked off the bloodshed on April 25 in Ambon, the Maluku (Moluccan) provincial capital.

The violence was the worst since a February 2002 pact ended three years of religious battles in which some 5,000 people died.

About 180 people have been injured. Hundreds of homes and many other buildings including the United Nations mission were set ablaze.

More than 2000 Muslims and Christians have fled their homes, according to one crisis centre. Those who stayed behind remained confined to their respective sectors of the divided city behind makeshift street barricades.

Thousands of radical fighters, including some from the al-Qaeda linked Jemaah Islamiah group, joined the Muslim side in the previous conflict.

Officials have portrayed the clashes as between independence supporters and opponents, rather than Christian-Muslim battles.

Indonesia's population is 87 per cent Muslim but Christians and Muslims live in roughly equal numbers in the Malukus.

THE SOUTHEAST ASIAN FRONT Creeping towards Islamization in Indonesia
Freedom House / Weekly Standard ^ | 4/5/04 | Paul Marshall

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1125201/posts

THE STRUGGLE AGAINST extremist Islam is not only military and diplomatic, it is also a war of ideas. In this battle there are few more important countries than Indonesia, whose 230 million people make it by far the largest Muslim country and democracy. It is also home to the largest concentration of Muslims developing an understanding of Islam at home in a democratic and diverse world, and committed to resisting the reactionary versions being exported from Saudi Arabia.

However, the country remains under threat from Islamist radicals, and its impending elections provide ample opportunity for extremist mischief. Its problem is that the radicals are committed, organized, have a clear vision, and are often well funded, and so can intimidate and outmaneuver their larger but more hesitant Muslim and nationalist opponents.

Islam came to Indonesia via merchants and preachers, not conquerors. A moderate Sufi style took hold in a largely Hindu culture adept at taking the edge off incoming religions. Recent polls show that only about 14 percent of the population could be called Islamist on even the most expansive definition.

In Western lists of the world's Islamic leaders, we seldom find Hasyim Muzadi or Ahmad Syafii Maarif. Yet they head two huge Muslim social, religious, and educational organizations--Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah--that reach up to 50 million and 40 million people respectively, more than the population of any Arab country except Egypt. They, and others such as Abdurrahman Wahid and Nurcholish Madjid, are developing and propagating an understanding of Islam that is creative and culturally attuned. They have studied in the West and also in the major centers of Islamic learning in the Middle East, and tend to resent being lectured on Islam by Arabs. Three of them have told me that they find Islamists, whether homegrown or Arab, woefully ignorant of Islamic texts and historic Islam, with little grasp of Islam beyond a collection of laws.

It should be noted that many Indonesian radical leaders have Arab backgrounds, some stemming from a century-old influx from bin Laden's home turf, the Hadramawt Valley on the Yemeni/Saudi border. And for at least a decade, the Saudis have been pumping in money with the goal of replacing Indonesia's Islam with their own strict Wahhabi version.

Despite Indonesia's moderate heritage, militant Islam is gaining ground, and may make further advances this year. The Islamists are trying four ways to impose their views. One is changing the constitution to incorporate Islamic sharia law. Another is terrorism. The third is piecemeal legislative change, and the fourth is domination of towns and provinces where the militants can impose their views through local support or by intimidation. The first two are unlikely to come to anything. The last two--both forms of creeping Islamization--are having more success.

(snip)

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