Islam is your land, from Bali vista

Recently I spent several days in Ubud, Bali, attending a conference on the theme of "Islam in Multicultural Asia" organized by the New York-based Asia Society.

Bali is a lush tropical island of immense beauty at the centre of the Indonesian archipelago, and its people are mostly Hindu in a country with the world's largest Muslim population.

The setting for a conference on Islam in Indonesia was a bold idea. Islam in Asia...is distinctly different... to the Middle Eastern version of Islam with which the West is mostly acquainted and predominantly concerned since 9/11.

Americans supporting Democrats who have persuaded themselves as they seek to persuade others that the problems of the United States with the Arab-Muslim world are mostly the fault of the Bush-Cheney team and its "misadventure" in Iraq.

There is a huge ongoing effort by Americans of liberal-left persuasion in the media and in international gatherings to sell the idea that the world will be repaired, whatever this means, once the Bush administration is replaced by a Democratic one headed by either Barack Hussein Obama or Hillary Clinton.

Asia is, however, immensely diverse and Asians are not of one mind on any issue.

I spent a number of years in Indonesia and have been to Bali numerous ties. If anyone thinks there is not a veritable Army of indoctrinated and Jihad committed Muslims in Indonesia, they are misled. The very nature of Islam is to inculcate itself from the inception of a Muslim's life into their every waking moment. It is this way everywhere in Southeast Asia. To assume these Muslims are somehow less militant is naive at best.

“..ongoing effort by Americans of liberal-left persuasion in the media and in international gatherings to sell the idea that the world will be repaired, whatever this means, once the Bush administration is replaced..”

To these liberals it is not good enough that Bush goes around mumbling that Islam is the ROP, they want their own country destroyed for the sake of Islam. Who says Al-Qaeda is dangerous?

Islam in Asia...is distinctly different... to the Middle Eastern

Do they read a different version of the koran and hadith?

Didn’t think so. It is the same murderous religion wherever it is found.

Sura (2:191-193) - "And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution of Muslims is worse than slaughter of non-believers...and fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is for Allah."

Sura (5:33) - "The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His messenger and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement"

Sura (8:12) - "I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them"

Bukhari (52:177) - Allah's Apostle said, "The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say. "O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him."

Tabari 7:97 The morning after the murder of Ashraf, the Prophet declared,"Kill any Jew who falls under your power."

Ibn Ishaq: 327 - “Allah said, ‘A prophet must slaughter before collecting captives. A slaughtered enemy is driven from the land. Muhammad, you craved the desires of this world, its goods and the ransom captives would bring. But Allah desires killing them to manifest the religion.’”

I disagree. I worked there 3.5 years and lived in a village in East Java. Wonderful tolerant people was my experience. The thing that struck me most strange were the American flags and pictures of Bush senior painted on trucks AFTER the first gulf war. There was no anti-Americanism at all. Bali is mostly Hindu. Other islands vary in religious majority/tolerance. I walked down the streets of small towns and heard Christian revival music from churches. I am sure there is a very small fanatical care of IslamoFascists there but they are far outnumbered. I had a good friend whose father was an Imam and ran a religious school for boys and girls. I was greeted like President Suharto when I visited.

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