Posted on 10/22/2003 4:24:38 AM PDT by F14 Pilot
BALI, Indonesia (Reuters) - President Bush praised the world's most populous Muslim nation on Wednesday for its support in the war on terror and said Islamic terrorists defiled one of the great faiths.
But Bush ran afoul of leading moderate Muslim clerics during talks on the resort island of Bali, where Islamic militants linked to al Qaeda blew up two nightclubs packed with foreign holidaymakers just over a year ago, killing 202 people.
Reflecting growing mistrust of the United States among ordinary Indonesians, they criticized Washington for supporting Israel over the Palestinians and for the occupation of Iraq (news - web sites), and said Bush needed to listen more to the rest of the world.
Bush, speaking against the backdrop of a palm-fringed beach and turquoise sea, expressed his gratitude to Jakarta after meeting President Megawati Sukarnoputri and the clerics.
"We know that Islam is fully compatible with liberty and tolerance and progress because we see the proof in your country and in our own," Bush told a news conference.
"Terrorists who claim Islam as their inspiration defile one of the world's greatest faiths. Murder has no place in any religious tradition. It must find no home in Indonesia."
U.S. officials said Bush wanted to correct what he felt was a misconception that the war on terror was a war against Islam.
Bush paid the brief visit to Bali under blanket security before flying to the Australian capital Canberra for talks with key ally Prime Minister John Howard as part of a six-nation tour.
He paid tribute to the victims of the Bali bombings, the worst act of terror since the September 11, 2001, hijack attacks on the United States.
WARSHIPS, SNIFFER DOGS, BOMB SQUADS
Indonesia took no chances with security, deploying seven warships along with 5,000 heavily armed police and troops backed up by sniffer dogs and bomb squad units.
Bush hoped his visit would help dampen anti-Americanism in Indonesia. Megawati told the news conference she attached "great importance" to Jakarta's relationship with the United States.
But the Muslim clerics told Bush that U.S. policies in the Middle East were one of the root causes of terror attacks.
"We told him U.S. foreign policy should seek a new paradigm if the U.S. wants to be respected by the world community and be safe," Syafii Maarif, head of the second-largest Muslim group in Indonesia, Muhammadiyah, told Reuters.
Maarif said he told Bush his policies toward Israel were "extraordinary" and his fear of terrorists "excessive."
Asked about the apparent bias toward Israel, the Muslim leaders quoted Bush as saying:
"Our foreign policy is for development of a Palestinian state that lives side by side with Israel in peace...(I was) the first president to ever articulate that position, and I still believe it is possible.
"In order to achieve a Palestinian state living side by side in peace there needs to be leadership willing to fight off the terror that is trying to prevent the state from emerging."
Bush said he would propose to Congress a six-year program worth $157 million to support basic education in Indonesia to aid efforts to build a system that discourages extremism.
While Indonesia's secular government has been allied to the United States in its efforts to fight terror, critics have accused it of failing to explain the dangers of radical Islam to its people and to tackle militancy at its roots, especially in a small number of conservative Muslim boarding schools.
In Jakarta, some 500 people held a peaceful protest against Bush's visit. There were small protests in two other cities.
Bush's praise for Indonesia's role in the war on terror is in marked contrast to the accusations of foot-dragging prior to the Bali blasts. Washington had warned Megawati for months that her country could face deadly attacks.
After the Bali bombings, Indonesia cracked down on Islamic militancy, particularly members of Southeast Asia's Jemaah Islamiah group blamed for the attack. It has arrested 100 militants since the Bali bombings over that attack and others.
The title is a bit inflammatory.
There are some you believe that Bush was wrong to embrace Islam early on after 911.
He did it to maintain order as some nuts were shotting anything with a turban. A couple Hindus were killed as a result.
Bush has to maintain a sense of purpose for the WOT, and it cannot be couched as a religious war, no matter how it may appear.
The result of that would be all to obvious and would lead to chaos.
Isn't senility a wonderful thing?
Indonesians aren't Arabs.
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