Barack Obama backtracks over Ground Zero mosque support

though I currently live in Wisconsin, I spent about 25 years (1983-2008) in Indonesia, (which you probably already know has more Muslims than any other single country), so I do, in fact, have some first hand knowledge of Islam. And with a country that has a population as large as Indonesia (with 234 million as of 2007, 4th largest population in the world), according to Wikipedia’s estimate, there are 201 million Muslims, 86.1% by Wikipedia’s numbers. There are 3 “stripes” of Islam in Indonesia: Sufis, Shias and Sunnis. And they all certainly don’t get along or agree on all things, such as manner of dress, treatment of women, obligations to their faith.

A great deal (I’d hazard a guess at at least 50%) of Muslims in Indonesia MINOs (i.e., Muslim In Name Only). That is, they observe the Muslim holidays, generally the diet, Ramadan, have the Muslim ceremonies like circumcision of boys when come “of age”, they have traditional Muslim weddings for their children.etc., But they’ve been exposed, thanks to the wonders of modern technology (i.e., movies, TV, internet), to the Western world and they like and want what they see - the consumerism, the big houses, fancy cars. They are Cultural Muslims. They are tolerant of Protestant and Catholic churches.

Now these people, this majority of Muslims, don’t mind the Catholic church down the street, or the Buddhists shrines and practices of the island of Bali, they don’t mind (not publicly at least) that the majority of Papua (the western half of the large island of New Guinea) is Christian/Catholic, as are several other smaller islands (notably Ambon, half of Timor, and various smaller islands of the Maluku islands in far eastern Indonesia.

But there are also clearly radical Muslims in Indonesia that continually push their government to establish Sharia law throughout all of Indonesia. The jihadist group “Jamaat Islamayah” and the even more radical group “al-Jihad” continually attempt to push the Indonesian government toward radical fundamentalist Islam throughout Indonesia. But the majority of the 201 million Muslims in Indonesia do not want Sharia law. The majority like the economic gains, the consumerism, and the fun stuff from “the West”. The Indonesian government has had a hard time keeping the lid on this bubbling pot, but they have made some progress, and have recently tracked down and eliminated a number of the to Jamaat Islamayah leaders. Many Muslims in Indonesia know that if the radicals gain control, that Indonesia will begin to slip back further into 3rd World banana republic territory, and the majority of the population and the government prefer to remain on the economic and cultural track trying to escape 3rd world status.

Let me here just quote a bit from the Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Indonesia):

“Significant changes in religion aspect also happened during the New Order era.[12] Between 1964 and 1965, the tension between the Communist Party of Indonesia (Partai Komunis Indonesia or PKI) and the Indonesian government, along with some organisations, resulted in the worst mass murders of the twentieth century.[13] Following the incident, the New Order government had tried to suppress the supporters of PKI, by applying a policy that everyone must choose a religion, since PKI supporters were mostly atheists.[12] As a result, every Indonesian citizen was required to carry personal identification cards indicating their religion. The policy resulted in a mass religion conversions, topped by conversions to Protestantism and Catholicism (Christianity).[12] The same situation happened with Indonesians with Chinese ethnicity, who mostly were Confucianists. Because Confucianism was not one of the state recognised religions, many Chinese Indonesians were also converted to Christianity.[1]”

These Muslims are more “cultural Muslims”, in the same way that many in the USA are “cultural Christians” – people who would self-identify themselves as “Christian”, if having to check a box on, say, an IRS form that included Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Taoist, Jewish, and whomever else you want to add to that list. I’m betting a majority of people in the USA, if given that question and being requiered to check one box, they would check the “Christian” box.

Now many of these, probably even a majority of these people, though self-identified as Christian, and who have their weddings, funerals, baptisms and other significant traditions of Christianity happen at their church. All the same things could be said about Judaism. Now, in the case of Christianity in the USA, they are what I’d call CINOs (Christians In Name Only). That is, they self-identify themselves as a Christian, observe many of the significant Christian traditions (attend church on Christmas, Easter, their kids get married in a church, they baptize their children, and even attend services occasionally). But many of the “Christians” in the USA are not believers in the virgin birth of Jesus, the atoning (for sin of all mankind) sacrificial death of Jesus, and his subsequent real resurrection, and the fact that our faith in all this, plus our own personal admission of guilt as sinners and acceptance of God’s free gift of salvation, thereby becoming a “new creature”, i.e., not a perfect person, just someone in whom the Holy Spirit resides. The Spirit reminds us of our sins, which are forgiven through the blood of Jesus upon our confession and our turning back towards Jesus (through repentance - i.e., turning from our sin).

Now when some lunatic “Christian” shoots an abortion doctor, or some lunatic Christians carry signs saying “Gay people who die of AIDs deserve it”? What usually happens? Christian all up and down the ladder, i.e., average Christians like myself up to and including well-known Christian leaders, we all abhor and detest abortion and the sin of active homosexuality, but we also publicly denounce the shooter or the placard-carriers as not representative of true Christians, and that such violence has no place in our hearts or beliefs. You do not see Christians dancing in the streets at the murder of an abortionist.

You did, however, see lots of dancing in the streets in many Muslims countries in the hours following 911. Why? Because true Islam is the only major religion that gives you this choice: become a Muslim or die by the sword as in infidel (or by any other means possible, including flying jetliners into buildings or blowing up subways, as in London and Madrid, or carbombing a nightclubs and hotels, as in Bali and Jakarta). And after 911, did we see lots of Muslims condemning or denouncing what happened? I sure didn’t see very many Muslim leaders condemning the 911 jihadists. Their silence says to me, that though they themselves wouldn’t get involved in jihad, they have given tacit approval through their silence of what happens when the jihadists engage in violence.

So….. I read your long note about how this Muslim cultural center might have some good intentions, but with $100million, why can’t they show their sensitivity to the magnitude of what happened on 911 and find a different location. From what I’ve read in several places, the landing gear from one of the 911 planes actually landed in this building they want to use. With all that money, they could easily find a different location where all their good intentions would be better received by Americans in general and New Yorkers in particular. It just seems to me that despite all the “good intentions” of this facility, they have picked this particular location as a purposeful provocative act.

Wouldn’t you agree that a different location would go a long way towards having Americans in general and New Yorkers in particular receive and accept those “good intentions” they say they have for this facility?

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