Posted on 10/19/2001 9:47:09 AM PDT by Pericles
Friday October 19 6:31 AM ET
Indonesia Muslims Turn Out in Force Against U.S. Raids
An Indonesian Muslim woman shouts during a protest in Jakarta October 19, 2001, against the U.S.-led strikes on Afghanistan. More than 10,000 Muslims -- some singing 'our blood is boiling' -- marched through the Indonesian capital on Friday in the country's biggest protest to date against the U.S.-led strikes on Afghanistan. (Beawiharta/Reuters)
By Achmad Sukarsono
JAKARTA (Reuters) - More than 10,000 Muslims, some singing ''our blood is boiling,'' marched through the Indonesian capital of Jakarta on Friday in the country's biggest protest to date against the U.S.-led strikes on Afghanistan.
But there was none of the violence that has marred previous rallies in the world's largest Muslim nation and the rally broke up peacefully by later afternoon.
The protesters, including hundreds of veiled women in white, marched from just outside the main mosque, past the U.S. embassy and then down the main thoroughfare before stopping at the city's central roundabout, which is also outside the British embassy.
``We are angry, our blood is boiling. Until the end of time, we will defend all Muslims,'' thousands sang together, led by protest organizers using loudspeakers.
Some waved Palestinian and Afghan flags, others carried banners attacking President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair over the Afghan assaults.
``Bush and Blair, you are so cruel, you have started a crusade,'' said one banner.
Security was generally low-key, but hundreds of police, troops and water cannon guarded the U.S. and British embassies or were on standby nearby. Traffic continued to flow slowly as police erected signs reading ``sorry, there is a demo.''
Earlier, Vice President Hamzah Haz who heads the country's largest Muslim party, appealed for an end to the protests, warning they could damage the impoverished country.
``We're facing an extraordinary dilemma. If we make a wrong step we can fall into a ravine... therefore I'm asking our Muslim people to stop demonstrating,'' he said in a speech while opening a mosque. ``I'm afraid... if our actions do not express that Islam is grace from Allah, the name of Islam will be destroyed.''
Indonesia has been hit by growing anti-U.S. sentiment, including calls for a holy war from some small, hardline groups, since U.S.-led strikes on Afghanistan began on October 7 over the September 11 suicide hijack attacks on New York and Washington.
TREADING FINE LINE
The battered country and its secular president, Megawati Sukarnoputri, are trying to tread a delicate line between supporting a key ally and appeasing Muslim groups.
The capital has been relatively peaceful for most of this week after a violent clash between security forces and protesters on Monday and a police crackdown on radical Muslim leaders.
Worshippers at midday prayers on Islam's holiest day of the week were urged to show restraint, but also to be angry at the United States and its actions.
``We should not be provoked by anger,'' Muslim cleric Irfan Zidni told worshippers at the main Istiqlal mosque, one of the world's biggest.
``We should be angry at the inhumane actions of the United States and its allies, but we have to be wise in helping our brothers,'' he said.
``Let's help them now with prayers so that our brothers in Afghanistan can cope with the attacks from the enemies.''
INFIDELS
``Muslims will be infidels if they befriend people who expel fellow Muslims like the United States is expelling the Afghans.''
Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, targeted by a U.S.-led military campaign for sheltering Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network, have imposed their own strict interpretation of Islam on their country.
Washington accuses bin Laden of masterminding the September 11 attacks, which killed more than 5,000 people.
Vice President Haz, who has said the attacks on the United States should help cleanse Washington of its sins, appealed to Muslims to show solidarity with Afghanistan through charity and prayers, not protest.
``If we continue demonstrating, our country will become a poorer country,'' he warned. ``Many foreigners have left the country and the impact has been felt by our hotel industry and business community.''
About 90 percent of Indonesia's 210 million people are Muslim. Islam in Indonesia is generally moderate and peaceful.
So no more questions about "Why do they hate us" should be acceptable. Analysis of our foreign policy for the past 50 years should not be on our agenda. The only thing to focus on right now should be the survival of freedom and our way of life.
No, they believe that the Jews exerted mind control and got innocent Muslims to crash the planes.
Our hide is fried;
Let' s all get jiggy,
For Osamacide!"
Burma shave.
Yeah, I thought I had looked up "UGLY" in the dictionary, and this appeared.
As for all these so-called Clerics, they are nothing but fascist rabble rousers operating under the cloak of religion, and should be dealt with accordingly. Nazism, Communism, and whatever the hell the Japanese were smoking in the last century were "religions," and we had to obliterate them.
If the noise Osama and the other "radical fundamentalists" are preaching isn't Islam, fine. But whatever it is, we're going to kill it.
Have you studies the Quran? I ask because I don't know the context of the passages you referenced. As another poster demostrated you can paint a very dark picture of the Bible if you ignore the wider context, the big picture. So to understand those passages, you must understand the context in which they appear.
Personally speaking I don't think that the Quran matters. Even if it taught Muslims to be loving, forgiving, and tolerant. The plain truth is Muslims are brutal to non-Muslims, when they are in power.
That's an interesting line. Every American administration since JFK has poured military and financial aid into Indonesia. We supported the Indonesian military--populated mainly by Muslims--in their brutal putdown of leftist "elements"--mainly buddhist, christian, animist and atheist.
Washington stepped up financial and miliary aid in the wake of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Indonesia was, of course, a favorite resting place for Wall Street money. American businesses, with the full blessing of Washington, flocked there in the 70s and 80s in search of extremely cheap labor.
In the midst of one of the routine anti-christian, anti-chinese pogroms Clinton made a State visit and dressed up as a memeber of the Indonesian bowling team. A few weeks later, while some of the churches were still smoldering Madeline Albright--the mad bomber of Belgrade--showed up to shore up our continuing friendship with the great Nation of Indonesia.
I wonder if that's what he means by "Washington's sins"? If so I'd like to thank him for the honest assessment of our foregn policy. I wonder if anyone in Washington will be willing to speak of "Washington's sins" in the next few years? So far, it doesn't look too likely. George W. Bush trotted over to the CIA to deliver an affectionate, supportive pep-talk even before he visited the smoking ruins of the World Trade Towers.
And Americans seem more willing than ever to offer themselves up as human sacrifices on the altar of globalism in atonement for "Washinton's sins". Can a People survive long on self hatred masking itself as "patriotism"?
>>>PEACE THROUGH NECESSARY MEANS<<<<
Your second sentence is impossible without doing precisely what you abjure in the first sentence. Aristotle would never have cravenly turned away from the human duty to analyse the roots of the problems. We owe it to our capacity to reason, don't we? Isn't that an important part of our freedom and our way of life?"
I noted the same thing. If these women were under control of the Taliban, they would be beaten or executed for showing their face, let alone speaking in public.
When do I get this mind control stuff anyway? I guess I need to keep studying. ;o)
I wish this were true because it would mean we were defending what was left of non-Islamicized lands - another Seljukian-like Jihad advance stopped and reversed.
No, such questions were never asked, there was no time to ask, or negotiate. The Greeks simply destroyed the Persian fleet and then we made nice nice forever more ;-*)
After that, philosophers and peoples of thought, analyzed, learned, advised, discussed, made historical judgement.
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