Free Republic

slamists misquoted a September speech in which Mr. Purnama cited the Quran and started a social-media campaign against him. He has since apologized, and a police investigation is expected to clear him. But the accusation led to Friday’s rally, at which participants openly incited violence against the Governor. Some protesters burned cars and looted shops. Mr. Purnama, who has been the target of assassination plots in the past, is running for re-election in February. His chances are good since he remains popular with Jakarta’s population, especially the middle class. Originally Deputy Governor, he took over when his predecessor, Joko Widodo,...

The president of the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, Indonesia, has called the actions of Islamic State militants "embarrassing" to the religion and urged Islamic leaders to unite in tackling extremism. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the scale of the slaughter wrought by the extremists in overrunning large swathes of Iraq and Syria and the level of violence being used was appalling. "It is shocking. It is becoming out of control," he said in an interview with The Australian, a day after IS released a video showing a masked militant beheading US reporter James Foley, provoking worldwide revulsion. "We do not...

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has sent a letter to US President Barack Obama to ask him to stop the plans by a small church in Florida, the United States, to burn the Koran, the Muslim holy book, to commemorate the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Heru Lelono, a presidential special adviser on information and public relations, said Thursday that Yudhoyono considered the plan a threat to world peace. Yudhoyono said Indonesia would condemn the act. The Dove World Outreach Center from Gainesville, Florida — led by Pastor Terry and Sylvia Jones — announced the controversial plan to commemorate the Sept. 11,...

SNIPPET: "This past Sunday, six terrorists were captured in Medan, North Sumatra province, by Indonesia's counter-terrorist unit, Special Detachment 88. All were thought to be linked to a paramilitary camp in Aceh that was raided in February and two of them, Pandu Wicaksono Widyan Putro and Bayu Sena, were said to be tied to the twin hotel bombings in Jakarta last July." SNIPPET: "Special Detachment 88 will likely continue its raids in and around Aceh to round up those camp members that have thus far evaded the police dragnet."

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama, who is due to visit Indonesia in June, was one of several suspected targets of Indonesian militants captured in police raids recently, an expert on militants said on Friday.

Referring to the Israeli war with Hizbollah the Indonesion president is quoted as saying "This war must stop, or it will radicalize the Muslim world, even those of us who are moderate today," said Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who leads the world's most populous Muslim country. "From there, it will be just one step away to that ultimate nightmare: a clash of civilizations." The title of the article is "Muslims press U.N. for truce in Lebanon."

NUSA DUA (Indonesia), May 12: Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told a Friday congregation that Muslim nations should oppose terrorism and catch up with progress in the rest of the world. Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, will be hosting a summit involving leaders of eight large Muslim countries on Saturday in Bali’s upmarket Nusa Dua tourist area. The fifth summit of the Developing 8 group is aimed at finding ways to alleviate poverty in the member states through trade and other economic cooperation. Mr Yudhoyono, who was speaking after Friday prayers at the venue, told the audience Muslim...

NUA DUSA, Indonesia (Reuters) - The presidents of Iran and Indonesia began a summit of eight developing nations on Saturday overshadowed by fears about Tehran's nuclear programme. The Developing Eight (D-8) groups some of the world's most populous Muslim-majority nations and is aimed primarily at developing economic and trade ties. But focus on those goals has been diverted by worries that nuclear projects Iran, the D-8's outgoing chairman, says are for peaceful purposes might actually have military aims. The United States has vowed to curb the programmes it fears could lead to atomic weapons and has asked the U.N. Security...

THE last batch of combat soldiers in Aceh assembled on the dockside yesterday in full kit and armed to the teeth, ready to embark on their troopships as the final act of a bloody 29-year guerrilla war. Supaidin Adi Saputra, Aceh’s military commander, told them they should be proud of fighting to keep Indonesia intact — then told the watching Acehnese: “The flame of peace is burning and we must not let anyone extinguish it.” The head of the feared Indonesian military in Aceh was doing what was almost unthink-able only a year ago; telling its people that the war,...

PEACE ACCORD: The move was part of an agreement that ends Asia's longest-running separatist insurgency, and sets the stage for the guerillas to run in elections Indonesia's Aceh rebels formally disbanded their armed wing yesterday, fulfilling a crucial part of a tsunami-inspired peace accord to end one of Asia's longest separatist conflicts and paving the way for the guerillas to enter politics. "The Acehnese national army, or the armed wing of the Free Aceh Movement, has demobilized and disbanded," Sofyan Daud, one of the group's commanders, told reporters. "The Aceh national army is now part of civil society, and will...

INDONESIA'S president is under threat of assassination, his spokesman said today amid stepped-up security nationwide for the New Year holiday period in response to fears of extremist attacks. Security forces in the world's most populous Muslim nation have been on high alert over the Christmas period, fearing reprisal attacks after last month's killing of Malaysian bombmaker Azahari Husin, a key member of the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) extremist network. Documents found in Azahari's East Java hideaway indicated extremists were planning attacks over the holiday period. His chief accomplice, Noordin Mohammad Top, remains on the run. Asked whether reports that President Susilo...

President George W. Bush said that his administration supported the resumption of full military ties between the United States and Indonesia, saying that such relations "would be in the interest of both countries". Bush said the resumption in February of a U.S. military training program for Indonesian Military officers was an important step. "It makes sense. We want young officers from Indonesia coming to the U.S. We want there to be exchanges between our military corps, that will help lead to better understandings," he said in a brief press conference at the White House on Wednesday afternoon (Thursday in Jakarta),...

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia's president has ordered police to find those behind two bomb blasts that killed 22 people in a Christian town, and said he would cut short an overseas trip if authorities could not handle the situation. Quoted by the official Antara news agency after arriving in Hanoi late on Saturday, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he would not speculate on who carried out the attacks in Tentena. Tentena is part of an eastern region where three years of Muslim-Christian fighting killed 2,000 people until a peace deal was agreed in late 2001. Periodic unrest has flared since, but...

Indoensia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono met with the president after the US Senate confirmed Judge Priscilla Owen, 56-43, for the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals (New Orleans). President Bush visited the first integrated gasoline/hydrogen in North America, located in DC. Condi Rice had a lunch meeting with Bono, of U2, at the State Department. I understand that Laura is home but I didn't see any photos of her return. Enjoy your visit to Sanity Island.

Amid all of the second-guessing on Iraq, one thing we haven't heard are many constructive ideas. So allow us to promote a proposal now knocking around the Pentagon that the U.S. try again to get some foreign Islamic troops to help with security before, during and after the January 30 Iraq elections. The U.S. has attempted this in the past, and the Turks formally offered 10,000 troops before Iraqis rejected the idea in 2003. But as immediate neighbors, and rivals of the Kurds, the Turks arouse special sensitivities.... Pakistan has a force of roughly 620,000 men, Bangladesh has about 125,000...

President and Laura Bush are in Chile for the Asian-Pacific Economic Conference. Most of us have likely heard of the "incident" with Bush's lead secret service agent in Chile, documented here, Bush comes to aid of Secret Service agent. Diogenesis posted the photo sequence at #96 on that thread. As there are many other pictures of the APEC conference to put up today, I am providing the link, above, to his excellently-posted sequence of photos. In a second incident, the ***President Of Chile Cancels Guests Because Of USSS Demands: GWB BACKS THE USSS*** Fox News Enjoy your visit to Sanity...

JAKARTA, 15 November 2004 — Muslims are not terrorists, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said yesterday as millions of people in the world’s largest Muslim nation celebrated Eid Al-Fitr. “We truly feel sad if world opinion, deliberately or not, aims to put Muslims in a corner as identical with violence and terrorism,” he was quoted as saying by the official Antara news agency in a speech welcoming the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. “Certainly Muslims will reject being regarded as the masterminds of terrorism in this world,” said Yudhoyono, who took office last month vowing to fight such...

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- Indonesia's outgoing President Megawati Sukarnoputri on Tuesday tearfully conceded defeat in last month's elections, clearing the way for the winner, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, to begin forming a new government. Yudhoyono had been waiting for Megawati's concession before claiming victory, respecting the decorum of Indonesia's fledgling democracy despite his landslide victory in the Sept. 20 polls. Yudhoyono, a U.S.-educated retired army general, canceled plans for an acceptance speech on Monday after the results were official released, as Megawati remained holed up in her residence. But Megawati acknowledged her defeat Tuesday in a typically indirect speech to...

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is expected to become the next president of Indonesia. With most ballots counted, the former military chief and security minister has a wide lead over President Megawati Sukarnoputri. Both candidates say they will not comment on the election until final results are announced October fifth. The new president is to be sworn-in October twentieth. The election was Monday. The next day, a measure of leading Indonesian stocks closed at an all-time high in reaction to the apparent victory. Traders say the market rose in hopes of aggressive economic measures by Mister Yudhoyono. The Indonesian economy has suffered...

The apparent landslide victory of "S.B.Y." (Gen. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono) in the Indonesian presidential election is promising. He has a reputation for getting things done; he has no time for Indonesia's Jihadis. He knows that free enterprise within a stable constitutional order is the way out of membership in the "Third World". And he says what he knows, with an uncommon boldness. He is intelligent and articulate (in English as well as Indonesian), and surrounded by advisers who are neither obsequious nor sanctimonious nor infamously corrupt. Outgoing President Megawati Sukarnoputri, the daughter of the country's founding dictator, had none of...