Is Indonesia abandoning its reputation as a country with a Muslim majority but without extremism? Consider this op-ed by Benedict Rogers in the Wall Street Journal:
ndonesia, the world’s largest Muslim nation, has long stood as a role model for religious pluralism. That’s changing. Political Islam and violent extremism have been taking root in society and may soon do so in the government. President Joko Widodo’s choice of Ma’ruf Amin, a 75-year-old cleric, as his running mate in next year’s election marks an ugly turn for Indonesian politics.
Religious minorities had regarded Mr. Widodo as their defender. His rival, retired general Prabowo Subianto, was expected to play the religion card, questioning the incumbent’s Islamic credentials and building a coalition supported by radical Islamists. By choosing Mr. Amin, the president’s defenders argue, he not only has neutralized the religion factor, but might have prevented it from spilling over into violence against minorities. In office, they believe, Mr. Amin will be contained.
Yet Mr. Subianto is unlikely to be deterred from playing identity politics, and rumors that Mr. Amin is reaching out to radical Islamists for support are troubling. Mr. Amin has a history of intolerance. He signed a fatwa that put a Widodo ally, Jakarta’s former Gov. Basuki Tjahaja “Ahok†Purnama, in jail on blasphemy charges. Ahok, who is Christian and ethnically Chinese, was a symbol of Indonesia’s diversity, and as a popular governor was expected to be re-elected. Instead he lost after rivals told Muslims not to vote for a non-Muslim.
Mr. Amin also signed the anti-Ahmadiyya fatwa in 2005, which led to severe restrictions and violence against the Ahmadiyya, an Islamic sect some Muslims regard as heretical. I met recently with Ahmadis in Depok, a Jakarta suburb, where their mosque is closed. The previous week they were visited by 15 local officials ordering them to stop all activities.
Mr. Amin has been behind other repressive measures, including restrictions on the construction of places of worship, proposals to criminalize homosexuality, support for female genital mutilation and local Shariah laws.
If true this would be a very bad development.
Always troublesome when democracy leads to path best left unexplored, vox populi, vox Dei, oy gevalt! Wonder how long before the chattering class gets off the stump and calls for a Singapore style “managed” democracy.
Tribalism is clearly in resurgence globally. The internationalist establishments goals of liberal multiculturalism are in decline just about everywhere.
We’d better be prepared for the new normal.
That and aggressive Wahhabism from our ally and dependant royal class in Saudi Arabia. We should reconsider their worth.
The chattering class would rather do nothing than be accused of doing evil, no matter how good action might do or how minute evil might result. They’re afraid of calling evil evil because to do so might be triggering. As a result they’ve given up the initiative to active evil and have become reflexively hostile towards those who would defend them from evil (cops, the military, the legal system). They complain bitterly when reality doesn’t conform to their worldview.