Moslem male president

Moslem male president

It is shocking how ignorant a group of Moslem clerics can be
about today's presidential/vice presidential candidates. Last
year in November, clerics from the East Java chapter of Nahdlatul
Ulama, Indonesia's largest Moslem organization, recommended that
a woman might have been chosen as vice president because
Hardiyanti Rukmana, daughter of then president Soeharto, would be
promoted as veep (most probably they would approve a woman
candidate for the presidency if Hardiyanti Rukmana were to be
president). These different conclusions reflect that they sell
Islam as political commodity.

Their recommendation on a Moslem president is absolutely
unconstitutional and portrays Islam as an intolerant religion.
Don't they remember that we once had a devout Christian,
violinist Amir Sjafroeddin, as our prime minister in 1947. And 30
percent of the members of the cabinet of prime minister Mohammad
Natsir of Masjumi (the Moslem intellectual political party) in
1950 were non-Moslems.

We, Moslems, have a long multicultural experience and have
been friendly with other religions. For example, during the
Ummayyad period (661-750), with an empire stretching from China
to the Atlantic Ocean, five Popes came from the Ummayyad empire,
a solid Moslem country: John V, Sergius I, Sisinnius, Constantine
and Gregory III. This is a mark of the triumph of Islam and other
religious tolerance.

So, as a Moslem, I dub those clerics as puritan fanatics. In
other words, a new Taleban (referring to the reclusive Afghan
regime).

IWAN SATYANEGARA

Jakarta