Part 2 of 2 : The west and Islam in RI

Part 2 of 2 : The west and Islam in RI

Juwono Sudarsono, Indonesian Ambassador, United Kingdom, London

Indonesia has had its share of Islamic extremist movements in
the 1950s and early 1960s who demanded immediate application of
the sharia in our constitution. More recently, several Indonesian
Muslims were implicated in act of violence and terror in
Southeast Asia, some of whom have been linked ideologically to
al-Qaeda through the Jamaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian
grouping which envisages a region-based caliphate encompassing
Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines.

The Indonesian authorities have brought many of them to
justice largely through our own legal processes, however slow and
flawed some of them may have been . I believe that it is best
that the Indonesian authorities quietly initiate and effectively
deal with the terrorists on our own terms rather than blaring
through the media the arrests of suspected leaders of these
terrorist groups at the insistence of Western governments.

On the constitutional front, the three Islamic parties which
presented claims for the application of sharia were defeated in
the proceedings in the annual sessions of our Assembly . Only 15
percent of our parties in parliament advocated adoption of the
sharia. Despite the bombings in Bali in October last year and the
Marriott hotel in Jakarta last August, radical Islamist are
actually losing ground in the battle for the hearts and minds of
most Muslims in Indonesia.

We have always believed strongly in the notion that Islam in
Indonesia and Indonesian Muslims can be enriched by our encounter
with globalization and through the embrace of a more liberal,
tolerant and inclusive interpretation of the Book.

Indonesian Islam remains proud and confident of its syncretic
blend with national and local traditions as well as healthy
eclecticism with the liberating values of foreign influences,
including fast-paced financial and technological globalization.
There will be the occasional crashing of gears in our social
system as people move up or down the volatility scale. But
equally important are the growing number of young Muslim cultural
brokers who act as circuit breakers so that the social fabric is
energized and not pulverized.

For most Muslims in Indonesia, blaming Jewish bankers, Chinese
cronies, moronic financiers in New York or gnomes in Zurich for
Indonesia's political and economic crises can only discredit the
true nature of jihad: Improve the standing of the ummat through
hard work and benefit from the dynamism and liberating creativity
of robust inter-action with the West. Often the only way to
overturn entrenched norms and structures that suffocate creative
impulses is through the release of the elixir of freedom and
innovation. Only then can we create a more just and prosperous
society.

We distinctly do not share the view of some Muslim leaders in
Indonesia as well as abroad who claim that all Islam and Muslims
all over the world are deliberately being humiliated by the West,
that Jews rule the world by proxy or that Western corporations
are steered by a cabal of Zionist financiers. We see no need to
grandstand to the nationalist or ethnic gallery in order hide our
own internal failings: Rampant corruption, shameful injustice and
ostentatious living.

The vast majority of the Islamic community of Indonesia remain
convinced that robust and self-confident dialogs with the
economies and cultures of the West as well as of the great
traditions of China, Japan and India enriches Indonesian Islam in
coming to terms with globalization. Exchange visits of Indonesian
Muslim leaders to Europe and North America enhances the scope of
understanding and commitment to mutual respect and appreciation.
Changing the curricula of madrasahs and pesantrens can help plant
seeds of tolerance and inclusiveness.

But Muslims in Indonesia realize that much more has to be done
on the ground and in the grassroots to achieve meaningful
economic and political reforms in our cities, towns and villages
across Indonesia. We are determined to undertake stronger efforts
to provide sustenance to the vast majority of our poor by
delivering basic human needs: Food, health-care, education and
employment.

Only if we consistently deliver and reinforce social justice
can our Indonesian Islamic scholars, academics, ulemas and
members of our civic societies ensure that post-Sept. 11, 2001,
mainstream Islam in Indonesia will never be hijacked nor tempted
by a perverted ideology that refuses to come to terms with the
need to reshape and rebuild a world vastly different from the
time of Islam's birth centuries ago.