Islam 'Recognizes Homosexuality'
THE JAKARTA POST: Homosexuals and homosexuality are natural and created by God, thus permissible within Islam, a discussion concluded here Thursday.

Moderate Muslim scholars said there were no reasons to reject homosexuals under Islam, and that the condemnation of homosexuals and homosexuality by mainstream ulema and many other Muslims was based on narrow-minded interpretations of Islamic teachings.

Siti Musdah Mulia of the Indonesia Conference of Religions and Peace cited the Koran's al-Hujurat (49:3) that one of the blessings for human beings was that all men and women are equal, regardless of ethnicity, wealth, social positions or even sexual orientation.

"There is no difference between lesbians and nonlesbians. In the eyes of God, people are valued based on their piety," she told the discussion organized by nongovernmental organization Arus Pelangi.

"And talking about piety is God's prerogative to judge," she added.
"The essence of the religion (Islam) is to humanize humans, respect and dignify them."

Musdah said homosexuality was from God and should be considered natural, adding it was not pushed only by passion. >>> Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post | Friday, March 28, 2008

Alas, many Muslims are not so tolerant. Check this out.

Saudi Teacher on Trial for Funding Jakarta Hotel Bombs
BBC: A retired Saudi Arabian schoolteacher has been charged with providing the funds for the deadly attacks on two luxury hotels in Jakarta last July.

Al Khelaiw Ali Abdullah, 55, is accused of funnelling money through an internet cafe in West Java.

He is the fourth person to go on trial this month over the Jakarta bombings - along with the suspected driver, bag-man and helpers in the attacks.

The twin hotel suicide bombings killed seven people and injured 50 more.

The BBC's Indonesia correspondent Karishma Vaswani says that Mr Abdullah came to Indonesia from Saudi Arabia in November 2008. Denies charges >>> | Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Une statue d'Obama enfant érigée à Jakarta
Barack Obama est l'objet d'un véritable culte en Indonésie, où il a passé une partie de son enfance. Crédits photo : Le Figaro
LE FIGARO: Une statue représentant Barack Obama à l'âge de 10 ans a été installée dans un parc de Djakarta, où le président américain a passé une partie de sa jeunesse.

Plus rien n'arrête Barack Obama. Après le Prix Nobel de la Paix,qu'il doit reçevoir ce jeudi, le président a désormais droit à sa statue. Un sculpture en bronze de Barack Obama à l'âge de 10 ans a été inaugurée merceedi dans un parc de Jakarta, la capitale indonésienne où le président américain a vécu une partie de sa jeunesse.

Cette oeuvre, présentée comme la première statue de Barack Obama au monde, le montre, en short et t-shirt, en train de sourire alors qu'il joue avec un papillon posé sur le pouce. Le président américain a vécu de 6 à 10 ans (1967 à 1971) à Jakarta où sa mère, Ann Dunham-Soetoro, s'était installée après s'être remariée avec un Indonésien rencontré à Hawaï. >>> lefigaro.fr (avec AFP) | Jeudi 10 Décembre 2009

Jihad in the Classroom
THE AUSTRALIAN: INDONESIA will continue to live with the threat of terror attacks unless its government cracks down on the militant Islamic schools and religious zealots who espouse worldwide jihad.

Last Friday's hotel bombings in Jakarta have focused attention yet again on a network of radical Islamic boarding schools across Indonesia that continues to espouse the cause of violent jihad and churn out eager young zealots willing to die in its name.

 Four days after the bombings, investigators have linked them to two Islamic schools that are well known to the Indonesian authorities but have neither been shut down nor had their activities or teachings curtailed.

The first of these is the now notorious Al Mukmin pesantren (boarding house) at Ngruki in Solo, Central Java, where the Marriott suicide bomber is reported to have been schooled.

The second is a smaller school at Cilacap in Central Java, where a bomb identical to the hotel bombs used in Jakarta was found in July, and which is believed to have provided shelter to suspected mastermind Noordin Top.

A Muslim leader in Jakarta yesterday identified the man who detonated a backpack and case full of explosives inside the Marriott restaurant as Nur Hasbi, who is believed to have graduated from the Ngruki school in 1995. Thus the school continues to live up to its reputation as "a crucible for the formation of cadres of mujahidin", and its mission, "to nurture zeal for jihad so that love for jihad and martyrdom grow in the soul of the mujahidin", in the words of its co-founder, Jemaah Islamiah leader, Abu Bakar Bashir.

Nur Hasbi was no doubt inspired by his reported classmate, Asmar Latin Sani, who carried out the previous attack on the Marriott in 2003, after which his severed head was found on the fifth floor of the smashed hotel.
The connection is no coincidence. >>> Sally Neighbour | Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Jemaah Islamiyah Behind Jakarta Suicide Bombs
TIMES ONLINE: The suicide bombers behind the deadly twin blasts at Jakarta hotels on Friday were members of the al-Qaeda-linked regional terror outfit Jemaah Islamiyah, Indonesian police said today.

Police also confirmed they had identified one of the two suicide bombers.

Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) has carried out dozens of bombings in Indonesia over the past decade including the 2002 attacks in Bali that left more than 200 dead, mostly foreign tourists.

"We confirm that the attackers are from Jemaah Islamiyah because there are similarities in the bombs used," Indonesia’s national police spokesman Nanan Soekarna told a press conference in Jakarta earlier today.

He said an exploded bomb left in a guestroom of the JW Marriott, which was attacked along with the nearby Ritz-Carlton, resembled devices used in the Bali bombings and one discovered in a recent anti-JI raid on an Islamic boarding school.

"They are from the same school. We found similar tools, similar materials and similar methods," he said. >>> | July 19, 2009

New Dark Age Alert! Shariah Bankers: West Ready for Faith-based Alternative
THE WASHINGTON POST: SINGAPORE | Backers of Shariah-compliant finance see an opportunity for expansion amid the global economic downturn, and some Western banks are welcoming this growing source of new business.

"Islamic bankers should do some missionary work in the Western world to promote the concept of Shariah banking, for which many in the West are more than ready now," Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the World Islamic Economic Forum last month in Jakarta.

Such statements have given rise to fears that Shariah finance is a stalking horse for hidden political or religious aims. Shariah finance is an extension of Islamic law, pushing a faith-based alternative to Western banking.

Key Islamists who advise Shariah financial houses have called for full Shariah law to be adopted in Western countries and, in some cases, have made statements supporting terrorist groups.

Shariah finance means institutions and norms that fit with Islamic law. Fully compliant Islamic financial institutions are prohibited from interest payments and require transactions to be backed by tangible assets.

Speculation and hedge funds are off limits — ditto for anything connected to porn, gambling, alcohol or pork. Shariah finance targets Muslims who want to avoid what are deemed "un-Islamic" Western banks or financial practices, and appeals to clients' faith as well as their bottom line. >>> By Simon Roughneen | Monday, April 13, 2009

Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI) Rallies for ‘Khilafah’
THE JAKARTA POST: Thousands of Muslim women from the hardline Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI) organization staged a rally Sunday calling for the country to enforce sharia law and establish an Islamic state led by a caliphate.

They marched through downtown Jakarta from outside the U.S. Embassy to the nearby State Palace, with some carrying their children.

The protesters reject the current system of democracy because it is a Western product and said it failed to bring prosperity to this predominantly Muslim nation. The rally was peaceful amid tight security.

Protest leader Febrianti Abassuni said the women's wing of HTI would intensify its campaign for an Islamic state this month to coincide with the commemorations of Mother's Day on Dec. 22, the Islamic New Year on Dec. 29, and in the lead up to the 2009 elections.

"This movement offers guidance for the people to contribute to the country's transformation in the upcoming elections," she added.

The protesters claimed khilafah, an administrative system based on Islamic ideology and led by caliphate, would be best for Indonesia and should replace Pancasila as the national ideology. >>> Desy Nurhayati | Monday, December 22, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback) – Free delivery >>>

Islamic Fashion: ”From Drab to Dramatic”
Photo courtesy of The Star
THE STAR: There’s more to the Islamic dress than just black robes.

THE recently concluded Kuala Lumpur-Jakarta-Dubai Islamic Fashion Festival (IFF) was proof of an Islamic fashion renaissance. The runways at the tri-country fashion event were bursting with colour, with traditional garments like the burqa, jibab [jilbab] and abaya being transformed from drab to dramatic.

The festival, an attempt to turn Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta and Dubai into Islamic fashion capitals, attracted top designers from Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Among them were Malaysia’s Datuk Tom Abang Saufi and Radzuan Radziwill, Indonesian designer Ghea Panggabean, Pakistani Deepak Perwani and UAE’s Shabana Asif. Colour and Pizzaz >>> By S Indramalar

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)

Muslim Leaders Demand Legal Action against Wilders
THE JAKARTA POST: Indonesian Muslim leaders and foreign envoys have demanded the Netherlands take legal action against politician Geert Wilders for producing and distributing the anti-Islam film Fitna.

In a meeting with Dutch Ambassador to Indonesia Nikolaos van Dam, held at Muhammadiyah headquarters Monday, the protesters said his government's statement condemning the film was not enough to dampen the anger of Muslim countries over the movie.

"The Dutch government must criminalize Wilders' conduct. Freedom of expression has a limit," People's Consultative Assembly chairman Hidayat Nur Wahid told the gathering.

He said Wilders could not hide behind the doctrine of freedom of expression, and insulting Muslims and causing unrest among them in the Netherlands and other countries were sufficient reasons for the Dutch government to prosecute Wilders.

"We are still waiting to see what punishment the Dutch government will give Wilders, because the film has clearly insulted and disgraced Islam," Indonesian Ulema Council deputy chairman Amidan said. Muslim Leaders Demand Legal Action against Wilders >>> By Abdul Khalik

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback)

Mass Demonstration in Jakarta in Favour of Caliphate
With thanks to Roberts Spencer of JihadWatch where I first saw reference to the the following article:

Photo of Jakarta rally courtesy of the BBC

BBC: The BBC's Lucy Williamson reports from Indonesia, where tens of thousands of Islamists have gathered to push for the creation of a single state across the Muslim world.

The dull roars of a football match, the twanging music of a youth group concert - from a distance it is not always easy to tell an Islamic conference from a holiday crowd.

Inside Jakarta's Gelora Bung Karno stadium the clues get easier. There are about 100,000 people inside, and everyone is in Islamic dress.

The women's section - by far the largest - is a pitter-patter of ice-cream colours. On their parasols, one word is printed over and over again: Khilafah, caliphate.

This is the reason why people have come here. To show their support for a single, unified, Islamic state.

They have been invited by the international Islamist group, Hizb ut-Tahrir. Not everyone believed they would fill the stadium, but Hizb ut-Tahrir is good at bringing in supporters - and keeping them. Stadium crowd pushes for Islamist dream (more)

WATCH BBC VIDEO:
Islamists call for caliphate

NEWSMAX:
Rally Calls for Revival of Islamic State

Mark Alexander