The EU should be stronger and more united. Great Britain should belong to the Union.
Die EU sollte stärker und geeinter sein. Großbritannien sollte der Union angehören.
L'UE devrait être plus forte et plus unie. La Grande-Bretagne devrait appartenir à l'Union.
Friday, October 17, 2008
First Moroccan Mayor in the Netherlands
RADIO NETHERLANDS WORLDWIDE: Rotterdam City Council has voted Ahmed Aboutaleb as its mayor. The current deputy social affairs minister and member of the Labour party will be the first ever Dutch mayor of Moroccan origin. The appointment still has to be officially approved by the interior minister. Mr Aboutaleb will succeed Conservative VVD party member Ivo Opstelten, who has been in office for ten years. >>> | October 16, 2008
THE JERUSALEM POST: The United Nations General Assembly will hold a vote Friday on Iran's request to become temporary member of the organization's Security Council.
Iran may be under three sets of sanctions from the UN Security Council over its nuclear program, but that has not stopped it from campaigning for the temporary membership.
The chances of Iran winning the Asian regional seat against rival Japan in Friday's voting are widely viewed as slim-to-none: Victory would require support from two-thirds of all General Assembly member countries that turn up for the secret ballot.
Yet experts said just being in the race at all may be prize enough for Teheran, which announced its candidacy in September 2007.
"As with many governments, the Iranian government sometimes finds it advantageous to portray itself as an outsider that's challenging the status quo," said Ian Hurd, a political scientist at Northwestern University in Chicago who has written about legitimacy and power on the Security Council.
"They may want to run and lose to keep that outsider status," he said.
Iran, which last sat on the Security Council in 1956, may be the only country to vie for one of the body's 10 rotating seats while under active sanctions. Rwanda already held a seat on the Security Council when genocide erupted there in 1994. Libya, which currently holds a seat, expressed interest but did not make a formal bid until after sanctions linked to the investigation of the 1988 Pan Am jet bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland were lifted in 2003, according to analysts with the Columbia University-affiliated Security Council Report.
UN rules allow any member country to declare its candidacy, but the charter instructs representatives to consider candidates' contribution to the "maintenance of international peace and security." >>> By Allison Hoffman, New York | October 17, 2008
BBC SPORT: Football matches in France will be called off immediately if spectators jeer during the French national anthem, says the country's sports minister.
France's national anthem was booed in Tuesday's friendly win over Tunisia.
"Any match at which our national anthem is whistled at will be immediately stopped," said Roselyne Bachelot.
French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said the booing was "insulting" and that in the event of a repeat it would be necessary "to call off matches".
"It's insulting for France, it's insulting for the players of the French team, it should not be tolerated," he added.
"I think we should stop the matches when the anthems, whichever they are, are booed." >>> | October 15, 2008
IL MATTINO DI PADOVA: C’è poco da contestare a Magdi Allam, gran parte di quel che dice sull’Islam è purtroppo tragicamente vero. Ha indicato imam che predicano dalle moschee tesi inconciliabili con la nostra civiltà
C’è ben poco da contestare a Magdi Allam, gran parte di quel che dice sull’Islam è purtroppo tragicamente vero. Ha indicato imam che predicano dalle moschee tesi inconciliabili con la nostra civiltà (anzi, di più: con la nostra sicurezza), e aveva sempre ragione, su quegli imam lo Stato ha aperto gli occhi con anni di ritardo, e quando li ha espulsi lo ha fatto male, con esitazione.
Ha sempre sostenuto che non qualche frangia dell’islam solitaria, separata e scismatica, è inconciliabile con la nostra tradizione e il nostro diritto, ma l’Islam tout court, e ciò che il cuore dell’I slam non si prepara alla conciliazione e alla convivenza, ma alla sostituzione della nostra civiltà. Ha detto che l’Ucoii predica la separatezza da noi, la non-conciliabilità, e talvolta ospita e protegge membri del terrorismo. Indicava i nomi.
Questo ha fatto sì che nella Consulta per l’Islam, che il governo interpella quando prepara dei provvedimenti sull’attività dell’I slam in Italia, l’Ucoii non c’è. Ha anche rivelato (pesco nella memoria) che l’Ucoii ha infiltrazioni in una moschea già attiva nel padovano e in un’altra che sta per sorgere. Magdi Allam ha toccato la punta più avanzata della sua contestazione all’Islam quando ha detto che (cito tra virgolette, uso parole sue) «l’estremismo si alimenta di una sostanziale ambiguità insita nel Corano e nell’a zione concreta svolta da Maometto». >>> di Ferdinando Camon | Venerdì 17.10.2008
WELT ONLINE: Die Pläne der französischen EU-Ratspräsidentschaft, ein neues Partnerschaftsabkommen mit Russland auszuhandeln, gehen Italiens Ministerpräsidenten nicht weit genug. Berlusconi will, dass Russland vollwertiges Mitglied der EU wird. Ein EU-Beitritt der Russischen Föderation sei schon seit langer Zeit sein "Projekt".
Italiens Ministerpräsident Silvio Berlusconi hat sich für einen Beitritt Russlands zur Europäischen Union ausgesprochen. "Ich betrachte Russland als westliches Land und mein Plan für die Russische Förderation ist es, dass sie in den kommenden Jahren ein Mitglied der Europäischen Union wird“, sagte Berlusconi am Mittwoch vor Journalisten in Brüssel.
Zunächst müsse die EU deshalb ihre Gespräche mit Moskau über ein Partnerschaftsabkommen wieder aufnehmen, die nach dem Kaukasus-Konflikt ausgesetzt worden waren. "Ich will noch weiter gehen. Ich habe diese Vision seit Jahren“, führte Berlusconi bei seiner Ankunft beim EU-Gipfel fort.
Berlusconi pflegt seit Jahren eine freundschaftliche Beziehung zu Russlands Regierungschef Wladimir Putin und hat den früheren Präsidenten bereits mit seiner Familie auf sein Privatanwesen auf der Mittelmeerinsel Sardinien eingeladen. Europäische Union>>>> | 16. Oktober 2008
WELT ONLINE: In Jerusalem demonstrieren Tausende Christen aus aller Welt ihre Solidarität mit Israel. Sie sind willkommen, auch wenn sie bunt geschminkt und mit der Bibel in der Hand auf der Straße für Chaos und Verwirrung sorgen. Unser Autor hat sich unter die Gläubigen gemischt und wird sogleich belehrt.
Wer den fatalen Fehler beging, am Mittwochnachmittag mit dem Auto nach Jerusalem zu fahren, war für einige Stunden beschäftigt. Die Innenstadt war abgeriegelt, Dutzende ahnungsloser Polizisten schickten zunehmend enervierte Autofahrer von A nach B und wieder zurück und die einzige zugängliche Ausfahrt führte ins palästinensische Bethlehem. Zur „Jerusalem Wanderung“ trieben sich 35.000 Fußgänger auf den Straßen der Heiligen Stadt herum.
Für die meisten israelischen Teilnehmer ist das so eine Art Wandertag: man packt sich den Rucksack mit Leckereien voll und treibt die Kinder bis zum Sacher-Park in der Innenstadt vor sich her. Doch für rund 7000 meist evangelikale christliche Teilnehmer, die aus aller Herren Länder angereist waren, um ihre Solidarität mit Israel zu bekunden, ist es ein ganz besonderes Ereignis. „Wir sind aus Kentucky hierher gekommen, weil wir Israel lieben“, sagt Jenny Robarge und zieht sich die Davidsstern Baseballmütze aus dem Gesicht. Es sei einfach Wahnsinn, hier auf den Spuren Jesu zu wandeln.
Unter den Christen herrscht Karnevalsatmosphäre, viele haben sich verkleidet oder geschminkt. Ausgelassen zieht die bunte Menge durch die Heilige Stadt, Männer und Frauen tanzen auf den Straßen und singen fröhliche Lieder. Sie schwenken Transparente: „Gott liebt sein Volk“ steht darauf oder auch nur „Genesis 12,3“. In jenem Vers verspricht Gott nämlich dem Volk Israel die Treue: „Ich will segnen, die dich segnen; wer dich verwünscht, den will ich verfluchen. Durch dich sollen alle Geschlechter der Erde Segen erlangen.“ Jenny Robarge und ihre Glaubensgenossen wollen nicht verflucht werden, und deshalb gehört dem jüdischen Staat ihre bedingungslose Solidarität. >>> Von Michael Borgstede | 16. Oktober 2008
UE : Sarkozy plaide pour une gouvernance économique
LE FIGARO: Le président français juge nécessaire de poursuivre «le cercle vertueux» de la coordination économique engagé à la faveur de la crise financière par les partenaires européens, qui ont répondu plutôt positivement à son appel.
Après que l'Eurogroupe a adopté le plan de sauvetage des banques, Nicolas Sarkozy tient à rester au cœur de l'action européenne. Le chef de l'Etat a annoncé jeudi qu'il prendrait avant la fin de l'année des «initiatives» pour la coordination de la politique économique des 27 pays de l'UE. Le président en exercice de l'Union européenne juge en effet nécessaire de poursuivre «le cercle vertueux» engagé à la faveur de la crise financière.
«J'ai plusieurs idées en la matière (mais) ce n'est pas le moment, ce n'est pas le lieu de les mettre sur la table», a-t-il indiqué lors de la conférence de presse clôturant le sommet européen de Bruxelles. «L'émergence du gouvernement économique de l'Europe, qu'on attend depuis si longtemps, qui a commencé dimanche dernier (lors du sommet de l'Eurogroupe à Paris, Ndlr), il ne faut pas l'arrêter. La question, en tant que président du Conseil, que j'ai posée aux chefs d'Etat et de gouvernement, c'est : si on a pu apporter une réponse coordonnée à la crise financière en Europe, ne faudrait-il pas apporter une réponse coordonnée à la crise économique en Europe ? Du point de vue de la présidence française, la réponse est oui, oui, oui. Est-ce que c'est pour l'instant l'unanimité : non, non, non». >>> S.P. (lefigaro.fr), avec AFP | 16.10.2008
ARAB NEWS: RIYADH: An international book show on Islam and Saudi Arabia will start in London today to enhance understanding between the West and the Kingdom.
Ghainaa Communications and Studies is organizing the show in collaboration with Saudi student clubs and schools in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
"The show is designed to give a clearer view about Islam and Saudi Arabia, and will remove any misconceptions in the West," said Mohammed Al-Bishr, head of the research team overseeing the project. "This is the second show of its kind after the one held in Riyadh last year."
He added that the books to be displayed are in English and French and would tackle issues often raised in Western media about Islam and the Kingdom.
Al-Bishr noted that 77 scholars, intellectuals, politicians and media persons from the Kingdom, the rest of the Arab world, Russia, Japan, Greece, France and the United States have taken part in the project. He added that the participants expressed unbiased viewpoints on contemporary issues concerning Islam and Saudi Arabia. London Hosting Book Show on Kingdom and Islam >>> Md Rasooldeen | Thursday, October 16, 2008
Melbourne, Australia: Muslim Students Demand Their Own Prayer Facilities
HERALD SUN: UP TO 1000 Muslim students at RMIT* are protesting against sharing a multi-faith prayer room with Christians, Jews and worshippers of other faiths.
RMIT Islamic Society vice-president Mohamed Elrafihi said the university had promised Muslim students their own prayer room at the Swanston St campus.
Five refurbished multi-faith prayer rooms -- including a foot-wash room for Muslims and a prayer room with Arabic signs and oriented towards Mecca -- were opened to students earlier this year.
But Mr Elrafihi said the Islamic-themed prayer room can be booked by other religions, which would interrupt evening Muslim prayer times.
Islamic students have refused to use the new facilities, insisting one room be dedicated for use by Muslims.
"We have nothing against multi-faith, we support multi-faith," Mr Elrafihi said.
He said RMIT had misled international students in previous promotions about Muslim prayer facilities.
"The Muslims were promised a dedicated room and that was taken from them. That has caused a lot of stress," Mr Elrafihi said.
While refusing to use the new prayer facilities for the past eight months, up to 600 Muslim students have been worshipping outdoors each Friday in nearby Bowen St, or on other days on the lawns outside RMIT's prayer halls in part of the old Melbourne jail. Muslim Students Protest about Prayer Room at RMIT >>> Mark Dunn | October 14, 2008
THE GUARDIAN: I enjoyed a rare privilege last Friday, October 10 (which was world day against the death penalty), attending a gathering of brave and principled people to whom the death penalty might be applied in a number of countries around the world because of their beliefs or lack of them. This was the conference organised the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain to discuss apostasy – the "crime" of which all members of the Council are guilty – and associated questions about the place of religion and free thought in civil society.
The members of the Council of Ex-Muslims are people who, having thought things through for themselves, have put aside the religion they were made to accept as children – a common enough feature of the adult attainment of reason among many – but in this case the religion is Islam, which regards apostasy as punishable by death.
I wonder how many reading these words have sat in a gathering of people not a few of whom have received death threats because they think for themselves, and who have chosen a path not only personally dangerous but full of difficulty in relation to their families and communities – and who have done so because of reflectively chosen principle. It is a striking experience. In our relatively peaceful and tolerant western dispensations, disagreements of principle are rarely matters of murder; which is why some people find themselves incapable of grasping what last Friday's gathering signified.
The symbolic import of the conference was great; the substance of the discussions was absorbing and important. It was about the nature of apostasy, the freedom to choose whether or not to have a religion, and to criticise religion whether or not one subscribes to it; the question whether there should be one and the same law for all or whether Britain's Muslim minority should be allowed to apply sharia law to itself; and the question of faith schools, religious education and creationist doctrine. The themes all related to the place of the individual in civil society, and whether religious doctrine should be allowed to impose itself on those unwilling to be governed by it or – as with children – powerless to resist it.
The conference was opened by the head of the Iranian Secular Society, Fariborz Pooya, and addressed by the extraordinary and courageous Maryam Namazie, spokesperson of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, who subjected Islamism – political Islam – to scrutiny, arguing that it serves as an agency of Islamic states with serious implications for the lives, rights and freedoms of individuals, many of whom have left their countries of origin precisely to escape the repressive political and social climates there – countries with "moral police" and the death penalty for, among others, gay people, lovers who engage in extra-marital sex and people who reject religious orthodoxy.
A source of frustration for many is that they are lumped into "the Muslim community" whose self-elected spokespeople are more representative of the Islamic states that many in their "Muslim community" have fled: which is why the Council of Ex-Muslims makes a point of calling itself this, to reinforce the point that not everyone who was born into a Muslim community has to be permanently forced into homogenised membership of it. Another reason is to encourage the many closet "apostates" in that community that there is life and succour outside it. Free to Think for Themselves >>> AC Grayling | October 16. 2008
The Third 2008 Presidential Debate: John McCain versus Barack Obama (Full Version)
THE NEW YORK TIMES: McCain Presses Obama in Final Debate
Senator John McCain used the final debate of the presidential election on Wednesday night to raise persistent and pointed questions about Senator Barack Obama’s character, judgment and policy prescriptions in a session that was by far the most spirited and combative of their encounters this fall.
At times showing anger and at others a methodical determination to make all his points, Mr. McCain pressed his Democratic rival on taxes, spending, the tone of the campaign and his association with the former Weather Underground leader William Ayers, using nearly every argument at his disposal in an effort to alter the course of a contest that has increasingly gone Mr. Obama’s way.
But Mr. Obama maintained a placid and at times bemused demeanor — if at times appearing to work at it — as he parried the attacks and pressed his consistent line that Mr. McCain would represent a continuation of President Bush’s unpopular policies, especially on the economy.
That set the backdrop for one of the sharpest exchanges of the evening, when, in response to Mr. Obama’s statement that Mr. McCain had repeatedly supported Mr. Bush’s economic policies, Mr. McCain fairly leaped out of his chair to say: “Senator Obama, I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago.” >>> By Jim Rutenberg | October 15, 2008
THE TELEGRAPH: US Presidential Debate: John McCain Attacks Barack Obama as High-spending Liberal
Republican nominee Senator John McCain has fulfilled the wishes of his supporters, aggressively demanding that Senator Barack Obama explain his relationship with a 1960s radical and attacking his Democratic rival as a high tax, high-spending liberal.
Saving their sharpest encounter for the final debate, the US presidential candidates offered clear differences in their visions for the country one of them will be soon be governing.
Much of their disagreement centred around an Ohio plumber, Joe Wurzelbacher, whose recently confronted Mr Obama about the higher taxes he would face under the Democrat’s plans. Several times both candidates addressed their comments to "Joe the Plumber" – "if you are watching".
Slipping further behind in the polls, Mr McCain came out fighting and repeated to Mr Obama's face some of the most negative campaign allegations about the Illinois senator.
He demanded to know the full extent of Mr Obama’s relationship with Bill Ayers, now an education professor who was the founder group of anti-Vietnam War militants called the Weather Underground that bombed government buildings in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
"I don't care about an old washed-up terrorist, but as Senator Clinton said in her debates with you, we need to know the full extent of the relationship with you," said Mr McCain. >>> By Alex Spillius in Hempstead, New York | October 16, 2008
THE GUARDIAN: A British man and woman were today jailed for three months after being convicted of having sex on a Dubai beach.
Vince Acors, 34, of south-east London, and Michelle Palmer, 36, of Oakham, Rutland, were arrested on Jumeirah beach in the early hours of July 5, having met that night at a £60 all-you-can-drink champagne brunch.
As well as jailing the pair, Judge Hamdi Abul Kharr fined them 1,000 dirhams (£155) and ordered their deportation after they had completed their jail sentences.
Prosecutors said the pair were seen having sex on the each after being dropped off by a taxi.
But Palmer, who works on [sic] the emirate as a publishing executive, claimed they were "just kissing and hugging".
The pair's lawyer, Hassam Matter, had said witness statements, including one from a police officer, were wrong.
He said medical examinations proved Palmer did not have sex.
Matter said the pair were "upset" by the prison sentence and he would appeal against the verdict. Dubai Beach Sex Lands British Pair in Jail >>> Elizabeth Stewart and agencies | October 16, 2008
BBC: Dubai: Britons Guilty of Having Sex on the Beach
A British man and woman have been sentenced to three months in jail in Dubai after being found guilty of having sex on a beach.
Michelle Palmer, 36, of Oakham, Rutland, and Vince Acors, 34, of Bromley, south-east London, were arrested on 5 July.
The pair had denied charges of public indecency and having unmarried sex.
They were fined 1,000 dirhams (£160;$350) and will be deported after serving their sentences.
The pair were not at Dubai's Court of First Instance to hear the ruling but had been ordered not to leave the emirate.
Their defence lawyer Hassan Matter had insisted they would be proved innocent and said they were upset by the verdict.
"We are making an appeal against the verdict. They have not been arrested and taken into custody yet," he said. Sex-on-Beach Trial Britons Guilty >>> | October 16, 2008
Something Sure to Upset Muslims: The “Virtual Strip Search” at Airport Security
MAIL Online: New 'strip search' full body scanners being trialled in Australia will show people's private parts, officials have admitted.
But to spare their blushes, the faces of passengers will be blurred.
Domestic travellers leaving Melbourne airport over the next six weeks will be asked to test the new security scanners that can see through clothing.
The X-ray backscatter body scanner has been described by critics as a "virtual strip search."
The scanner is similar to one that was trialled at Paddington station in London in 2006 in direct response to the tube bombings in July 2005.
Similar systems have also been tested at Gatwick airport.
Cheryl Johnson, general manager of the Office of Transport Security, said:' It will show the private parts of people, but what we've decided is that we're not going to blur those out, because it severely limits the detection capabilities. '
THE GUARDIAN: Western publishers are launching a drive to tap the Arab world for new stars, hoping to bridge the language gap with more than 200 million native Arabic speakers - and make money from selling books.
Bloomsbury announced at the Frankfurt Book Fair yesterday that it is to launch a new Arabic-language publishing house, Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing, in partnership with the Gulf state. "The emphasis so far in Qatar has been on literacy, and our second challenge is how to move from literacy to literature to create a culture," said Abdel-Rahman Azzam, a spokesman for Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Missned, the emir's consort and the chair of the Qatar Foundation.
The venture hopes to find new talent to build on the success of Egypt's Alaa Al-Aswany and Afghanistan-born Khaled Hosseini, whose respective novels The Yacoubian Building and The Kite Runner have been international bestsellers.
Azzam said the Arabic literary world was on the cusp of a boom similar to that enjoyed by India, home of this year's Booker prize winner, Aravind Adiga.
Western interest in Arabic literature has been growing despite a paucity of published new works. Arabic is the fifth-most spoken language worldwide, with 206 million native speakers. Many feel that globalisation and the domination of English have negatively affected their native tongue. But Gulf oil and gas wealth - and the competitive urge to create and buy signature international brands - has opened up possibilities. Publishers Seek New Talent in Arab World >>> Alison Flood in Frankfurt and Ian Black | Thursday, October 16, 2008
UPI: CHICAGO -- A Muslim group called Gain Peace has spent nearly $30,000 to place ads for Islam on Chicago Transit Authority buses serving the city's North Side.
The move is part of a monthlong campaign to dispel popular misconceptions about the religion, the Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday.
Though most people interviewed by the Tribune said they hadn't noticed the ads, Gain Peace is calling the campaign a success. Group Places Ads for Islam on Buses >>> | October 15, 2008
Jörg Haider Was Drunk at the Time of the Fatal Crash
MSNBC: Aide says far-right politician was above legal limit when car veered off road
VIENNA, Austria - Austrian far-right politician Joerg Haider was drunk at the time of his fatal car crash, his spokesman said Wednesday. Stefan Petzner said Haider's blood alcohol level was significantly above the legal limit when he crashed his car early Saturday in the southern province of Carinthia, where he was governor. Police said his high-powered Volkswagen Phaeton was speeding at twice the posted limit when it veered off the road, crashed and flipped. Petzner said he felt obliged to confirm widespread speculation that the former Freedom Party leader was intoxicated. Austria’s Haider Was Drunk during Fatal Crash >>> AP | October 15, 2008
INQUIRER.NET: MANILA, Philippines -- A day after an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) was beheaded in Jeddah for killing a Saudi national, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Wednesday said it is closely monitoring the capital case of two more OFWs that is now going through final court procedures.
In a press conference, Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Esteban Conejos said the case is one of 34 in varying court stages that the DFA is monitoring. He did not name the two OFWs or where they are.
"Since January 2006, the department under my watch has handled 64 probable death-row cases. Of the 64, 24 have been commuted. Of the remaining 40 cases, 34 are already filed in court and the rest are still in preliminary investigation stage," he said.
Since then, he said the other unsuccessful attempt to have a death sentence commuted was that of Reynaldo Cortez, who was executed June 2007.
At the same time, Conejos said the Philippine government has sent a note verbale to the Saudi government for the possible repatriation of the remains of Jenifer Bidoya, who was beheaded Tuesday afternoon. Saudi Arabia: Two More Filipinos Face Execution >>> By Veronica Uy | October 15, 2008
Gains by radical parties around the globe highlight democracy’s ongoing vulnerability to anti-democratic movements. Indonesia – with its free press, stable economy, free elections, tolerant and inclusive policy – is no exception. But in local Indonesian politics, the radical Islamic Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) has made dramatic gains, with extremists pressing for dress codes, Koran reading tests, laws based on sharia and other religious standards. “The PKS has taken just 10 years to transform itself from a bit player to a major force in national politics,” explains author Sadanand Dhume. Politics driven by fear, disunity among moderates due to policy differences or personal ambitions, along with governments that succumb to corruption and fail to provide basic services can boost extremist parties. Dhume warns that extremism eventually leads to a downward cycle, stifling scientific inquiry, open debate on policies and economic investment. He concludes that a moderate path requires vigilant respect for multiculturalism, tolerance and individual rights. – YaleGlobal
YALE GLOBAL ONLINE: Democracy remains highly vulnerable to determined anti-democratic movements
WASHINGTON: Against the backdrop of carnage at Islamabad’s Marriott hotel, terrorist attacks on the US embassy in San’a and the Indian embassy in Kabul, and the resurgence of Al Qaeda in Algeria, few places in the Muslim world appear as placid as Indonesia. It’s been three years since the country’s last major terrorist bombing; Al Qaeda’s local affiliate, Jemaah Islamiyah, is on the run. Democracy has blossomed: Parliamentary and presidential elections scheduled for 2009 will be the third consecutive free ballot since the end of General Suharto’s 32-year reign in 1998. Both the president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and the principal opposition leader, Megawati Sukarnoputri, reflect the principles of tolerance and inclusiveness bequeathed to the country by its founding fathers at independence. The Indonesian press is Southeast Asia’s freest, its cinema the region’s most vibrant.
Beneath the surface, though, Indonesian society is in ferment. Earlier this year, clerical diktats and repeated mob violence forced the government to effectively ban the Ahmadiyya, a beleaguered Islamic sect considered “heretical” by some Muslims for revering its founder alongside the prophet Mohammed. In June, in an incident rich with irony, members of the vigilante group Islamic Defenders Front, wielding bamboo staves, attacked peaceful demonstrators rallying for religious freedom at the National Monument, an iconic symbol of Indonesian unity. Dozens of district governments have enacted sharia-inspired regulations including mandatory dress codes, compulsory Koran reading tests for students and couples seeking to marry, and vice squads loosely modeled on those in Saudi Arabia and Taliban-era Afghanistan. In September, protesters from the Hindu island of Bali took to the streets to force parliament to postpone passage of a so-called anti-pornography bill whose broadly worded restrictions on clothing and artistic expression could potentially penalize Balinese culture and jeopardize its tourism-dependent economy. Bali contributes the lion’s share of Indonesia’s tourism earnings, estimated at $5.3 billion in 2007. Islamic Challenge to Indonesia’s Democracy >>> Sadanand Dhume | October 15, 2008
