From: Steve Davies (steve365@btinternet.com)
Date: Fri Jun 06 2003 - 13:52:27 MDT
> >Let's leave Indonesia out of it.
John Clark said
> No. If you're correct and their intense mind numbing rage is caused by ill
> treatment by the west and is not intrinsic to their dogma then you need to
> explain why Indonesian Muslims hate the west every bit as much as Arab
> Muslims do. No doubt if you're skillful with Google you'll be able to find
> some little two bit massacre of Indonesians a century or two ago but
you'll
> have to do better than that. The one thing the two groups have in common
> is their religion and I don't think it's unreasonable to draw a conclusion
> from that.
I broadly agree with much of your argument John but I do think Indonesia is
the interesting exception. From what I read and know personally I would say
that while there is a fair amount of anti-American feeling in Indonesia it's
nothing like as intense as it is in the Middle East (it's the Dutch they
still have it in for plus the Chinese). The Islamic fundamentalists in
Indonesia who were responsible for the Bali bombing come overwhelmingly from
the very small Arabic speaking minority in Java and Sumatra. Although the
Wahabi propaganda has been doing damage there just as in the rest of the
Islamic world it isn't anything like as bad as it is in, say, Pakistan. I
would tentatively conclude that it isn't so much Islam as "Islam in the
Middle East/Pakistan" that is the problem. That part of the world does have
certain features that would lead any observer to predict trouble such as a
very high birthrate, lots of educated but unemployed young men and a
buggered up economy. Not to mention a family system that makes a stable
political system difficult to sustain - something that doesn't apply in
Indonesia, except among the minority I mentioned earlier. Steve DaviesDavies
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