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Thursday, June 14, 2012

INDONESIA: STONE AGE OR SPACE AGE?, Islamic Ideology, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic Ideology
INDONESIA: STONE AGE OR SPACE AGE?
By Terry Lacey
Sep 15, 2009

A provincial decision on adultery doesn’t characterize the whole country

It´s front page news in Indonesia that the Aceh provincial parliament has just introduced a shariah by-law on stoning for adultery. (Jakarta Post 15.09.09). Is Indonesia entering a new stone age? No its not. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, backed by modern Islamic coalition allies, will lead Indonesia into the space age, becoming one of the ten largest economies in the world.

Indonesia will be the 7th largest economy in the world by 2045, bigger than Japan, the UK or Germany, says a Standard Charter Bank Report, September 2nd entitled Indonesia: Asia´s Emerging Powerhouse. And Indonesia will probably have to be a nuclear power by then to meet high volume demand for clean energy.

It is perhaps a good thing that an outgoing defeated provincial parliament of yesterday´s men in Aceh have made such a stupid decision. They clearly don’t care or are not aware of the impact this will have on the reputation of Indonesia or Islam.

But they will create a political backlash to help sweep away the creeping advances of a politicized and backward version of shariah law that does not belong in Indonesia.

In the UK, Middle East and Indonesia modern interpretations of shariah rules are helping to expand the economic and social vision of Islamic banking. Islamic bonds have been successfully introduced into Indonesian financial markets with resounding success. And in Malaysia many non-Muslims use modern shariah banking services.

http://newageislam.com/indonesia---stone-age-or-space-age?/islamic-ideology/d/1747


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