Muslim Nation vs Jihad: Indonesia’s syncretic Islam is under threat, Radical Islamism and Jihad, NewAgeIslam.com

Radical Islamism and Jihad

Muslim Nation vs Jihad: Indonesia’s syncretic Islam is under threat

from those who would convert it into the austere Saudi version

by Manoj Joshi

THE BIG story in Indonesia in the short while I was there last week was the execution last Sunday of Imam Samudra, Amrozi and Mukhlas by a firing squad for their involvement in the 2002 bombings which killed more than 202 people, including 88 Australians, on the island of Bali. The three had been executed after an extended legal process. They had been arrested in 2003 and sentenced to death, but for five years they had delayed the process through legal efforts. However, they refused to submit a plea for clemency.

Hardline Islamist groups in Indonesia railed against the authorities and the President and Vice President and other officials even received threats. As in the case of Dhananjoy Chatterji in 2004, the Indonesian media turned the people who had little remorse in killing more than 200 people into heroes. There was also a powerful current of religious zealotry in the world’s largest Muslim state.

Some of the “martyr” complex came from NGOs which oppose the death penalty. Given this atmosphere, the government handled the executions with great care, announcing the event after the deed had been done. They went through with it when it became clear that hardline groups had actually been emboldened by the prolonged public campaign in favour of the convicts by extremist elements.

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