Megawati (AFP)
The US and its allies are behaving with "exceptional injustice" toward Muslim countries, says Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri. From Smh.com.au, with thanks to Jean-Luc:
Mrs Megawati sought to contrast the way Indonesia had used the law to find and prosecute its terrorists with the "unilateral" US-led invasion of Iraq. The remarks opened an international conference of Islamic scholars, which her government partly funded."It may be due to either coincidence or intention, but an exceptional injustice is apparent in the attitude and action of big countries towards countries [whose] major populations are Muslims," she told 300 delegates from Islamic universities and governments around the world.
Indonesia, she said, had the right idea:
Indonesia was a genuinely moderate Muslim society that used the justice system to oppose terrorism, such as the bombings in Bali, she said. "The nation resolutely repudiates and legally prosecutes those perpetrating acts of violence against others, despite their conviction that those are religious acts."
Hmm. What about the light treatment meted out to Abu Bakar Bashir?
Megawati was also exercised about France:
Although France had staunchly opposed the Iraqi invasion, she said it was guilty of perpetrating a "far smaller" injustice towards Muslims by its recent move to restrict women and girls from wearing the Islamic head scarf.Such discriminatory acts would be seen as test cases in Muslim countries to judge whether "those big countries are serious in practising the human rights they have preached to the whole world since the past 20th century".
What tests, if any, meanwhile, would Muslim countries themselves have to take regarding human rights? Megawati did have a few comments:
But she also criticised Islamic society and said it too needed to change and present "a more peaceful facade". She urged Islamic leaders to become more open to ideas and technological advances in the West that were leaving Islamic societies behind."Islamic scholars need to formulate and develop a socio-religious conception that is more open, more inclusive, which provides space to the pluralism of mankind that is so diverse."
Indonesia's 40 million strong Islamic group Nahdlatul Ulama organised the meeting with government help to redress the "stigmatisation of Islam as a religion that accommodates acts of violence", a conference document said.
If Nahdlatul Ulama really wants to do that, it will have to address jihad ideology. I doubt that was on the agenda.
The west should be ganging up on islam because what we have learned is that every muslim has the ability to change in a heartbeat and become a radical islamist that is a threat to us all.
Islamic groups like this don't object to the violence in Islam -- they just object to other people NOTICING that there's violence in Islam. What they are asking for is absurd: we should all just go about our business and not notice that Muslim groups are talking about killing us, destroying our societies, and letting off bombs in places where we congregate.
A good example of the complete lack of logicical though processes that Islam promotes in its adherents.
Believe me, its not only a muslim that change in a heartbeat but every humanbeing when he is cornered and pushed to wall. With no hope to rely on, what are you ultimately going to do?. What are you going to do if you see someone killing your countrymen? . Stop him of course with every possible mean. Thats what the Muslim do. The only difference is the philosophy fo being a nation. THe muslims believed to belonging to a single nation irrespective of the boundaries. And please dont ask if it is right to kill innocent people, because now we have a very good term for the brutalities coined by His Excellency Mr. Donald Rumsfeld. SImply put the killings under the title "Collateral Damage"
What is going is not right for sure, but each side should have some retrospective analysis.
Hashim: "THe muslims believed to belonging to a single nation irrespective of the boundaries."
Please clear this up for us..does this mean that Muslims feel that they can go anywhere on the planet, and do what they are used to doing, regardless of any other religion's or nation's laws? Is that what you meant with this statement?
D.C. Watson
hashim,
Did you read the article you are commenting on? Of course you think its fine for muslims to violate each others' civil rights. You prefer Saddam, you think the Syrian occupation of Lebanon is fine, etc. The old Islamic double standard is alive and well. Muslims can do no wrong eh?
I think Reza and Hashim are the same person.
I am confused about the "no boundaries" thing.
If you don't care about boundaries then why do the palestinians keep trying to create a palestinian state. By the way states have boundaries.
DC, of course that's what it means. There's a totalizing logic here, its transparent to many except for those paying attention. An intellectual universalism that will rationalize any kind of behaviour to achieve its goals. When you view the future as inevitable and belonging to you, of course you get mad when someone interferes with your expectations, so there's no rational force restricting your conduct. What did you think has been force driving the indignance in Muslim world? We're in their way, hey its Tombstone dude, planet wide nuke fight.
They'll take the head shot, thinking they can knock off the capitals like one of Muhammed's famous charges across the desert. Except it will be gigatons vs kilotons. Won't be pretty.
You know, some people might think that this is some kind of inflammatory rhetoric, but think again, how sick is a culture that celebrates after airplanes are villianously hurled into office buildings, murdering thousands of innocents. This against a country that spent the previous eight years fighting wars to rescue muslims and forcing Israel to make concessions to the "palestinians".
See, America didn't meet our expectations fast enough, so lets fly airplanes into their office towers. "Radical" Muslim impatience always seems to lead to murder. Throughout human history, hasn't it often been observed that envy and lust are satisfied best when camoflaged as religion.
Nice post Nathan. Good argument and facts to back them up.
You won't beat hashim with logic. He is immune to it. He will just keep repeating that it is fine for palestineans to kill Israeli civilians, but not vice versa.
Those palestineans sure know how to pick a winner. Who can forget the party in the streets after 9/11? And they followed up with a show of support for Saddam right before he went down for the count. "with out blood and our souls we redeem you saddam". A good example of palestinean master strategy.
To Bobnoxious, I know.....I just wanted him to say it.....I mean, admit it. An arrogant cult they are, aren't they?
One cannot reason with a muslim,be it a moderate or a fundamentalist muslim.
The mere fact that they believe in the quran and its absurd teaching of killing,it is proof enough.
Whenever amongst themselves,muslims will preach hatred,intolerance and murder of kafir,a universal caliphate and destruction of all other religion.
When speaking to an outside audience,however,they will only talk about the islam as a religion of peace.
Hashim,there were no palestinians on the planes that struck on 9/11...
If the UN could give the palestinians what they wanted,tomorow they would find another excuse for killing kafir.
Once again we (or certain people) see and make unnecessary generalizations and suffer from voluntary delusional disorder. Hey look! Certain Non-Muslim People are becoming like the terrorist Palestinians every day, sooner or later IT WILL BE THEY with the dynamite strapped to your chest as you walk into a mosque believing that they are doing the 'right thing'. By returning evil with evil. Look into the mirror and beware of the Inner Terrorist instead of some fanatic on the other side of the world!
Zyler,for the time being,the first thing we must do is to anyhilate islam.
It is a do-or -die situation for us...if we are not going to destroy islam,it will destroy us,it`s as simple as that.
Let`s put our priorities in order here...we cannot afford the luxury of phylosofical meditation and introspection,no looking in the mirror b.s....we`ll have enough time to do so,after we take care of the business at hand,which is the eradicationg the cancer called Islam.