Indonesia: 1000 enraged Muslims attack U.S. embassy with sticks, stones and Molotov cocktails

Sticks and stones, the preferred weapons of the caveman.

So, the Christians "counter" the extremists with mere words. Great.

The time for turning the other cheek is not now, not in these types of situations. Sure, I know they're outnumbered. But if they're Christians, they should have no fear of death.

Response? Where are you, Barry Soetoro?

This must be a phony report. Everyone knows how moderate Muslims are in Indonesia!

From the article above:

In order to counter such extremists, some 50 Christian and Muslim activists in Jombang (East Java) issued a statement slamming the recent acts of violence.

They belong to an interfaith group affiliated with the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia's largest (moderate) Muslim organisation...

Let's take a look at Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), "Indonesia's largest (moderate) Muslim organisation", shall we?

From a 2010 Jihad Watch article:

A prominent cleric from Indonesia's biggest Muslim organisation, the Nahdlatul Ulama, says that Islamic sharia law should take precedence over laws passed by the parliament.

...

The NU congress opposed Indonesia's child protection and marriage laws which sets the marriageable age at 16 for women and 19 for men.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/03/prominent-indonesian-cleric-says-islamic-law-should-take-priority-over-laws-passed-by-parliament.html

Or this, from just last month of this year:

Two people were killed and five were injured in an attack on a group of Shia students and teachers in Sampang, East Java, on Sunday.

...

Shortly into their trip, they were stopped by about 500 men from mainstream Muslim groups, preventing them from continuing, said Umi Kulsum, who was at the scene.

“Two people died, Hamama and Tohir,” she said. “Five were wounded as they were trying to protect the women and children. I was petrified.

“The mob had swords and machetes, and they attacked all of the adult males who were trying to protect the women and children.”

...

On Dec. 29, Shiites in Nangkernang was attacked by hard-line Muslim groups, who set fire to hundreds of homes and a Shia Islamic school, displacing 500 Shiites from their village.

...

Umi identified the attackers as followers of Roisul Hukama, a local Nahdlatul Ulama leader who has been fanning hatred toward the local Shia community.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/08/indonesia-islamophobes-attack-group-of-shiite-students-and-teachers----no-wait.html

Or this:

Teungku Faisal Ali, the head of the Aceh chapter of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), said those who criticized caning in Aceh tended to "dislike" Islam... "Everyone must respect Islamic Shariah in Aceh,” he said.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2011/05/indonesian-islamic-clerics-strike-back-at-amnesty-international-criticism-everyone-must-respect-isla.html

Or this:

In March this year [2010], the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country's largest Muslim organization, issued an edict supporting FGM/C, though a leading cleric told the NU’s estimated 40 million followers “not to cut too much”.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report/90366/INDONESIA-Female-genital-mutilation-persists-despite-ban

And as I noted on Jihad Watch way back in January of 2008:

From August of last year:

The Nahdlatul Ulama’s fatwa against television gossip shows.
At their national conference at the end of July the clerics of the NU determined that Muslims who make or watch celebrity gossip shows, or “infotainmen[t]”, commit sin and participate in the moral degradation of the nation. The issuing of the fatwa has drawn the support of a number of groups including the Press Board, the PPP, Partai Persatuan Pembangunan, and the Majelis Ulama Indonesia, the Ulema Council.

If these Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) Muslims are sincere about their project to "de-radicalize" Islam in Indonesia, they apparently have an obtuse inability to comprehend that the pathologically obsessive puritanism of the Islam they purvey, through such fatwas as quoted above, contributes to the radically nutritious swamp whence the "extremists" pullulate.

From the same article quoted above, we see signs of internal dissension within the NU:

Former leader of the NU, Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid, however advised people to not pay too much attention to the fatwa, as it was not the only accepted view of the matter. He said the NU was entitled to take a position on the question but others were free to think as they pleased. He mentioned the example of a former leader of the NU, Bisry Samsuri, who had forbidden women from playing drums in music bands. Many women, including members of the NU, continued to bash away on the drums regardless, he said.

It's nice to see one spokesman for the NU, "Gus Dur", belittle the fatwa against females drumming in bands -- but on the other hand, the fact that there was such a preposterously pathological fatwa in the first place -- by a former leader of the NU! -- shows that the NU needs some serious reappraisal of its sociopolitical rhetoric. Will the current of the NU, to "stop the spread of misteaching of Islam, which could trigger radicalism", also purge such pathologies within its own ranks -- pathologies that also contribute, albeit more subtly, to the very same "radicalism"? Don't hold your breath.

http://www.indonesiamatters.com/573/infotainment-gossip-shows/

Relying upon "moderate Muslims" to help make Muslims amenable to the 21st century is like having mental patients run an asylum. The only alternative, in a Muslim society, to the mental patients running things, is the occasional dictatorial Nurse Ratchett.

It certainly seems to me that the Marines guarding the embassy should have enough ammunition to protect the USA from attack, whether it's in an enclave in Egypt, or the shores here.

Or is that one of the places which our wonderful Secretary of State has declared that our marines can't have live ammunition?

The term "enraged Muslims" verges on the redundant. Rather like the term "radical Islam."

It appears that the only function of US embassies in muslim lands is to facilitate the openings of fast foot joints and the processing of student & tourist visas. Close them all now, and replace with virtual embassies on the internet.

Cries of Allah Akbar are often heard in Muslamia when an infidel is being beheaded or a devotee is having a sexual climax. Both are cultural and religious traditions which cannot be changed.