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In Indonesia, radical Muslims are strong and getting stronger. This from Straits Times, with thanks to Nicolei:
LAST month, Indonesia's Defenders of Islam Front (FPI) set up an 'immorality watch' squad to bring to book perpetrators of vice.Over a hundred supporters of Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir rallied in Jakarta and picketed the Supreme Court, urging judges to overturn the immigration violation ruling that keeps him behind bars for three years.
Bashir, meanwhile, was mobilising support among prisoners, telling them that the Bali bombers were 'God's fighters', not terrorists.
Note well: this is how radical Muslims recruit all over the world: by appealing to the Islamic religious sensibilities of young Muslims. Meanwhile, this distinction between jihad and terrorism gives them an easy way to denounce terrorism when under pressure from the media or law enforcement officials.
Together with FPI leader Habib Mohamad Rizieq Syihab, he also issued a statement urging hardliners to push for syariah [that is, Sharia]implementation this year.The 'noise' from radical Islamists has shot up in recent months. They are mobilising supporters, issuing decrees, preaching acrimony and lambasting the West for its war on terrorism.
This increased activity, however, is being ascribed by Indonesian observers to a loss of mainstream support:
Analysts say this is happening partly because their mainstream supporters - the pro-syariah parties - are distancing themselves.Jakarta Post deputy editor Endy Bayuni said mainstream parties see their ties to the radicals - especially those connected to the bombings that have killed Muslims too - as a political liability.
This was further confirmed by the independent Indonesian Survey Institute's latest poll results, released in November, which showed that only 14 per cent of 2,240 respondents supported the pro-syariah parties.
These being Vice-President Hamzah Haz's United Development Party, the Crescent and Star party and the new Prosperous and Justice Party.
Mr Endy said mainstream parties want to renounce their links to the hardliners to regain legitimacy.
However, he told The Straits Times that these and other Islamist parties will continue to push for political Islam.
'The Islamist parties have to be seen as trying to make good their promise to their constituents to fight for an Islamic state and the syariah,' he said.
They had a victory in the national education Bill this year. The Bill, now law, requires that all schools provide Islamic teachers if they have Muslim students.
And now they are pushing for a Bill on religious tolerance, which critics say is really an attempt to thwart the spread of Christianity.
A draft of the Bill suggests that inter-religious marriage and inter-religious adoptions will be outlawed.
Political science expert Rizal Mallarangang told The Straits Times he expects the 'noise' from radicals to increase.
While this may not translate into political gains, it could work to 'create an atmosphere of disturbance and hatred', he said.
Posted by Robert at January 17, 2004 8:37 AM
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Even very young children can be introduced to basic examples of philosophical thought; Aesop's famed "Fables" were written as philosophy lessons for small children.
By the time children enter the so-called "latency" period (around 7-11 or thereabouts), they are developmentally ready for the next, more sophisticated step.
Now here is the most incredible part: Teenagers are the most ready for formal philosophy. Can you believe that? Well, believe it, dude!
The reason for the differences in "readiness" isn't simply the fact that a baby starts out with no knowledge and slowly collects enough data to form more complex ideas. It's due to actual changes in the brain, including changes in the way the brain is organized.
By the time the child reaches the "latency" period (it's anything but latent!), he is experiencing an increase in the production of sex hormones (in many Nordic children, you can see an external sign that this is occurring as pale blond hair begins to darken). The brain begins to reorganize itself in a more adult form during this period, and is capable of more conceptual thought than before. Schoolwork reflects this change with the introduction of a different quality of work; there's not a 4th grade teacher alive who doesn't recognize it as a "watershed" year, where some kids handle the work more easily than others.
By the time puberty is in full swing, the organization of the brain quickly finalizes itself in the form it will retain throughout adulthood. It is now that young people actively search for a "roadmap" to guide them thrugh life; they argue about everything, assess new ideas, reject old ones, rebel against their parents, and are generally a pain in the neck.
By failing to recognize this whole brain organization thing, we are missing a tremendous window of opportunity. The "roadmap" that these kids are seeking is a philosophical one, particularly (at this point in their lives) an ethical one-- in short, a moral code.
By offering an objectively valid philosophy to our children, we could raise an entire generation of citizens who could see early in life that what Robert is describing is true, that Islam's philosophy is based on an invalid "standard of the good," and is thus a source of frustration, humiliation, low self-esteem, incompetence, and anger to millions upon millions of energetic, intelligent people who could be advancing mankind and winning Nobel Prizes instead of blowing up their neighbors.
Many people attribute the terrorists' actions to poverty, lack of opportunity, etc. Well, it's time for a lesson in "The Law of Causality--101." The poverty and lack of opportunity etc. are the result of a philosophy that does not accurately describe reality--Islam's failed philosphy.
cubed, Have you experienced poverty, lack of opportunity, despair and loss of hope.
If you did, then whatever you are saying is valid, if not, it is all theory....
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