Lynch mobs batter Indonesia’s tolerant image
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JAKARTA — Mobs screaming “God is greatest” as they stone people to death; mobs calling for death to blasphemers and burning churches; mobs beating liberals in the capital’s thoroughfares: these are not scenes from Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, but Indonesia, a so-called model of pluralism.
US President Barack Obama adopted the obligatory tone of visiting Western politicians when he lauded mainly Muslim Indonesia’s “spirit of religious tolerance” during a visit to Jakarta in November.
But three months later his ambassador, Scot Marciel, was forced this week to issue a statement deploring religious violence and encouraging President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to uphold the rule of law in the ostensibly secular state.
Indonesia’s cherished image as a “moderate” Muslim-majority nation has taken a battering at the hands of mobs of angry Muslims who slaughtered three members of a minority sect on Sunday and set fire to two churches on Tuesday..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110210com3.html
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