1. WorldWide Religious News (http://wwrn.org)
(1) Indonesian leader woos Islamists, upsets minorities, 27 April 2009
By Sara Webb and Sunanda Creagh (Reuters)
Jakarta, Indonesia - As Indonesia's president courts Islamic parties to form a new coalition, religious and ethnic minorities fear this may undermine a tradition of tolerance in the mainly Muslim but officially secular Southeast Asian nation.
Such a shift could have far-reaching social and economic consequences, potentially stoking tensions between the majority Muslims and the minority Christians and Hindus, as well as prompting the mainly Christian, ethnic Chinese who dominate the business sector to park more of their assets offshore.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's reliance on a large, unwieldy coalition of Islamic and secular parties in his first term, including the Golkar Party which dominated politics during the Suharto era, made it much harder for him to tackle reform.
But in parliamentary polls this month, Yudhoyono's Democrat Party tripled its share of the votes to about one fifth, putting him in a stronger position to form a more manageable coalition of parties with a common platform.
Already, Yudhoyono, or SBY as he's often known, has said he may ally with the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), an Islamist party which lifted its share of the vote slightly to 8 percent, causing alarm among some Indonesians.
"The possibility that SBY will join with PKS makes us nervous," said Sofjan Wanandi, Chairman of the Employers' Association of Indonesia, citing concerns that the PKS might push to create an Islamic state once they had power.
"There is a lot of uncertainty around this. We don't know if we can believe them," he said.
"I don't mind if we have a few ministers from PKS, but if they start to implement really nationalist policies then it could lead to something negative. Political stability is the most important thing to have to avoid capital flight."
WIDER APPEAL?
The PKS's push for reform and a crackdown on graft fits with Yudhoyono's platform, but in other areas there is less of a fit.
Its network of cadres hold weekly study sessions to discuss Islam and while the party has tried to play down its Islamist reputation to widen its appeal, many Indonesians are skeptical, fearing it will push for more sharia-type laws.
Its economic policies veer towards the nationalist, and it has said it would push for the renegotiation of contracts in the energy and mining sector, which could deter foreign investors.
"PKS have a conservative ideology but are portraying themselves as open and moderate because they are also pragmatic," said Mohamad Guntur Romli, a religious freedom activist.
"Right now, because the Democrat Party is winning, they will adapt because they want to get into the coalition. They will be careful about what they say.
Tifatul Sembiring, PKS chairman, told Reuters earlier this month that his party supported sharia principles, rather than sharia law, and wants all Indonesians to obey their respective religious teachings.
A close alliance between the Democrats and PKS would give the latter much greater influence and perhaps more cabinet posts, at a time when support for most other Islam-based parties -- as well as for the two more established secular parties, Golkar and Megawati Sukarnoputri's PDI-P -- has declined.
Indonesia's minorities -- Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, as well as the ethnic Chinese who dominate the business sector -- have already had a taste of what this conservative Muslim influence could mean in terms of policies.
As Yudhoyono's relations with Golkar, his main coalition partner, soured last year, he backed policies favoured by the Islamist parties, passing an anti-porn law that upset Christians, Hindus, and liberal Muslims, and issuing restrictions on the Ahmadiyah, a minority sect that some Muslims consider heretical.
INFILTRATION
Earlier this month, a report backed by former President Abdurrahman Wahid warned that extremists and hardliners including the PKS were infiltrating moderate Muslim groups and institutions to press a more radical agenda.
The PKS denied having a secret agenda.
Even so, some moderate Muslims feel that Indonesia's centuries-old form of Islam, influenced by mysticism, is under threat from a more conservative form of Islam, noting that polygamy is on the rise, more women and even small children wear the jilbab, and conversions to Islam have increased.
About 85 percent of Indonesia's population of 226 million profess Islam, and the vast majority are considered moderate.
"Religious consciousness has been rising for the last five years. But that is (true) for other religions too," Nasaruddin Umar, Director General of the Office of Islamic Guidance in the Department of Religion.
At the same time, an economic migration from predominantly Muslim areas to minority areas is sowing the seeds for religious and cultural conflict.
Thousands of Indonesians from the poorer parts of Java and Sulawesi islands have been lured by the prospect of jobs in the resource-rich areas of Papua and Kalimantan, which have large Christian and animist populations, and in the resort island of Bali, which is mainly Hindu.
In Papua, where a secessionist conflict has brewed for decades, analysts warn of the potential for religious-based clashes following an influx of Muslims to the mainly Christian, tribal areas at the easternmost extreme of Indonesia.
"The potential for communal conflict is high in Papua," International Crisis Group warned in a report last year.
"Many indigenous Christians feel they are being slowly but surely swamped by Muslim migrants at a time when the central government seems to be supportive of more conservative Islamic orthodoxy, while some migrants believe that they face discrimination if not expulsion in a democratic system where Christians can exercise "tyranny of the majority"."
・Disclaimer: WWRN does not endorse or adhere to views or opinions expressed in the articles posted. This is purely an information site, to inform interested parties of religious trends.
(2) Malaysia bars conversion of children by 1 parent" , 23 April 2009
By Sean Yoong (AP)
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Malaysia announced Thursday it will bar the religious conversion of children without both parents' consent in a major step to ease interfaith conflicts that have strained this Muslim-majority country.
The announcement by new Prime Minister Najib Razak's administration follows a string of high-profile legal spats in which people who embraced Islam also changed their young children's religion despite protests from their estranged non-Muslim spouses.
The disputes have sparked complaints of discrimination by non-Muslims because Islamic Shariah courts typically rule in favor of Muslims, while secular courts that preside over family matters for non-Muslims say they have no jurisdiction over such cases.
Law Minister Nazri Abdul Aziz said the Cabinet has decided that when couples separate, their children should be raised in their original religion. He said amendments are expected to be made to the law to prevent conflicts from surfacing if one spouse converts.
"The Cabinet feels there is an implied and constructive contract between husband and wife that their children should be brought up in accordance to the common religion at the time of marriage," Nazri told reporters.
The move comes on the heels of a case of a Hindu woman who is challenging her estranged husband's conversion of their three children to Islam in a Muslim Shariah court without her consent.
Malaysia has a two-tier court system for family matters - secular courts for non-Muslims and Shariah courts for Muslims. Minorities complain that in disputes involving Muslims, the Shariah courts get jurisdiction and often rule against them.
Ethnic Malay Muslims comprise nearly two-thirds of Malaysia's population and dominate the government.
・Disclaimer: WWRN does not endorse or adhere to views or opinions expressed in the articles posted. This is purely an information site, to inform interested parties of religious trends.
2．The Nut Graph (http://thenutgrap.com)
Scholar: Forced conversions un-Islamic, 22 April 2009
by Shanon Shah (shanonshah@thenutgraph.com)
PETALING JAYA, 22 Apr 2009: Forcing minors to convert to Islam is un-Islamic, leading Islamic scholar Prof Dr Mohammad Hashim Kamali said today at a public lecture.
"Those who use Islam for purposes not germane to aqidah (articles of faith), for example to legitimise marriage, divorce, or win custody battles over children, are misusing the religion," he said.
Kamali was responding to a question from the floor on the legitimacy of minors being unilaterally converted to Islam by a parent who had converted to the religion.
In a recent case, a Hindu convert to Islam, Mohd Ridzuan Abdullah, converted his three children to Islam on 2 April, according to his still-Hindu wife, M Indira Gandhi.
According to Indira Gandhi, Ridzuan then obtained a syariah court order on 3 April to claim custody over their children, Tevi Darsiny, 12, Karan Dinish, 11, and Prasana Diksa, one.
Karan Dinish has since stated publicly that he does not want to be a Muslim and wants to remain a Hindu.
"When a husband who has converted to Islam claims that his children, who could be two or three years old, have also converted to Islam, this doesn't make sense," said Kamali.
He said that belief in Islam entails affirmation "in the heart" and "through words", and thus could not be forced upon anyone.
Kamali was part of a public lecture organised by the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies Malaysia, attended by some 50 students, journalists, academics and the public.
The invited speaker to the lecture, former Indonesian Foreign Minister Dr Alwi Abdurrahman Shihab, spoke on global challenges to religious extremism, with a special reference to Southeast Asia.
Different strands of Islamic thought
Referring to the 11 Sept terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, Alwi said there were both external and internal factors that give rise to terror in the name of Islam.
He said the external factors included the impact of US foreign policy on the Muslim world, particularly with regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
According to Alwi, Islamic radicals see the US as propping up repressive regimes in several Muslim-majority countries, such as Egypt and Pakistan.
"For example, in Egypt the radical Islamic groups there resort to terror because the Egyptian regime has deprived the people of some of their political aspirations," he said.
Alwi ShihabAlwi said when citizens equate such repressive regimes with sponsorship by Western powers, this compounds the problem and forces them to choose violent outlets for their frustrations.
As for internal factors, Alwi said that contemporary radical Islamic movements are also quick to deny the existence of diverse interpretations of Islam.
He gave the example of radical Muslim groups aligned with the Wahhabi school of thought, which in turn was inspired by the writings of the 14th-century scholar, Ibn Taymiyyah.
"[Ibn Taymiyyah was] known to be critical [of] philosophy, Sufism and Shiism as well as Christianity," said Alwi.
"[In] his environment ... hostility was at its height between Muslims and the Mongols and the Christians in the wake of the Crusades," he said.
Alwi therefore said it would be a mistake to implement Ibn Taymiyyah's thought today because the social and political environment had changed drastically.
He proposed a clear distinction between the religion of Islam, and the various strands of Islamic thought.
"If you are comfortable with one interpretation of religion, then take it, but do not say that other interpretations are wrong," he said, adding that this applied not only to Islam but to all religions.
He stressed, however, that violent acts such as suicide bombings are categorically incompatible with Islamic values.
"Recognising the reality of radical Islam is entirely different from accepting its ideas," he said.
3. The Sun (http://www.sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=32620)
IAIS chief says conversion of children to Islam ‘un-Islamic’, 22 April 2009
PETALING JAYA: The conversion of children to Islam as part of divorce and custodial tussles is "un-Islamic", says International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies (IAIS) founding chairman and CEO Mohammad Hashim Kamali. Dr Alwi and Mohammad at the public lecture.
"In my opinion, such ‘forced’ conversion is un-Islamic ... to use Islam in order to inflict or for purposes that are not part of the spirituality or aqidah of Islam, whether it is marriage, whether it is divorce or custody and there is a tussle between the wife and husband over the children does not make sense," said Mohammad.
"To go to the Syariah Court and claim that the child, who is two or three years old, has been converted to Islam, what does it mean? You convert a two-year-old child or five-year-old to Islam, it doesn’t really make sense when you look at this phenomena from the texts and guidelines of Islam," he said.
Mohammad said conversion to Islam was a conscious and deliberate act on the part of the individual requiring a comprehension of the decision made by the person converting.
"(Conversion to Islam) calls for a profession in your words and an affirmation in your heart. Can you expect a child of five years (to have that). Most of these ‘forced conversions’ really arise over those issues (divorce and custodial battles) and I think we need to depart from that," he said.
"The child should grow up and be an adult, and be given the freedom to choose his or her religion. Before they reach the age of majority, any religion inflicted on the child is not really valid. A religion has to be embraced with a deliberate understanding by a competent person. Children are not competent," added Mohammad, who called for a change to the current laws.
"... We need to add something to ensure it does not limit the freedom of the child when he or she becomes an adult."
"Islam protects non-Muslims when it comes to basic rights, and it does not differentiate between Muslims and non-Muslims. It is for all," added Mohammad, who responded to questions after a talk on Islamic extremism by former Indonesian foreign minister Dr Alwi Abdurrahman Shihab in the IAIS centre here yesterday.
Alwi said such issues (conversions) were unknown in Indonesia.
"I do not really see any such phenomenon (forced conversions) in Indonesia today. Muslims might sometimes raise complaints over the Christian missions, but today I think we are not very concerned over forced conversions. I do not know whether there are isolated incidents but we are proud to be a nation respectful to other faiths," he said.
Alwi then called on the media to report more objectively on Islamic matters to present a fairer picture of the religion.
"The media likes to exaggerate and cover all kinds of protests and radicalism because this is the news. The moderate voices are not attractive to people. One person protesting the US at the embassy is considered good news for the media, but not 10 people trying to help others in an Islamic way."
The media is very important.
"So, many moderate voices are not being covered by the media because this is not considered good news for commercial purposes. The ‘good news’ is what is against the norm," said Alwi who cited the Indonesian situation.
"The reality in Indonesia is that although people are worried about extremism and radicalism in Indonesia, the outcome of the Indonesian elections is that Islamic parties are not showing good results.
"The secular parties are showing the best results and that is the objective condition of Indonesia. The radicals are not accepted by the Indonesian silent majority," said Alwi.
"The media always likes to exaggerate. So, talking about Indonesia, the radical Muslims are not gaining ground, because this is the will of the people," he added.
(End)
