A group of Indonesian Islamic extremists have attacked and disrupted a scout camp organised by a Protestant group in Yogyakarta, central Java.
According to the extremists, the Protestant group was not authorised to organise any public activity, especially, they claimed, since Ramadan had begun on 18 June, and public activities that violate the sacred nature of the holy month are not allowed.
Elsewhere an Indonesian born Muslim has gained worldwide recognition for his dedication to peace and tolerance.
Imam Shamsi Ali is an Indonesian born Muslim who says “I’ve been known informally as the face of moderate Islam in the west.”
He is the founder of the New York based Nusantara Foundation.
Nusantara is an Indonesian word for archipelago.
The Indonesian archipelago, or cluster of islands is composed of six thousand islands.
Indonesia hosts three hundred ethnic groups and seven hundred and forty languages all under one flag.
Raised in rural Indonesia, Ali studied in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia before immigrating to the United States in 1996 at age 29, whereupon he earned a PhD in political science.
“We are committed to promoting a peaceful and moderate of Islam….Islam Nusantara is the form of Islam that reflects the deep, universal characteristic of Rahmatan lil-alamin, or ‘merciful blessing for all humankind,'” he says.
“Islam Nusantara emphasizes friendship, peace, and love.”
“We firmly believe it is time to replace the rigid, narrow, obsolete, and cruel public images of Islam with an alternative — the Islam that is friendly, sociable, rational, visionary, and capable of advancing friendship and cooperation above antagonism and conflict.”
Source
Related Posts:
News category: Asia Pacific.
