West 'must stop linking Islam with violence'
The West must stop associating Islam with violence, poverty and indignity, top officials from three southeast Asian nations have stressed.
Most damaging of all is the growing tendency in the United States and Europe of linking all terrorism with Islam, they said.
Islam is not an impediment to modernity and democracy, leaders from Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines said in separate speeches yesterday to the UN General Assembly’s annual ministerial meeting.
Islam should not be viewed as being incompatible with economic growth, ethnic tolerance and respect across cultures, they said.
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said the success of his country’s first-ever direct presidential elections is proof of an Islamic nation’s commitment to the democratic process.
“As the country with the largest Muslim population, Indonesia has proven that Islam can be a bastion of democracy and social justice,” he said. “We are proud of this democracy of ours.”
Indonesia – which has arrested more than 150 militants in the past two years - is seen as an important front in the fight against terrorism.
The Jemaah Islamiyah militant group has been blamed for several major attacks in Indonesia, including the August 5 bombing of the JW Marriott hotel in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, that killed 12 people.
Jemaah Islamiyah is also blamed for the October 12, 2002, bombings on the island of Bali that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists. The group is active in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines and Australia.
In the southern Philippines, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front has been fighting for an independent Muslim territory for about three decades. But the government says, after several ceasefires, that it is moving closer to a negotiated peace.
Another separatist group in the Philippines is the Abu Sayyaf, which has a 13-year history of kidnappings and beheadings and envisions turning a string of southern islands into an Islamic enclave.
