LATimes editorial: Political Wars in Religious Garb (fwd)

["M.G.G. Pillai" <pillai@mgg.pc.my>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: 29 Feb 2000 07:42:10
From: tapol@gn.apc.org
Reply-To: "Conference act.indonesia" <indonesia-act@igc.org>
To: Recipients of indonesia-act <indonesia-act@igc.org>
Subject: LATimes editorial: Political Wars in Religious Garb

From: TAPOL <tapol@gn.apc.org>
Subject: LATimes editorial: Political Wars in Religious Garb 

Received from Joyo Indonesian News

The Los Angeles Times
Monday, February 28, 2000

Editorial

Political Wars in Religious Garb 

     In Nigeria, Muslim and Christian militants are killing one another in 
widening intercommunal violence. Indonesia, Egypt and Lebanon also have been 
swept up by the most intense strife between Christianity and Islam in 
generations. 
 
    Yet beneath the outburst of religious violence, a transformation is 
taking place with significant implications for the future coexistence of 
Islam and Christianity. A dramatic shift at the ballot box in Iran and the 
election of Abdurrahman Wahid as president of Indonesia, the world's largest 
Muslim country, weigh far more heavily for the future than sectoral violence 
sparked by religious extremists. 
 
    The sectarian conflict that broke out last week in the Nigerian city of 
Kaduna after the imposition of Islamic law threatens secular rule across the 
powerful African nation, which has been struggling to overcome 16 years of 
military rule. The introduction of Islamic Sharia law in the impoverished 
state of Zamfara and possibly in other northern states could undermine the 
central government of President Olusegun Obasanjo. "It has nothing to do with 
religion," one Islamic scholar said. "It is politics, pure and simple." 
 
    The power grab cloaked in Islamic piety poses a serious challenge to 
Obasanjo's 9-month-old rule and clouds the future of Africa's most populous 
nation. If other Nigerian states follow suit, it may split the country apart. 
Riots in northern Nigeria in 1967 between Muslim Hausa speakers and 
Christians helped to trigger the secession bid by the predominantly Christian 
region of Biafra. Violence and famine claimed thousands of innocent lives 
before Biafra was reincorporated into Nigeria. 

     The current bloody clashes between Muslims and Christians are 
overshadowing the Islamic world's attempts to grapple with new issues. For 
instance, Iran is far from a democracy, but results of the Feb. 18 elections 
indicate that liberal reformers may gain an overwhelming majority in 
parliament, revitalizing a push for political change. 

     It would of course be unjust to identify the Islamist power-mongers of 
Nigeria or Afghanistan and extremist militants such as Osama bin Laden with 
the Islamic religion itself. Indonesia's President Wahid, a prominent Muslim 
scholar, is the antithesis of Iran's late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a 
rigid funda- mentalist. Even before he was elected, the frail Indonesian 
scholar filled stadiums with people eager to listen to his message of 
tolerance. He is as at ease with the writings of Jewish philosopher Chaim 
Potok or Catholic Liberation theologian Leonardo Boff as with the Koran. 
 
    Quite the opposite of Wahid's message is the violent imposition of Sharia 
law in Nigeria's Zamfara state. There the true issue is one of secular 
political power and usurpation, not a clash of Islam and Christendom. 



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