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[Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee]

Hard-line Muslim group in Indonesia calls for Islamic state ahead of holy month

The Associated Press
Sunday, September 9, 2007
JAKARTA, Indonesia: Thousands of followers of a hard-line group seeking to unite the world's Muslims under a single government marched through the streets of Indonesia's capital Sunday ahead of the Islamic holy month, Ramadan.

"Ramadan is the perfect moment to call all Muslims to implement sharia (Islamic law)," said Ismail Yusanto, spokesman for the international group Hizbut Tahrir. "And part of sharia is re-establishing the Islamic caliphate."

Hizbut Tahrir, a Sunni organization with an estimated 1 million members, is banned in some Asian and Arab countries. But it drew 90,000 supporters from areas including Europe, Africa and the Middle East to Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, for a massive meeting last month.

The group, though radical, does not support violence to obtain its objective.

"The holy month is the moment to remind us we can't implement Islam thoroughly under a democracy. It has to be under a caliphate," said Ummu Himmah, 34, as she prepared to join her husband and roughly 2,000 other people on the march through Jakarta.

Muslims all over the world will begin observing Ramadan this week. During the holy month they are expected to refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex from dawn to dusk in order to focus on the spiritual.

Indonesia, a secular country, has about 190 million Muslims � more than any other nation. Most are moderate, though hard-liners have gained a foothold in recent years, with some regions and cities imposing Islamic-styled laws.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/09/09/asia/AS-GEN-Indonesia-Hard-liners.php

[manlyboy]

"Most are moderate" is an overstatement. Most are only nominally Muslim. I'm sure those who, like me, have lived and traveled in the country for years would agree. Most places you go, you can usually find a couple of guys spouting hard-line nonsense, and when their backs are turned, everyone is rolling their eyes at them. The stock phrase "most populous Muslim country" is such a misleading term. In Saudi Arabia half of them would be stoned to death inside of a week.

[thepeel]

[manlyboy]

Very good point about the Saudis moving in. But keep in mind that once they get in the way of the military, who run all the organised crime in the country (there's a reason why there's no mafia in Indo), they will need more than petrodollars and ideology to keep their foothold.

[Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee]

Hizb ut-Tahrir
23 Sep 2007 05:55 pm

If you're not informed about this organization, you should be. The Weekly Standard has a helpful primer. Money quote:

How worried should the West be about the expansion of this not directly violent group, yet whose alumni include al Qaeda's notorious Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Musab al Zarqawi? Very worried, argues Maajid Nawaz, a former leader and recruiter for HT in Britain, the organization's headquarters. As Nawaz explained this month to the New York Times, "Hizb ut-Tahrir spearheaded the radicalization of the 1990s and cultivated an atmosphere of anger. . . . Buried in the literature is an ideology that inevitably leads to violence." Hudson Institute scholar Zeyno Baran put it best: "While HT as an organization does not engage in terrorist activities, it has become the vanguard of the radical Islamist ideology that encourages its followers to commit terrorist acts. . . . HT today serves as a de facto conveyor belt for terrorists."


http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/09/hizb-ut-tahrir.html

[blaseblasphemener]

Looks like Bush will have another country to invade.

Chicken-hawks, mount up!

[Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee]

Not a country to invade but it does throw light on what groups like Al Qaeda fight for.

[Joo Rip Gwa Rhhee]

Tuesday , October 23, 2007

Bin Laden Calls for Jihad Against Darfur Peacekeepers
Tuesday , October 23, 2007