Saturday, April 25, 2009

In Indonesia radical Islam has lost its support

From Pakistan to Gaza and Lebanon, militant Islamic movements have gained ground rapidly in recent years, fanning Western fears of a consolidation of radical Muslim governments. But here in the world’s most populous Muslim nation just the opposite is happening, with Islamic parties suffering a steep drop in popular support.

In parliamentary elections this month, voters punished Islamic parties that focused narrowly on religious issues, and even the parties’ best efforts to appeal to the country’s mainstream failed to sway the public.

The largest Islamic party, the Prosperous Justice Party, ran television commercials of young women without head scarves and distributed pamphlets in the colors of the country’s major secular parties. But the party fell far short of its goal of garnering 15 percent of the vote, squeezing out a gain of less than one percentage point over its 7.2 percent showing in 2004.
MORE in the NEW YORK TIMES.

And the UPI story

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You are way off base. Radical Islam in on the rise thank God! I am all for it to stem the tide of murderous American involvement in killing Muslims all over the world. I hope the radical element welds together the great faith of Islam to defeat the devils of the American government! Praise Allah and his prophet Mohammad!