Perspective: Saudi Arabia�s Influence on Indonesia�s Growing Islamic Extremism | Stanley A Weiss

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Whether or not local Muslim extremism will go national is uncertain. But what is undeniable is that this rising instability in the world�s third-largest democracy can be traced back directly to Saudi Arabia.

Times of Ahmad | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: The Huffington Post
By Stanley A Weiss | September 1, 2017

LONDON�It went up in July, a 100-foot-tall testament to the fearless and fearsome warrior who became a god. And now it�s wrapped in a gigantic white sheet.

The statue of Guan Yu � a third-century Chinese General revered for his bravery and loyalty � met its undignified fate last month in the Indonesian province of East Java. Because of Guan Yu�s significance to Buddhism and Confucianism, which worship him as a god, hardline Islamic groups called it a blasphemous behemoth, took to the streets, and threatened to remove it. In response to the controversy, leaders at the Chinese Confucian temple where the statue stands decided to cover it.

This may sound like a strange turn of events for Indonesia, a diverse archipelago of at least 17,000 thousand islands which has developed the national motto �unity in diversity.� Perhaps because of that diversity, the world�s most populous Muslim nation at 260 million strong is known for its practice of a moderate, multicultural form of Islam � one that has long respected the rights of ethnic minorities, including the Chinese that make up less than five percent of the population.
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