BBC: Farish Noor about Progressive Islam in Indonesia

[allemand]

Letter: Indonesia's 'tired' politics
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/3631168.stm

You can still listen to the programme online (it's changed every week):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/letter.shtml

"Talking about Progressive Islam is possible in Indonesia only because of the openness of the Indonesians themselves, and their attachment to an ancient culture and civilisation.
What complicates matters today, however, is the sudden discovery of "Progressive Islam" by the West.

Fearful of any other variant of Islam that carries the "Made in Afghanistan" label, Western politicians seem to be falling over themselves to support any kind of Islam that can stand in the way of the advance of the hardliners.
But what Mr Bush Junior and his friends in Washington don't seem to understand is that Progressive Islam is not new nor marginal.

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The hardliners and conservatives would like to see this country turned into an Islamic state that will erase its past and live in a permanent present that is wholly and exclusively Islamic. <...> Verbal pyrotechnics and rhetoric aside, the conservative hardliners are fighting against a culture that is 4,000-years-old, and not about to step aside that easily."

Dr Farish A Noor is a Malaysian political scientist and human rights activist.