The Jakarta Post, 9/29/2005 3:59:50 PM
Malaysia urges Islamic moderates to speak louder
SINGAPORE (AFP): Islamic moderates worldwide must speak out strongly against
extremism to wrest control of the religion back from a "tyranny of the minority",
Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Thursday.
"We need to push forth a moderate voice which I believe is the voice of the majority,"
Najib said in a keynote address to a conference on Southeast Asia's future prospects.
"There is now the tyranny of the minority, and we need to wrestle back control of
religion from the extremists to the moderates."
Leaders of mainly Muslim Malaysia have publicly championed moderate Islam in a
region described by the United States as its "second front" in the fight against
terrorism.
The Southeast Asian extremist group Jamaah Islamiyah is blamed for the 2002
nightclub bombings in Indonesia's Bali island which killed 202 people and numerous
other deadly attacks or attempted attacks in the region.
"If we are not articulate enough and we're not courageous enough to speak, then that
tiny percentage of the population will hijack the majority. There is that real danger,"
Najib warned.
Dino Patti Djalal, spokesman for Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono,
also said during the forum that moderates often "do not speak as loud and as often as
they should do."
He said the voices of the moderates are usually drowned by the bombs exploded by
the extremists.
"The voice of the moderates tend to speak about generalities -- that Islam is against
violence, we hate terrorism. But it doesn't go deeper. It doesn't point to the groups and
instances... (there seems to be a) reluctance to do that," he said.
Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim-populated nation. (**)
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