United States President George W Bush this week sought, on a flying visit to Indonesia, to mend fences with the Islamic world but faced harsh criticism of his Iraq and Middle East policies when he met three of the country’s moderate Muslim leaders.
During his three hours on the Indonesian island of Bali, where Islamist fanatics killed 202 people last year in a nightclub bombing, Bush said terrorists had defiled one of the world’s great faiths.
”We know that Islam is fully compatible with liberty and tolerance and progress because we see the proof in your country and in our own,” he said against a backdrop of palm-fringed beaches and patrolling warships in one of the tightest security operations of his six-nation Asian tour.
”Terrorists who claim Islam as their inspiration defile one of the world’s greatest faiths. Murder has no place in any religious tradition. It must find no home in Indonesia.”
His host, President Megawati Sukarnoputri, stressed that differences remained between the two countries, but said it was important to keep communications open.
Others he met, including the leaders of two of the world’s largest Islamic social organisations, were more critical.
Syafii Maarif, the head of the 30 million-strong Muhammadiyah, said he told Bush he needed to find a new ”foreign policy paradigm if he wants to to be respected by the world community and be safe”.
Maarif said he told the American president his Middle East policy was ”extraordinary” and his fear of terrorists ”excessive”.
Bush tried to appease the leaders by promising $160-million over six years to improve education.
Bush also promised to hand over the terrorist Hambali, an Indonesian who is in American custody and was al-Qaeda’s point man in South-East Asia.
Analysts say this is more likely to win over Indonesians than anything he said on Wednesday. — Â