According to The Economist, Indonesia wants to export “moderate Islam.” This will certainly appeal to the Left-leaning interfaith dialogue proponents of the West in droves, most of whom know nothing about Islam or its history. The Economist says:

On Christmas Eve 22 years ago, jihadist terrorists planted bombs at churches in cities across Indonesia, killing 18 people. Every Christmas since then, members of the country’s largest Muslim group, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), have gathered outside churches in Indonesia to ensure that Christians can worship in safety. Now the powerful Islamic organisation has a more ambitious goal: to spread its moderate views across the Muslim world.

Western dialogue invariably serves the cause of Islamic expansion, while causing the West to lose more of its freedoms, all because of its naiveté.

Similar news about Indonesia exporting “moderate” Islam was circulated in 2017.

Leaders of Nahdlatul Ulama’s youth wing, known as Ansor, say that elements of Shariah, which Muslims consider divine law, are being manipulated by groups like the Islamic State and Al Qaeda to justify terrorist attacks around the world, invoked to rally fighters to battle in the Middle East and elsewhere, and distorted by movements that seek to turn Islam into a political weapon.

The Indonesian initiative, however, aims to directly approach governments around the world, both Muslim-majority and otherwise, as well as at the United Nations, to achieve a global consensus on reforming what it views as archaic interpretations of Islam.

Note how Nahdlatul Ulama leaders claim that the Sharia is being manipulated as they completely ignore the texts of the Qur’an and Hadith which call for violence, the texts followed by the Islamic State and Al Qaeda.

The ummah seeks expansion, however it may be accomplished. This is in accordance with the religion’s expansionist and supremacist core, which poses a global problem and is boosted by the influential Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which ascribes to the Sharia. Whatever sectarian differences of interpretations Muslims have of the Sharia is their own business. Once in the West, they should be expected to accept Western laws, and to adapt to its culture, which many cannot do since they regard the Sharia as above all “man-made laws.”

The stealth jihad is as powerful as the violent. Both work in tandem. Take for example, the Muslim Brotherhood’s founding in 1928. At some points, it presented a more palatable image of Islam to the world. It has even, in fact, been dubbed a “reform movement.” It initially renounced violence and appeared to many to be bringing Islam more into line with modern civilization. Of course, that did not prove to be true. The Muslim Brotherhood became violent in Egypt in keeping with its ruling document which declared that “Jihad is the Way.”  The Brotherhood also became a proficient leader in stealth jihad, enabling its allegedly peaceful operatives to expand their operations globally. This is how the Brotherhood ended up successfully gaining a foothold in the West, using the most stealthy means.

As the world’s largest Muslim country, Indonesia and its efforts to export “moderate Islam” needs to be carefully scrutinized; except that to scrutinize Islam and Islamic entities is widely regarded as “Islamophobic,” thanks to the diligent work of Islam’s stealth operatives in the West. Deception (taqiyya) is incorporated into da’wah (proselytizing).

Nahdlatul Ulama (N.U.) aims “to promote globally the notion of Islam Nusantara (Islam of the Indonesian Archipelago),” and is backed by the Indonesian government. According to the Middle East Institute:

This initiative, which is backed by the Indonesian government, began to attract attention when the N.U. made it the theme of its 33rd Congress in August 2015. This initiative aims to spread, both locally and globally—and to the Middle East in particular—a multifaceted message of a tolerance and moderation in an effort to counter religious extremism and terror. A significant step forward was taken in May 2016, when N.U. held the International Summit of Moderate Islamic Leaders (ISOMIL), with the participation of many Sunni Muslim leaders worldwide.

The deception incorporated into da’wah is particularly significant in Indonesia, since the country is unique in not having been founded upon and Islamized by the sword. Islam was spread in a largely peaceful manner by Arab-Muslim traders in the 1800s to mid-1900s as they monopolized the East-West trade of the maritime Silk Roads. Muslim settlers, traders and missionaries were influential enough to lead many locals, predominantly Hindus and Buddhists, to convert to Islam. Once Islam grew in the region, “all infidels had to be brought under Muslim sovereignty.” Jews and Christians, however, were “allowed to exist under Muslim protection in return for paying poll-tax,” a.k.a. the jizya tax (cf. Qur’an 9:29), which signified their inferiority to Muslims and their status as dhimmis. All other infidels, however, were deemed pagans and faced getting murdered if they did not convert. They “got the choice between Islam and the sword.” 

Fast forward to the last few decades, as Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabi ideology transformed Indonesia. According to a Guardian article:

Today, there is official Saudi dawa in two dozen countries, and unofficial activity in many more. Its effects are not straightforward. For instance, Saudi dawa typically ends up promoting not Saudi Wahhabism, but Salafism, a linked but discrete 20th-century revivalist movement, originating in Egypt, that seeks to return to the traditions of earliest Islam.

Saudi proselytisation tends to cultivate a learned Salafi class of scholars and ideologues who then go on to shape their local religious landscapes. Another common outcome is the violent intolerance of Shia and Sufi Muslims, as well as minority sects such as the Ahmadiyya and other religions such as Christianity.

Again we see a pattern: a movement from the deceptively peaceful to the violent.

An American journalist and “private diplomat working in Southeast Asia,” Michael Vatikiotis, reported this about Indonesia only seven months ago:

A new criminal code approved by Indonesia’s parliament… will make consensual sex or cohabitation outside of marriage a criminal offence. Leaving a religion and insulting the president will also be banned. Liberal critics are worried that when the set of laws comes into force in 2025, Indonesia could become a religious state and return to authoritarian rule.…

How “moderate” does that sound?

Indonesia is merely practicing Islamic da’wah as its government works hand in hand with Nahdlatul Ulama.