The persistent Islamophobia among Americans and anti-Americanism among Indonesian Muslims are still undermining diplomatic relations between Indonesia and the United States, a lawmaker told a seminar. Sidharto Danusubroto, deputy chairman of the House of Representatives' international relations commission, said Indonesia was still perceived by some Americans as a haven for Islamic radicalism, while the US was still "cynically perceived as an imperialist country" by Indonesian Muslims.

Your comments:

I agree that Islamophobia makes problems everywhere, while anti-Americanism is - in my opinion - just reaction to this. Dual-standards that are used by the US administration must be abolished to convince the Islamic world that the US has good faith in its relations with other countries.

From my observations, the US administration in fact knows much about the Indonesian Muslim community's basic characteristics from its communications with NU, Muhammadiyah and even individually with potential Indonesian Muslim leaders. This communication is facilitated through the US ambassador to Indonesia.

Indonesian people are very tolerant, welcoming and understanding as long as others do not intend to do anything to hurt them. So, better and more communication is preferable.

And again, from my own observations, Obama has started to direct his administration to build better understandings that must be followed by others.

Obama's administration also must make efforts to reform American perceptions (among politicians, economists, journalists and the common people) on Islam and Muslims, by providing more information about Islam.

I saw a good little effort that was conducted by the Muslim community in the UK this month to provide better information and communication with others about Islamic values by organizing an "open day" mosque program.

This program was very interesting and I saw it was really appreciated by more than 200 non-Muslim visitors during the two-day program. So, I absolutely agree that a wider intensive communication can be promoted not only under official missions, but also social and cultural ones.

Taukhid

Islamophobia still occurs because of many recent new laws popping up from local to national levels of government - laws that are clearly sharia-based that show a blatant disregard for any other people's personal beliefs and religious inclinations.

In addition, since the fall of Soeharto, every subsequent president has allowed increased controls to be established by extremist Muslim parties and groups, further degrading the religious harmony in Indonesia.

In a country where other religions find it extremely difficult to build places of faith, yet every three blocks a mosque is either being built or blaring out Islamic prayers, is it any wonder that the international community views Indonesia as a hotbed of Islamic radicalism?

On the other hand, this so-called view of American Imperialism is a view fostered by all the Islamic radicals in our country which is a view they commonly share with terrorist groups throughout the world. Where is the support for the US to change under the Obama administration that we saw during the US elections?

I wonder if people here remember Hillary Clinton coming to Indonesia and asking certain members of the Indonesian radical groups to come and meet for dinner, yet they (I forget who or which one) flatly rejected the invitation, stating "It's a waste of time."

It sort of amuses me that a lot of Islamic groups have a lack of sensitivity for creating relationships with other religions and government bodies.

David

Jakarta

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