‘A Global Fault Line’…The retreat of Muslim moderates.(maybe Muslims are tired of US/EU support of dictators?) | Newsweek International | Newsweek.com

When young Barack Hussein Obama lived with his American mother and Indonesian stepfather in Jakarta nearly 40 years ago, the Muslims of Southeast Asia were renowned for their moderation. Women may have covered their hair with a light scarf, but almost none veiled their faces. It was the rare Muslim man who grew a beard, and many drank with non-Muslim friends.

Today, as Obama prepares to meet with Southeast Asia’s leaders in Singapore, all that, and more, is shifting. Moderation is suspect, as many of the region’s quarter billion Muslims—more than in the Middle East—turn to the birthplace of Islam to reaffirm their religious identity. Though still a distinct minority, fundamentalists are demanding—and obtaining—a greater role for Sharia, or religious law, in family life and in the life of the nation.

via ‘A Global Fault Line’ | Newsweek International | Newsweek.com.

~ by yahyasheikho786 on November 7, 2009.