[IslamCity] Blair's visit to Indonesia leaves the students in doubts and double standards of West.

Fri, 31 Mar 2006 17:47:28 -0800

 
Indonesia

PM given rough ride by high school students

Matthew Tempest and agencies
Thursday March 30, 2006

Tony Blair in Jakarta
Tony Blair visits a boarding school in Jakarta. Photograph: Jefrey Aries/Getty Images
 

Tony Blair was met with a barrage of calls to withdraw from Iraq as he toured Indonesia to promote better links with the world's largest Muslim country.
The prime minister, on the final day of his tour of the southern hemisphere, issued a joint statement with the Indonesian president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyon, promising greater trade links, school twining and joint counter-terrorism messages.
But the PM also met a delegation of moderate Muslim leaders who called on him to pull British troops out of Iraq, and was given a rough ride at a question-and-answer session with high school students.
 
Welcomed by pupils as he witnessed displays of martial arts and dancing and heard the girls school band serenade him with John Lennon's Imagine, Mr Blair's visit to the Pondok Pesantren Darunnajah, an Islamic boarding school twinned with the Holy Family School in Keighley, West Yorkshire, took a different turn when he took questions.
He was asked how he would feel if he was an Iraqi civilian and what he was doing to resolve the Israel/Palestinian dispute.
The prime minister told them: "I want to say, as someone from the Christian faith, that I believe that people of different faiths can live together in harmony and peace."
He then faced his first question on the recent row over a Luton schoolgirl forbidden from wearing full Islamic dress to class.
He was asked what British rules were. Mr Blair replied: "We leave it up to the individual school, some schools permit it, some do not but we let the final decision be with the school. There are different views in my country about this."
Another student then asked if he would persuade his "best friend" the US president, George Bush, to stop the war in Iraq.
Mr Blair, dressed in a white open neck shirt and slacks in sweltering heat and humidity replied: "I think we will not agree about Iraq and the decision to remove the government there but there is a process now on Iraq for the people to vote their government in.
"In Iraq today they have got the right to vote, and in Afghanistan, and whatever we thought about the original decision to remove Saddam, today we should work with the United Nations and other countries to make sure people have the same rights as the people in the UK and you have here."
Another student then asked: "How would you feel if you were an Iraqi civilian?" who had had relatives killed in the conflict.
Mr Blair replied: "One of the most important things if we are to have this understanding between us is that people try to understand the other point of view.
"You feel very strongly that what happened in Iraq and Afghanistan was wrong. I understand that.
"But in those countries now people can vote and their government should decide what's right and what is wrong."
He went on: "You might say Iraqi Muslims want this, I might say they want that." But the best test of what the people truly wanted was how they voted.
Mr Blair went on: "You have a view of America which is not a view I share. We have got to see how we build a bridge of understanding between the West and the Muslim world.
"That doesn't mean we always agree but we understand why we disagree. That's the important thing so that in the end even if we do disagree we never distrust or hate each other."
He was then tackled on the Middle East peace process and urged to ask the new Israeli government to resolve the issue.
The prime minister replied: "I agree with you. There's no more important issue than to bring peace between Israel and Palestine.
"This has been difficult but I will try to do my best to ensure we can bring peace there."
At Mr Blair's earlier visit to New Zealand he was picketed by anti-war protestors and today in Jakarta there were also protests against his visit, this time from an Islamic group.
After his meeting with Mr Yudhoyono, Mr Blair said the two nations would "work closely" on ways to combat international terror, and invited the president to visit the UK in return.
Mr Blair then met five moderate Islamic leaders who urged him to withdraw British troops from Iraq and talk to the recently elected Hamas government in Palestine.
Din Syamsudin, leader of the country's second largest Muslim group Muhammadiah, said: "We told him to withdraw his troops from Iraq because the occupation is only promoting more radicalism and new acts of terrorism."
Downing Street had billed the visit as the "right time" to repair relations. Mr Blair's official spokesman said: "It's the right place because Indonesia is the third largest democracy in the world, right people because it's the largest Muslim country in the world, with 210 million Muslims, right because under its current president it is not only committed to democracy but also to clean up corruption and put in place a proper judicial system.
"It's also the right time because it's very much in favour of building up a coalition of moderate opinion against extremist fundamentalist Islamic opinion."
Mr Blair went on to a business leaders' forum to boost trade links between the two countries.
He was later visiting those involved in Tsunami relief in the province of on Aceh and some of the families who had lost relatives both in the natural disaster and in the civil war which has raged in the province.
Mr Blair was then heading back to London.

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{Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.}
(Holy Quran-16:125)

{And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33)

The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim]

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[Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah]
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