INDONESIAN President Megawati Sukarnoputri has blamed the West for the global "climate of violence" that fosters terrorism.
| I confess. I did it. That's my climate of violence. |
Addressing the UN General Assembly in New York yesterday, the leader of the world's most populous Muslim nation urged world powers to review their Middle East policies, seen by many Muslims as "not only unjust, but also one-sided" in favour of Israel. She said the "absence of a just attitude, exacerbated by being sidelined and ignored, has cultivated a climate of violence".
| "It has nothing to do with religion, unless it's your religion. We dint do nuffin'!" |
Ms Megawati has been criticised for not explicitly condemning the terrorist network Jemaah Islamiah, blamed for the Bali bombings last year that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians. However, in her UN address she roundly condemned all forms of terrorism, as well as indirectly criticising the US's policy in the Middle East, widely seen as extremely pro-Israel. "Indeed, so many eminent Muslims in Indonesia believe that once the major powers behave in a more just manner and make clear their impartiality in the Middle East, then most of the root causes of terrorism, perpetrated in the name of Islam - which in any circumstances cannot be justified - would have been resolved," she said. |