Hours after US President George W. Bush urged the world to unite in a war against terrorism, mosque preachers leading Friday prayers in this most populous Muslim nation ignored Bush's threat to attack fellow Muslims in Afghanistan.
In recent days, a spate of small protests has raised fears of a backlash by Indonesian militants should Washington strike against suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden, the Taliban rulers who harbor him in Afghanistan or other nations in the Middle East.
But in its weekly circular to clerics across the nation, the influential Islamic Propagation Council ignored the crisis and focused instead on the need to combat communism, an ideology banned after a military takeover in 1967 and showing no sign of revival.
The circular illustrated how little impact the present crisis over the Sept. 11 attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington has had in Indonesia.
Here, few Muslims identify with radical Islamic movements more typical of the Middle East. Alcohol is legal, nightclubs are ubiquitous, and the networks broadcast American TV shows.
Jakarta has strongly backed Washington's plans to combat international terrorism. President Megawati Sukarnoputri, leader of the country's largest secular party, met with Bush on Wednesday and pledged that her government would "cooperate with the United States and other civilized countries on counterterrorism."
Still, sporadic protests in front of the US embassy and inflammatory statements by some politicians indicate just how politically sensitive collaboration with the US-led international effort could become even in a moderate Muslim nation such as Indonesia.
Vice President Hamzah Haz, who heads the largest Muslim party, said on Monday that the attacks that toppled the World Trade Center and heavily damaged the Pentagon could serve to "cleanse the sins of the United States."
Complicating the political equation for Megawati is the fact that her government depends on the support in parliament of a coalition of religious parties.
That grouping, together with the politically powerful military, impeached ex-president Abdurrahman Wahid, a moderate Muslim cleric who preached religious tolerance and wanted to establish ties with Israel.
Wahid struggled unsuccessfully to end the religious war in Maluku province, the former Spice Islands, where the Laskar Jihad militia -- or Holy War Warriors -- has slaughtered hundreds of Christian villagers.
Indonesian experts maintain that Laskar Jihad was actually set up to act as a proxy force by hardline elements in the army determined to destabilize Wahid's reformist administration.
As soon as Megawati took office in July, Laskar Jihad suspended its attacks. A spate of mysterious church bombings across the nation also ceased.
Although the generals may have used Muslim militants against Wahid, radical Islam does have a history in Indonesia.
During the 1945 to 1949 war against Dutch colonialists, an uprising by Darul Islam -- an organization which called for the transformation of Indonesia into an Islamic state -- sparked a bloody war within a war against republican authorities.
Today, rising poverty and despair from Indonesia's crippling economic crisis could potentially spawn a new pool of extremists. But political observers discount any immediate repercussions if there is US military action in Afghanistan or Iraq.
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