Iraq war will change the majority of Indonesian Muslims into "radical movements, which would break their silence by a loud outcry," Attas cautioned

By Reda Hammad, IOL correspondent

ABU DHABI, February 18 (IslamOnline) – The looming U.S.-led war on Iraq will create a fertile ground for extremism in the Islamic and Arab world in an unprecedented way, former Indonesian foreign minister Ali Alatas said Tuesday, February 18.

Lecturing at the Abu Dhabi-based Zayed Center for Coordination and Follow-Up, Attas said that Indonesia would be replete with radical anti-American movements if the U.S. went for war.

He warned that war on Iraq will change the majority of Indonesian Muslims from moderate, tolerant people into "radical movements, which would break their silence by a loud outcry."

Attas called for lifting the economic sanctions off Iraq to put an end to the daily suffering of the Iraqi people, asserting that the parties concerned should leave no stone unturned to head off war on Iraq.

The former Indonesian minister said his country sees eye to eye with Arab countries on rejecting the possible war on Baghdad, since war is not a solution to the Iraq crisis.

He added that Indonesia was doing everything in its power to ward off war, which would exact a heavy toll on the entire region.

Attas, however, said that the disarmament of Iraq should be in conformity with the U.N. Security Council, pointing out that U.N. arms inspectors should be given more time to get the job done properly.

"In light of the two status reports on inspections submitted by U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix and Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohammed El-Baradei, we can now convince war-mongers of the necessity of giving inspectors more time," he stressed.

Attas further said that Iraq should also "intensify" cooperation with inspectors for the welfare of the Iraqi people and to bread the current deadlock.

Indonesia is against any unilateral military action and will exert utmost efforts to avert war via the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) or the Non-Alignment movement (NAM).

Attas, in addition, warned that the war would create economic and political seismic waves not only on Iraq but on the entire Middle East as well.

He said the war would have "domino effects" on the whole countries of the world, pointing out that such effects would destabilize Iraq and chaos would reign in to reach other developing countries, including Indonesia.

Indonesian Will Not Recognize Israel 

Attas underlined that Indonesia has come under "intense pressure" to make a policy shift towards Israel.

He said his country does not heed such pressures, noting that Indonesian stance on Israel did by no means antagonize Jews or Judaism, but opposed the principles adopted by the Israel government and was against Zionism.

"As long as the (Israeli) occupation exists, we will never recognize Israel," he averred.

Attas said Islam does not accept terrorism, which claim the lives of innocent people, adding that Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, was trying to convince the U.S. and Europe against stereotyping the global anti-terror campaign as a war on Islam.

"Terrorism is not linked with a specific faith…and as there are Muslim extremists there are Christian extremists as well," he said.