Strategy of Political Islam in SE Asia - A Speculation


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There are some indications that Islamist leaders in SE Asia have developed a unified political strategy, and that this is considered to include Australia.  Islamists are those who seek to promote Islamic 'Sharia' law as the basis for government.

This strategy appears to be different to the extremism / terrorism which has characterized the methods of Islamists in (or from) the Middle East - who traditionally were religious fundamentalists. The SE Asian strategy appears to involve moderation and progressivism - ie presenting Islam as the source of a civilization rather than as a destroyer of modernity. 

However it needs to be recognized that this is consistent with the 'modernize Islam to take over the world' ideology of the extremists who have apparently been responsible for terrorist actions such as the September 11 attack in America - who have been Westernized outsiders to the mainstream (ie Middle Eastern) world of Islam (see Discouraging Pointless Extremism).

Indications of the emergence of such a strategy are:

Reasons that such a strategy might emerge are that:

No one can have any reasonable objection to the emergence of this strategy - because Islamic leaders are as entitled as anyone else to advocate their views of religious and political arrangements.

There is none-the-less a need for caution because: