Indonesian Muslims have Some Good Moral Leadership

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting editorial piece on how Indonesian Muslims may not follow the pattern of some other nationalities.

As my brother is going to work in a senior position in Aceh, Sumatra, the city clobbered by the tsunami at the end of 2004, and also the cynosure of an endemic Muslim religious uprising, I am heartened that the sort of fanaticism we have seen in the Middle East is not quite the same in Indonesia.

A very edifying example of Muslim selflessness is demonstrated in the piece:

For a true definition of martyrdom, she points to the sacrifice of Riyanto, a young man dispatched with other members of the Nahdlatul Ulama youth militia during Christmas several years ago to guard churches threatened with attacks. When he discovered a bomb outside a church, he tried to throw it out of the way of the crowds and was killed when it blew up. Ms. Wahid and others mark the anniversary of his death every year. "We always tell this message: This is the real case of martyrdom. That's the way to defend religion, not by killing others but by defending others' rights to practice their religion."

We must always remember that out of more than a billion Muslims in the world, a great number and perhaps the vast majority are good, decent human beings like ourselves.