Conspiracy theories air a new wave of views

This is an interesting article in which Indonesian perceptions on the war on terror are explored. Conspiracy theories abound, and:

"A senior Indonesian politician yesterday joined the call to stop blaming JI for the latest Bali bombings. Hidayat Nurwahid, chairman of Indonesia's Parliament and leader of the major Muslim political force, the Prosperous Peace and Justice Party, blamed the bombings on tourism industry rivalry."

He is the leader of "the world's largest Muslim organisation of its type (it has 35 to 40 million members)".

The article makes the point that most Indonesians are only nominally Muslim. Pious Muslims number only about 1 in 5, and piousness is by no means the same as fanaticism. Indeed, it is well worth remembering that the two are properly antithetical.