No Orgies in Aceh

**DanInAceh** · 25-07-12, 14:24

Originally Posted by john madden

That's what I said Dan. In May 2012, of those who felt that religious extremism had increased
73% were very concerned about the rise in religious extremism

I still think that 9% believing that religious extremism has risen, and 73% of that 9% being very concerned about it, is not insignificant. And again, the survey results tell me that religious extremism is an acknowledged reality in Aceh, unlike your earlier characterisation.

We could probably say that 9% of Americans believe that religious extremism is a problem in America... I can assure you that religious extremism is NOT a problem in America, but there are going to be people who believe such things. There's plenty of surveys I can link where people express fears about religious extremism taking over the Republican party or fears that there are people who want to establish some sort of theocracy in America, of all places.

It's nonsense, but there's always going to be a fringe minority that buys such things.

We're going to disagree about the importance of 9% of Aceh's population believing that religious extremism has increased. I don't see it as being a lot of people, you see it as a lot of people.

I'd be very curious to see if that 9% were the natives, Acehnese and Gayonese, or if they were others. If they asked some Bataks on the fringes of the region, yeah, I wouldn't be surprised that they'd claim that there's some sort of Aceh witch hunt going on. Their response would definitely be flavored by their religious affiliation. Among the Acehnese, I don't see much of this expressed. I've certainly talked to some that complained about extremist organizations outside of Aceh, but here? We don't exactly have a strong "terroristy" element going on here unless you count revolutionaries and separatists as terrorists, and they've never really been strongly motivated by religion.