No discussion of Islam can ignore the most populous Muslim nation on earth, Indonesia. And perhaps no other country more typifies an Asiatic brand of Islam. Islam is the religion of 85 percent of the country's 210 million people, but its more than 13,000 islands also encompass large pockets of Christians, Hindus and ethnic Chinese practicing Buddhism. Even the Islam practiced there is hardly uniform. Strict Islamic mores rule in Aceh province on Sumatra, for example, while Muslims elsewhere practice a faith strongly tinged with remnants of Hindu and animist rituals that predate Islam.
Flashpoints are many, with ethnic bloodshed flaring recently on several islands.
But the diversity also brings openness and flexibility. The country's major Muslim group, the Nahdlatul Ulama, once hired sorcerers to drive evil spirits from a meeting hall, something Muslims elsewhere might consider blasphemous. A world away is the Taliban regime of Afghanistan. After years of struggle for Afghans, first to repel Soviet troops and then of civil war, the Taliban emerged to impose an Islamic regime so severe that even other conservative Muslims call them extremists. Guided not only by Islam, but also by Afghan tribal society and a history of grinding poverty, the Taliban have banned videos, TV and music.