JAKARTA, Oct. 19 (UPI) -- Indonesia's vice president has asked Muslims to stop anti-U.S. demonstrations because they lead to violence, but his plea was met with one of the largest protest rallies in the country since U.S.-led attacks on Afghanistan began.
Indonesia, which has the world's largest Muslim population, has been the scene of several violent demonstrations since the Afghanistan air campaign began Oct. 7. On Friday Vice President Hamzah Haz said the government would not allow similar protests.
Afghanistan has been the site of 13 days of air attacks as part of the U.S. attempt to convince the Afghan-ruling Taliban to hand over Osama bin Laden, suspected to be the mastermind behind the Sept. 11 hijackings and the subsequent attacks on New York and Washington in which some 6,000 people died.
U.S. officials have gone to great lengths to try to convince practitioners of Islam that the campaign is not against the religion but against those who harbor terrorists. Those efforts have been refuted by many Muslims, especially in Indonesia where some 10,000 people greeted Haz's call for a stop to demonstrations with a huge rally.
"If you are willing to help our Afghan brothers then give them medicines and foods, or prayers," Haz said during the dedication of a mosque in East Jakarta.
Haz said Indonesia is not in an economic situation that allows it to take financial action against the United States. An influential group of Muslim clerics and a number of Islamic militants have demanded the government freeze diplomatic relations with the United States and called on all Indonesians to boycott U.S. products.
"There is no need to call for boycotts or cutting ties with the United States," Haz said. "We just look at reality, although there are no boycotts yet, many foreigners have fled Indonesia. This was a severely affects our economy."
