Mixed reactions loom over hope for possible change in US foreign policy on RI and Islam

The next US presidential election may have a tremendous chance in carrying out a more realistic foreign policy toward Indonesia in particular, in the Islamic world in general.

Such high hope was raised by some Indonesian religious leaders in Indonesia amidst the ongoing campaign launched by presidential candidates in the United States.

Din Syamsuddin, General Chairman of the Muhammadiyah, the second largest Islamic organization in Indonesia said in a press conference in Doha, Qatar, recently,that the next US president should be able to distinguish between Islam and political practices and expressions by Islamic political actors who have distorted Islam as a terrorist religion, a religious leader says.

The ability to see these differences is important in order to put an emphasis on universal values like justice, democracy, quality of human life and preventing world destruction.

"The next US president should also realize that the US cannot act alone like it did in the past," Din Syamsuddin said at a US-Islamic Forum in Doha on Sunday.

Some 400 delegates from the US and Islamic countries took part in the fourth US-Islamic Forum.

Restoring relations between the US and the Islamic world is important and urgent because the existing relations had been damaged by the US hostility to Islam.

According to Din Syamsuddin, the main problem in the relations lies in the US misunderstanding, their failure in understanding Islam, their development of one-sided relations on the basis of US interest in security and economy without considering religious and cultural aspects.

Therefore, he added, the Islamic world including the Moslems in Indonesia hoped the next ...