Indonesia has the world's largest Islamic population, which accounts for 90% of the country's total population. Now she faces serious problems, including religious confrontations on the Maluku Islands and the separation movement in the special province of Aceh, there were concerns that the U.S. and British-led war against Iraq could stimulate religious conflicts and cause social confusion.

It is true that large antiwar demonstrations spread across the country before the military attacks by the United States and Britain took place. At present, most media opinion is still quite critical of their military action.

However, the demonstrations held across the country were orderly and there was no worsening of security, which had previously been a concern.

The United States attacked Afghanistan in October 2001 and the terrorist bombing attacks occurred in Bali in October last year. Each time, anti-U.S. sentiment and religious feeling surged to extremely high levels. The demonstrations this time were calm, quite different from those in the previous events.

The Indonesian government expressed its opposition to the U.S. military attacks on Iraq at the earliest time and its security authorities made it clear that it would severely crack down on radicals who tried to force foreigners out of the country. These positions helped prevent antiwar activities from becoming extreme.

Nonetheless, there is a more important fact that contributed to the antiwar demonstrations being nonviolent. That is the cooperation of religious and civil organizations. They promoted harmony and exchanges of opinions among various religious groups and made strong efforts to prevent the radical anti-U.S. movement from becoming reckless and religious confrontations from worsening.

On Feb. 11, before the war, Mr. Hamidan, vice chairman of the Islamic leaders' conference, made an appeal to the Indonesian people that the war against Iraq was not a religious war and stressed that Islamic people must not undertake radical actions.

Representatives of Muslims, Catholics and Hindus in Indonesia formed a delegation that met Pope John Paul II in the Vatican on Feb. 20. They appealed to the United States and Iraq to abide by U.N. resolutions and asked them not to wage a religious war.

While antiwar demonstrations were held everywhere in Indonesia, leaders of Islamic, Catholic and Confucian groups gathered at the Institute for Islamic Studies in Jakarta on March 22, right after the outbreak of the war. They told the participants of the meeting that although the military actions were a serious human calamity, the war was not based on religious factors.

They appealed to the leaders to understand these important facts and try to enlighten people so as not to cause religious conflicts.

The country faced bitter experiences right after both the September 11 incident in the United States and the terrorist bombing in Bali when some religious organizations undertook very radical anti-U.S. activities.

The war against Iraq was not just, because the U.N. Security Council did not approve it. The United States and Britain took military action to overthrow the Iraqi regime. This is a very unusual case.

Nonetheless, most of the people in Indonesia held peaceful protests against the United States, which indicates that a civil society that features tolerance and attaches importance to diversity has grown in this country.

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The author is the executive director of the Center for Japanese Studies at the University of Indonesia. He contributed this comment to The Asahi Shimbun. (May 07, 2003)