RELIGIOUS MODERATES IN SURINAME STAND UP TO

UNCLAS PARAMARIBO 000117 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS WHA/CAR FOR LAURA LUFTIG AND MATHEW BUFFINGTON, INR FOR BOB CARHART E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: NS SCUL PGOV SUBJECT: RELIGIOUS MODERATES IN SURINAME STAND UP TO CHALLENGES ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: At a recent lunch for members of the government-supported Inter Faith Council of Suriname hosted by the Ambassador, local Muslim leader Shaak Abdul spoke out against religious radicals. Abdul said he recently prevented an invited visitor from preaching intolerance in his mosque. He told the visitor that he should &go back to India.8 Leaders from each of the faiths represented at the lunch * Muslim, Hindu, and Christian * expressed concerns about fundamentalists. END SUMMARY -------------- &Go Back to India8 -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Abdul highlighted traditions of tolerance in Suriname at the lunch, saying conflict and name-calling between religions has no place here; he told a recent visitor from India who spoke out against non-Muslims to &go back to India.8 Abdul said he immediately stops religious teachers from outside of Suriname who come to preach at his mosque and sometimes espouse radical rhetoric. Abdul said he stops them immediately when they speak out against other religious groups, and tells them ¬ in Suriname.8 Abdul's mosque is located next to a large synagogue in downtown Suriname, and photographs of the two are often used as a symbol of Suriname,s ethnic diversity and apparent religious harmony. -------------- Religious Leaders Concerned About Intolerance -------------- ¶3. (SBU) Abdul is not alone in his concerns about radical groups. The Council,s Catholic Church representative expressed dismay over Christian groups in Suriname who have held televised &healing8 ceremonies in which preachers (including one notable preacher from the United States) claim to cast out evil spirits from afflicted persons * and use the names of gods of other religions among the &evil spirits.8 He is concerned that non-Christians who watch these faith healers are led to disapprove of all Christians, not differentiating between them. Together, the members of the Council emphasized their intention to fight these trends. The Secretary of the Council stressed his view that Suriname is blessed by having no dominant or majority group: as all are minorities, he said, they understand the need to work together. ¶4. (SBU) COMMENT: Anecdotal evidence and rumors which Post is unable to validate suggest that Suriname, with its porous borders and large Muslim population, is attractive for radical Islamic groups. Therefore, on one hand the Council,s views are encouraging: intolerance is not allowed. On the other hand, despite its diversity and rejection of intolerance, the Inter-Faith Council is composed of moderates, and there is evidence of more radicalism and extremism on the fringes. Furthermore, what the Council dismisses as radicalism may be better characterized as grassroots populism: for example, the pentecostal Moravian Church, influential and hugely popular, left the Council over an ideological dispute shortly after it was formed. Also, the phrase &go back to India8 begs the question of whether the Council really supports tolerance * or just a desire to get along. Hence, while the official, generalized portrait of a tolerant Suriname remains encouraging, there are fissures not only outside the frame but within it. END COMMENT SCHREIBER HUGHES