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Politics

Hard-line Islamists are growing in power in Indonesia

Widodo under increasing pressure to preserve country's reputation for strength in diversity

Indonesia's crackdown on hard-line Islamic groups provokes a backlash from some fundamentalists. Demonstrators protest outside Indonesia's House of Representatives in Jakarta on Sept. 29. (Photo by Bobby Nugroho)

JAKARTA Moderate Muslims in Indonesia, a regional power that accounts for some 40% of the gross domestic product of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, are becoming more receptive to a fundamentalist version of Islam that seeks to impose religious rules and valueson everyone.

Although more than 80% of the country's 260 million people are Muslims, Indonesia has, from the beginning, been a multicultural society of different faiths. Its motto is "unity in diversity."

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