Middle-easternisation

Middle-easternisation is a term used to describe the increasing influence of events in the Middle East, particularly the Israel-Palestine conflict, on the politics of South East Asia, especially Indonesia and Malaysia, and the tendency of Islamic organisations in these countries to adopt the anti-Western rhetoric of Middle Eastern Islamism.

The term has been popularised in Australia by Kevin Rudd, who was at the time foreign affairs spokesperson of the Australian Labor Party. In a typical use of the term, Rudd wrote: "The Iraq war is leading to the middle-easternisation of militant Islamic politics in South East Asia. That is not my view. It is the considered view of the world's leading analysts of Islamist terrorist organisations in South East Asia."

The background to this view is the spread of militant Islamist groups such as Jemaah Islamiyah in the region, culminating in the 2002 Bali terrorist bombing. Indonesian Islamists frequently link western countries such as the United States and Australia with the "Zionist occupation of Palestine." Indonesia has until recently been seen as a stronghold of "moderate Islam."

The influence of Middle East events on Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, was seen more clearly when Indonesia voted in its first-ever free and direct presidential election in 2004.

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