The spectacle that unfolded in an Indonesian court last week, as it issued its verdict on the Bali bombings, would have added to the long list of stereotypes critics of Islam have of this faith - that it encourages violence and that Muslims kill civilians without remorse.

This was the image conveyed by Amrozi Nurhasyim after he was sentenced to death for his role in the car bomb attacks that killed 202 people in the tourist haven of Bali on Oct. 12 last year.
Amrozi accepted the verdict with a smile, then flashed a thumbs-up sign.

''If I die there will be hundred more Amrozis. You can't stop us. It will never end,'' he was quoted as having told journalists.

His lack of remorse had actually become a hallmark of Amrozi, a 41-year-old village mechanic, during his entire trial.

He earned the name the 'laughing bomber' for his ever-present grin. On judgement day, Aug 7, he entered the court with cries of ''Allahu Akbar!'' (God is Great).

But if in his behaviour Amrozi illustrated Islamic extremism in Southeast Asia, the language of the judges who presided over his case also cannot be overlooked.

Revealing judgment

It offered the moderate counterpoint - one that grabbed fewer headlines, but which was no less revealing. The Bali bomb attacks were a betrayal of Islam and a "crime against humanity", the judgement declared.

"Islam is a religion that teaches peace, charity, love and forgiveness," I Made Karna, the chief judge, said during the sentencing. "The action of the defendant can be classified as cruel and inhuman."

His sentiments were echoed by another judge, Lilik Mulyadi who said, "Islam never teaches violence, murder or any other crimes."

Such words were no surprise in a region that has always been known for being the moderate face of Islam, especially when set against the intolerance that abounds in the Muslim world across the Middle East and parts of South Asia.

Indonesia - the most populous Muslim country in the world with 170 million of its 214 million people followers of Islam - epitomised this spirit.

Southeast Asia's other Muslim majority countries, such as Malaysia and Brunei, as well as Muslim minorities in Thailand and Singapore, have lent weight to Indonesia's lead.

But which among the two views that came out of the Bali judgement has greater appeal? Who will prevail in the escalating battle for the soul of Islam in Southeast Asia?

Will Amrozi be elevated to the status of a martyr, inspiring a tug toward the extremist causes championed by the region's militant Muslims? Or will there be a greater swing towards the moderates, who no doubt still dominate in numbers?

These questions have become the inevitable outcome of the Bali bomb verdict. The judgements to follow in the cases related to the Bali attack -Amrozi's was but the first verdict and there are more than 30 other defendants - will keep them in the spotlight.

Moderates' views

Within hours of the verdict, Indonesia's moderate clerics weighed in with their views in support of the judicial process that condemned Amrozi to death.

They included Ahmad Syafi Maarif, who heads a 20 million-strong body of moderate Muslims in Indonesia, including clerics and religious scholars, called the Muhammadiyah.

Yet, as the Jakarta Post noted in an editorial last Friday, prevailing over the small, but effective network of Islamic extremists will not be easy in the days ahead.

The English-language daily viewed the Aug 5 car bomb attack at the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, which killed at least 10 people and injured 150, as a stark warning by Muslim militants that they will not let moderates win.

"Given the timing, and the similarities of means and methods employed in the Bali and (Jakarta) blasts, it is difficult not to read the latter as an ominous message to the government of President Megawati Sukarnoputri and to the panel of judges (in the Amrozi case)," the editorial added.

Nevertheless, the moderates refuse to be silenced. Following the bomb attack, Indonesia's largest religious organisation, the 30 million-strong Nahdlatul Ulama, called on the public to avoid provocation and said that the bombing had nothing to do with Islam.

Militant martyrs

For this region's moderates, the most formidable opposition comes from Jemaiah Islamiyah, a group described by intelligence and security experts as a terrorist network of Islamic extremists and blamed for the Bali bombings.

Jakarta has already named this group, which means 'Islamic community' and is rooted in Indonesia, as having links with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

A number of Muslims in Singapore, Malaysia and southern Thailand have been also named by government officials as being linked to the group.

Authorities in Thailand and Singapore have also made this region jumpy with reports of arrests and findings that Muslim extremists affiliated to Jemaiah Islamiyah plan to launch bomb attacks on select embassies and "soft targets".

Three other Muslim groups - the Islamic Defenders' Front (or FPI), Darul Islam and Laskar Jihad - have also gained notoriety in Indonesia for their militant behaviour. But two of them, FPI and Laskar Jihad, have called for a pause in their violent campaigns.

Muslim moderates, however, will have to work far harder to ensure that their views continue to attract the much more substantial numbers they currently draw.

As the Indonesian newspaper Koran Tempo commented in an editorial: "Amrozi's thumbs-up drives us to reply that we will never run out of militants ready to become martyrs." - IPS