Roger Hardy, BBC Islamic affairs analyst, has a four part series on Islam in countries like Malaysia and Indonesia called Islam's Furthest Frontiers.
Part III: Indonesia: The shadow of extremism
Roger Hardy begins his third piece with a mention of the September 2004 bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta by the radical Islamic group Jemaah Islamiah - "the regional arm of al-Qaeda". Eleven people were murdered and many more wounded from the blast, and this incident, following the 2002 bombing in Bali and preceding the Indonesian presidential elections, showed, according to Hardy, "that Indonesia's fledgling democracy still faces daunting challenges."
Indonesia is the most populous Muslim nation in the world, and one of the most moderate. However, as Hardy notes in the following incident there must be a limit to tolerance.
Back in the capital, I visited a bar which had been smashed up during Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting.
There I met Hilmy Bakr Almascaty, one of the leaders of the Islamic Defenders' Front - the group which carried out the attack.
He made it clear that any bar or restaurant serving alcohol during the holy month was a legitimate target.
Islamic radicals like these pose a direct threat to Indonesia's centuries-old tradition of tolerance and moderation.
I began to wonder if the "silent majority" wasn't just a little too silent.
Hardy next describes going to the trial of Abu Bakar Ba'asyir. Abu Bakar Ba'asyir is the cleric who is thought to be the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah and is presently being tried in Jakarta for his involvement in the 2002 Bali bombings.
There, at a distance, I saw the man who in many ways symbolises the radical Islamist challenge.
Sitting with a red and white keffieh draped around his shoulders, the elderly cleric smiled for the cameras.
Many Indonesian Muslims seem to regard him as a kindly old man who has no link whatever to Bali and the other bombings Indonesia has suffered.
One young radical I met at the trial said bluntly that the Bali attack had been carried out by the CIA - and that the trial was a CIA conspiracy.
A CIA conspiracy to do what? How could the CIA benefit by blowing up a bunch of tourists in Bali? I'm sure the answer would be entertaining. I think this young fellow would get along famously with Eason Jordan.
The good news is that this conspiracy believing radical and others like him are the minority, but as Hardy makes clear, unless the majority resists the extremism of the minority, Indonesia's democracy is in trouble.
In numbers, Indonesia's moderate mainstream - bolstered by groups like Muhammadiyah - dwarfs the radical fringe.
But I was reminded of the cryptic words of a former British prime minister.
"It's not enough to be nice."
(I'm guessing that in Part IV of his series, Hardy is going to look at the Philippines.)
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