Radical Retreat; Conservative Muslim parties have failed to win the hearts and minds of voters.

Byline: Joe Cochrane, With Lorien Holland in Kuala Lumpur and Peter Janssen in Solo

Two and a half years ago, in the wake of September 11 and the war in Afghanistan, political observers were raising alarms about the fate of Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim nation. In the Moluccas, Muslim extremist groups like Laskar Jihad were attacking Christians with machetes and other homemade weapons; some 10,000 people were killed on both sides. In the capital of Jakarta, the Islamic Defenders Front was smashing up bars and tearing down Britney Spears posters as affronts to Islam. The government seemed unwilling to tackle the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah, which would go on to kill more than 200 people with bombs in Bali. And, amid general disillusionment with traditional politicians, the Justice and Welfare Party--a conservative Islamic political organization whose main plank called for the imposition of Sharia--was the fastest-growing party in the country. Indonesia itself, more fevered commentators warned, was in danger of slipping over into radicalism.

Next week 147 million Indonesians will go to the polls to elect a new Parliament--the first nationwide elections since 9/11, and at a time when much of the Muslim world is even more antagonistic toward the West because of America's occupation of Iraq. Yet instead of dominating the debate in Indonesia, the voice of Muslim radicals is hardly to be heard. The Justice Party is headed for a modest showing at the polls. On the campaign trail, its candidates have spent more time discussing corruption and economic issues than Sharia. Another conservative Islamic organization, the United Development Party, has similarly backtracked. In 2002 the group proposed a constitutional amendment to turn Indonesia into an Islamic state. That effort failed, and the party has also dropped Sharia from its political platform for lack of voter support.

It's becoming increasingly clear that while Southeast Asia's Islamists may have grabbed headlines in the past couple years, they have not won the hearts and minds of ordinary citizens. Experts say that far from gaining strength, conservative and fundamentalist Islamic parties are fighting to remain relevant. Last week in Malaysia, where Islam is the official religion, voters thoroughly rejected the pro-Sharia Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, or PAS, the country's leading opposition group. Despite promises that a vote for PAS would guarantee a place in heaven--and insinuations that Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi was not "a good Muslim"--the party lost 20 of its 27 seats in Parliament. Abdullah, whose secular ruling coalition now holds 198 of 219 seats in Parliament, simply ignored criticism of his religiosity rather than debating PAS on its terms.

In Indonesia, polls show that the two main secular parties, Golkar and the Democratic Party for Struggle (PDIP), led by President Megawati Sukarnoputri, will easily be returned to power on the heels of a fledgling economic recovery. While both parties have prominent Muslim figures among their ranks, their leaders have consistently opposed the idea of Sharia. Analysts say that a fundamentalist Islam, which curbs social freedoms and features corporal punishment, simply doesn't resonate with citizens more concerned with pocketbook issues. "The Islamization of Indonesia has failed," says Indonesian political analyst Salim Said. Adds Douglas Ramage of the Asia Foundation: "When Islamists have brought their demands through the political system, they've lost every time. Voters again and again reject radical Islam."

Indonesia's conservative Islamic parties have been chastened by their lack of support. Instead of focusing on religion in the current campaign, they've tried to adopt the mantle of clean governance, attacking establishment parties for rampant corruption and inefficiency while encouraging citizens to individually abide by Islamic teachings. At a campaign rally last Wednesday in the central Java city of Solo, a past breeding ground for radical Islamic groups such as Jemaah Islamiah, Islamic ...