THE Presidential Palace predictably makes the proper denouncements every time a radical group commits an act of violence. In 2006, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the government “will act against groups committing violence in the name of religion.”

The same threat was broadcast after an incident at Monas Square, when the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) attacked the National Alliance for Freedom of Religion and Belief in June 2008. Thi