Egypt vs. Indonesia in attitudes

TNR has a post up, Egypt and Indonesia. In it, the author argues that:

At times of unexpected but momentous political change in distant countries, we grasp onto political analogies to help get our bearings. Even if we know they are imperfect, we can’t resist their tempting suggestiveness. But, if we cannot resist them, we can at least choose them thoughtfully. Invoking Iran after the Shah is scary indeed, but dangerously misleading. A different analogy that provides more useful grist for our unsettled analytic mill concerning Egypt is Indonesia and Suharto in the late 1990s.

We can gauge the force of this analogy by looking at a Pew Gobal Attitudes report on Muslim public opinion from December 2010. Egypt and Indonesia are in their set of countries surveyed. Below are a selection of results, with Turkey and Pakistan included in for comparisons. I ignored most of the stuff on Muslim radical movements. Additionally, one has to be cautious about interpreting survey data, as people will interpret questions in relation to their local situation. For example, below you will see that 89 and 46 percent of Indonesians and Pakistanis think that the role of religion in politics is “large.” I think empirically we have to conclude that Indonesians and Pakistanis are using the terms somewhat differently, as Indonesia is a much more robustly pluralist regime at this point than Pakistan is. Indonesia is not an officially Islamic state. Pakistan is. Indonesia forthrightly acknowledges its pre-Islamic heritage, and continues to have prominent symbolic roles for non-Muslim cultural forms. The Hindu epics are still popular on the most populous island of Java.

Source: Pew Global Attitudes
Role of Islam in politics is….
	Large	Small
Indonesia	89	10
Turkey	69	19
Egypt	48	49
Pakistan	46	36
Islam’s influence in politics is….
	Negative	Positive
Indonesia	6	91
Turkey	31	38
Egypt	2	85
Pakistan	6	69
In struggle between modernizers and fundamentalists….
		Identify with… (of those who see struggle)
	See struggle	Modernizers	Fundamentalists
Indonesia	42	54	33
Turkey	52	74	11
Egypt	31	27	59
Pakistan	44	61	28
Make gender segregation in workplace the law….
	Oppose	Favor
Indonesia	59	38
Turkey	84	13
Egypt	44	54
Pakistan	11	85
Support for harsh punishments (affirm action)
	Stone adulterers	Whip & amputate hands of robbers	Death penalty for apostates
Indonesia	42	36	30
Turkey	16	13	5
Egypt	82	77	84
Pakistan	82	82	76
Agree that democracy is always preferable to any other kind of government
Indonesia	65
Turkey	76
Egypt	59
Pakistan	42