In 1998, the people of Indonesia took to the streets and overthrew their longtime dictator, Suharto.
1998年，印度尼西亚人民走上街头，推翻了长期的独裁者苏哈托
It was an amazing moment, but it was also a scary one.
那是一个令人激动的时刻，但也是一个可怕的时刻
With 250 million people, Indonesia is the largest Muslim-majority country on Earth.
拥有2.5亿人口的印尼是地球上最大的以穆斯林为主的国家
It's also hot, huge and unruly, made up of 17,000 islands,
它还很热、很大并且难以管理，由17000个岛屿组成
where people speak close to a thousand languages.
全国人民说着将近1000种不同的语言
Now, Suharto had been a dictator, and a nasty one.
苏哈托是一个独裁者，并且是一个很令人厌恶的独裁者
But he'd also been a pretty effective tyrant,
但他也是一个很实在的暴君
and he'd always been careful to keep religion out of politics.
他一直小心的不让宗教渗入到政治中来
So experts feared that without him keeping a lid on things,
因此专家还担心如果没有他控制局面
the country would explode, or religious extremists would take over
这个国家有可能分崩离析，或者宗教极端主义者可能掌管这个国家
and turn Indonesia into a tropical version of Iran.
并将印尼变成热带地区的伊朗。
And that's just what seemed to happen at first.
一开始事情似乎是朝着那个方向发展的。
In the country's first free elections, in 1999,
1999年在这个国家举行的第一次自由选举中
Islamist parties scored 36 percent of the vote,
伊斯兰政党得到了36%的选票
and the islands burned as riots and terror attacks killed thousands.
这些岛屿开始战火不断，骚乱和恐怖袭击导致数以千计的民众死亡
Since then, however, Indonesia has taken a surprising turn.
然而，从那以后，印尼却发生了出人意料的转变
While ordinary folks have grown more pious on a personal level --
从个人层面上来说普通民众变得更加虔诚了--
I saw a lot more headscarves on a recent visit than I would have a decade ago
我最近一次访问见到的戴头巾的民众要比十年前更多了
the country's politics have moved in the opposite direction.
这个国家的政治却走向了一个相反的方向。
Indonesia is now a pretty decent democracy.
印尼现在是一个相当民主的国家。
And yet, its Islamist parties have steadily lost support,
而它的伊斯兰政党正在持续地失去支持，
from a high of about 38 percent in 2004 down to 25 percent in 2014.
从2004年高达38%的支持率降至2014年的25%
As for terrorism, it's now extremely rare.
而恐怖主义现在也非常之少了。
