NU, Muhammadiyah should be pro-active: Scholars<\/p>\n
Muhammad Nafik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Scholars and political observers on Thursday urged Indonesia's
\ntwo biggest moderate Islamic groups to take the lead in restoring
\nthe image of Islam and its followers, which has been tarnished
\nover major anti-U.S. protests by extremist Muslims.<\/p>\n
Along with Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, President
\nMegawati Soekarnoputri's government should also play a key role
\nin facilitating religious dialogs with Muslim leaders,
\nparticularly those from militant groups, they said.<\/p>\n
\"Leaders of big (Muslim) organizations, like NU, Muhammadiyah
\nand others, should take a more proactive stance,\" said Azyumardi
\nAzra, rector of Jakarta's Syarif Hidayatullah State Institute of
\nIslamic Studies (IAIN).<\/p>\n
He said influential Muslim leaders should be \"more outspoken\"
\nand \"assertive\" to publicly state their groups' stance on both
\nattacks on the United States and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
He said dialogs with Muslim hardliners are crucial to
\n\"formulate a more proportional stance in a response to various
\ndevelopments at home and overseas, which have affected Muslims
\nand Islam\" over the attacks on New York and Pentagon, and the
\nU.S. strikes of Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
\"President Megawati and her cabinet should also be more
\nproactive to hold talks with Muslim leaders... It should be
\nacknowledged that she has extremely rarely invited such dialogs,\"
\nAzyumardi added.<\/p>\n
He said Muslim leaders are a very important force, not only to
\nmake a success of Megawati's political sustainability, but to
\naccelerate her national agenda as well.<\/p>\n
NU Chairman Salahuddin Wahid and Muhammadiyah leader Syafi'i
\nMaarif, who spoke at the seminar themed 'the National Interests
\nover Attacks on WTC and Pentagon', welcomed the call as positive.<\/p>\n
\"It's a good idea. We should meet first with Muhammadiyah,\"
\nSalahuddin told The Jakarta Post after the discussion,
\ncriticizing the foreign media for exaggerating the coverage on
\nanti-U.S. protests in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Chusnul Mariah, a political observer from the University of
\nIndonesia, said the silence of Muslim moderate figures in
\nresponding to the escalating protests against the U.S. was due to
\nthe counter attacks by Western nations on Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
\"If the U.S. had not bombed Taliban, Muslim moderate leaders
\nwould have spoken out,\" she told the same seminar.<\/p>\n
Azyumardi said a recent wave of demonstrations by Muslim
\nradicals against the U.S. and its Western allies have tarnished
\nthe image of Islam in Indonesia as a tolerant and moderate
\nreligion that emphasizes peace and harmony.<\/p>\n
\"This shift of image has at least changed the perception and
\nhopes of many people, particularly Muslims in other countries,
\nthat Islam Indonesia is an alternative (solution) to the
\ndevelopment of Islam among the would's civilization and
\nmodernization.\"<\/p>\n
Moeslim Abdurrahman, another Muslim scholar, agreed, saying
\nthe anti-U.S. protests has dominantly painted a negative picture
\nof Islam in Indonesia, although they only represented a small
\ngroup of people.<\/p>\n
He gave support to calls for the government along NU and
\nMuhammadiyah to build up dialogs with leaders from hardline
\nMuslim organizations in order to maintain the national interests.<\/p>\n
According to him, the Western negative perception of Islam and
\nMuslims in Indonesia following the September 11 tragedy in the
\nU.S. was contributed to by the absence of proper communications
\nbetween Americans and Indonesians.<\/p>\n
Moeslim criticized Megawati for having not invited Muslim
\nmoderate scholars, like Nurcholish Madjid, Syafi'i Maarif or
\nAzyumardi Azra, to accompany her during a recent state visit to
\nWashington late September.<\/p>\n
Azyumardi said the anti-U.S. demonstrations contained a
\npolitical motive to unseat Megawati's government as the
\nprotesters were those from the Muslim extreme group that had
\nactively raised the issue of gender in a move to block her
\npresidential candidacy.<\/p>\n
\"The anti-U.S. demonstrations were a first step to destabilize
\nthe country's politics. If going ahead, they could overthrow
\nPresident Megawati. But it's clear that she is too strong to be
\ndowned.\"<\/p>\n
He rejected claims by foreign analysts that Indonesian Muslims
\nare practicing the Islamic Taliban-style character dubbed as
\nradical, intolerant, and extremely extreme.<\/p>\n
\"In many elements, the religious understanding and practices
\nadopted by (Osama bin Laden) and Taliban are extremely different
\nfrom those by Indonesian Muslims in general,\" Azyumardi said.<\/p>\n
He said Muslim radical groups in Indonesia even called Taliban
\na group of Khawarij followers, which opposes the popular Islamic
\nschool of Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamaah that most Indonesian Muslims
\nfollow.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/nu-muhammadiyah-should-be-pro-active-scholars-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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