50,000 join mass prayer in Madura

JAKARTA (JP): More than 50,000 East Java Moslems affiliated to Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) organization held a mass gathering in Bangkalan, Madura, Saturday to pray for religious harmony, peace and national unity.

The three-hour prayer, watched by dozens of security officers, passed off without incident, Antara reported.

NU, with an estimated 30 million members, is Indonesia's largest religious and educational organization. Its leader, controversial Moslem scholar Abdurrahman Wahid, did not attend the mass prayer.

Program coordinator Nuruddin A. Rahman said the prayers also asked for God's protection of the Madurese in other provinces.

Migrants from Madura in West Kalimantan were involved in recent ethnic clashes with native Dayaks, in which hundreds are believed to have died. As a consequence many of the migrants have returned to Madura.

The prayers began with the reading of tahlil (repeated confessions of faith) and a prayer of praise of the prophet Muhammad.

The tahlil reading was started by Nasyir Yasid of Bangkalan, and continued by preachers from other East Java regencies.

The gathering, attended by government officials including Bangkalan regent Jakfar Syafei, was closed by well-known Bangkalan ulama Abdullah Schal.

Non-Moslems respected the occasion by closing their shops. They said missing one day's trade in honor of the ceremony would not cause them a significant loss.

Many Moslems from organizations other than NU were also present.

In Surabaya, the military called on NU members to cooperate with the authorities by notifying the Armed Forces' alert centers of possible unrest.

Spokesman for the Brawijaya military command Brig. Gen. Muchdi PR said information from the public was needed to prevent a riot similar to the one that occurred in Situbondo in October last year.

"We know that NU plays an important role in maintaining security in East Java," he said. "ABRI (Armed Forces) members number fewer than 30,000 personnel while the province's population is almost 35 million."

The Oct. 10 riot in Situbondo was triggered by the sentencing of a Moslem to five years imprisonment.

An angry mob torched 21 churches, five Catholic elementary schools, one Christian orphanage, two plazas, one court building, three cars and five motorcycles.

Situbondo is one of NU's main strongholds. (01)