A lesson for Abdurrahman

A lesson for Abdurrahman

As reported in The Jakarta Post July 28, 1995, Mr. Abdurrahman
Wahid, the Chairman of the 30-million-strong Moslem Nahdlatul
Ulama organization, was at his controversial best, again. He said
that he saw nothing wrong with Indonesia welcoming Israel
participation in the international archery championships
currently being held in Jakarta, stressing that religious belief
should not be mixed up with sporting events. He even guaranteed
that Indonesian Moslems would not protest if Israel participated
since Moslems have no religious edicts preventing Israelis from
coming.

The guarantee itself proved to be hollow because many Moslem
organizations expressed strong protests soon after Abdurrahman
Wahid spoke. More seriously, however, like many of his ridiculous
pronouncements in the past, he again badly missed the point. For
his enlightenment, I must point out that many countries are
strongly opposed to Israel not because the Israelis profess the
Jewish religion, or Judaism, but because of their repugnant
ideology of Zionism and its unacceptable political implications.

In other words, religion has nothing to do whatsoever with the
ostracism of Israel. But Israeli persecution and oppression of
the Palestinians does. In any event, can Abdurrahman Wahid
explain how can we conduct normal international intercourse with
Israel or invite its citizens to play sports in this country
while they continue to steal the lands which for hundreds of
years belonged to the Arabs?

For Abdurrahman Wahid's further information, political
considerations have been frequently used in the past to prohibit
certain countries taking part in international sport events. For
example, at the 1976 Montreal Olympics the Canadian Government
refused visas to representatives of Taiwan because they were
unwilling to forgo the title of the Republic of China, not
because they were followers of Buddhism or Confucianism.

Four years later, many countries boycotted the Moscow Olympics
purely in protest against the Soviet Union's invasion of
Afghanistan in December 1979. And at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics,
the United Nations banned Serbia and Montenegro (or rump
Yugoslavia) from taking part, not because the Serbian Serbs were
practicing Orthodox Christianity but because they were assisting
the Bosnian Serbs in carrying out genocide and ethnic cleansing
in Bosnia.

The above example should serve as good lessons for Abdurrahman
Wahid.

MASLI ARMAN

Jakarta