Al Arqam protests govt ban, denies Islamic deviation

Al Arqam protests govt ban, denies Islamic deviation

JAKARTA (JP): The banned, Malaysian-based Islamic movement, Al
Arqam, denied authorities' accusations that they practiced
deviationist teachings and challenged the recent government
censure of their organization.

Abdurrahman Riesdam Effendi, an Arqam leader in charge of the
organizations' activities in West Java, called the ban made by
the high prosecutor's offices in nine provinces "groundless."

"We can accept their edicts to outlaw us, but we cannot accept
the reasons they cited," he told The Jakarta Post here yesterday.

"We are challenging them, especially the Jakarta prosecutor's
office, to prove that we have been practicing teachings which
deviate from Islamic principles."

Abdurrahman also said that they intended to carry on with
their activities until the authorities could come up with
comprehensive and acceptable grounds for the ban.

The movement was first banned in the provinces of West and
North Sumatra, West Java, Riau and Aceh. The provinces of
Jakarta, Central and East Java and West Nusa Tenggara in eastern
Indonesia followed suit over the weekend.

The prosecutors' office charged the movement with propagating
deviant teachings based on a book entitled Aurad Muhammad-
Pegangan Darul Arqam, written by its founder Syekh Muhammad bin
Abdullah As-Suhaimi.

The book was already banned by the Attorney General office
last year.

Evidence

"We demand that they show material evidence, in the form of
recordings, notes or anything else, to back up their
accusations," he said.

As-Suhaimi died in 1935 in Selangor, Malaysia, but the Al
Arqam members reportedly believe that he will be resurrected and
return as Imam Mahdi, the messiah.

Moslem leaders affiliated with the state-backed Indonesian
Ulema Council (MUI) and the Indonesian Council for Islamic
Propagation (DDII) called on the Attorney General to ban the
movement, citing threats to both public order and the Moslem
brotherhood.

Attorney General Singgih said on Friday that the government
would allow local councils in mainly-Moslem Indonesia to decide
if the sect should be banned in their provinces.

Abdurrahman said yesterday that the movement adheres to the
same Islamic teachings as other Moslems, which originate from the
Holy Koran and the sayings and deeds of Prophet Muhammad (As-
sunnah), and does not base their rituals on the Aurad Muhammad.

He went on to explain that the book is a form of guidance for
conducting wirid, certain methods for reading the Koran, and that
there are only four persons authorized by the movement to teach
it.

"Those four persons are not Indonesians and reside in
Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia," he said. "They have not even
visited Indonesia."

"So, the authorities' claim that we based our teachings on the
book was not true," he added.

Following Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam, the Indonesian
government recently declared the movement's spiritual leader
Ashaari Mohammad persona non grata

The Al Arqam case has created controversy and disagreement
among many Moslems here. Despite the appeal for the ban, many
Moslems believe the government should have left the movement
alone because it has not actually created problems in the regions
where they reside.

The influential Moslem organization, Nahdlatul Ulama, for
example, has said that the movement should not be outlawed -- at
least not on religious grounds. Its leader, Abdurrahman Wahid,
even offered to take the Arqam members into its fold.

The decision of the Attorney General to let provincial
administrations make their own decision concerning the ban has
been seen as a clever alternative to a nationwide ban which might
risk wider criticism.

The movement -- whose men wear flowing robes and turbans and
whose women cover all of their body except for their eyes -- was
also accused of "exclusivity". (02)