Amien blames schools as terror source
Amien blames schools as terror source
Agencies, Jakarta
The government can do more to curb schools that served as
training grounds for the hardliners who carried out some of the
deadliest attacks since the Sept. 11, 2001 strikes in the United
States, the People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Amien Rais
said on Monday.
Amien also told the World Economic Forum in Singapore that
boosting intelligence services and cutting off the flow of
illicit funds to groups intent on terror attacks were essential
for security and to prevent Islam from appearing in an
unfavorable light.
He said it was time to take another look at education in
Indonesia and at the Islamic schools that have served as fertile
ground for recruiting young men to terror networks.
"The government seems a bit hesitant to pinpoint schools as
cells of spreading terrorism," Amien, the former head of the
country's second-largest Islamic organization, the 30-million-
strong Muhammadiyah said, adding that the government of secular
Indonesia could be afraid that a crackdown will result in a
violent backlash.
Few analysts expect the government to place restrictions on
the schools, especially before presidential elections next year
when no politician wants to risk being branded un-Islamic in a
nation which has the world's highest number of Muslims.
In Lamongan, East Java, one school -- Al-Islam -- has come
under the spotlight because of its links to the three brothers,
Ali Gufron, Amrozi and Ali Imron, arrested for the Bali bomb
attacks on Oct. 12 last year.
A Bali court has sentenced Ali Gufron and Amrozi to death and
Ali Imron to life in jail for their role in the bombings, which
killed 202 people.
The government has blamed the Southeast Asian hardline group
Jama'ah Islamiyah (JI) for the Bali blasts. Some security experts
say the group is Osama bin Laden's Southeast Asian wing.
Amien also mentioned Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, the jailed cleric who
many JI members around the region have recognized as their leader
but who a court this year ruled as not being connected to the
group.
"I don't know what to say...I don't have solid proof," said
Amien, who is also the National Mandate Party chairman, of the
verdict.
"From my logic, for sure, networks of terrorist groups are
connected collectively or individually to Jama'ah Islamiyah," he
was quoted by Reuters as saying.
The most famous Islamic school in Indonesia is Al-Mukmin, said
an August report by the Brussels-based International Crisis
Group. It said the school was co-founded in the central Java city
of Solo by Ba'asyir.
However, chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) Hasyim Muzadi
said the politicization of religions and economic injustices
served as the main causes of radicalism in Islam.
"The politicization of religions, economic injustices and the
narrow interpretation of Islamic teachings should be solved to
prevent radicalism," said Hasyim.
NU is the country's largest Muslim organization with around 40
million members across the country.
He explained that Islam has a history of radicalism, since the
death of Prophet Muhammad, especially when the religion was
politicized.
"The killing of Imam Ali (the son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad)
was committed by people who tightly held the religion. That
happened because the religion was politicized and politics became
religion," he told an international conference on Propagation
Strategy of Moderate Islam to Face Radicalism.
Hasyim said radicalism started to emerge in Indonesia after
the downfall of former dictator Soeharto in May 1998 and the
beginning of the so-called Reform Era.
At that time, he said, radical individuals and groups who were
suppressed by the Soeharto regime and fled to neighboring
countries, especially Malaysia, returned to Indonesia.
He said, many students, some who had learned puritanism in
Middle Eastern countries, also came back to the country.
"They thought Indonesia was like Saudi Arabia. They campaigned
for the adoption of sharia here," he said.
He said NU and Muhammadiyah have decided to reject the
inclusion of sharia in Indonesia due to a consideration of other
faiths and the differences among Muslims here.