Amien tells Moslems not to be easily provoked
Amien tells Moslems not to be easily provoked
SEMARANG (JP): Moslems should be more discerning and not be drawn into polarizing debates on sensitive issues such as human rights and social gaps, a prominent Moslem leader said yesterday.
Addressing a gathering of thousands of Moslems, Amien Rais, chairman of the influential Muhammadiyah, said that members must shoulder the same responsibility as the rest of the nation in maintaining stability and order.
Amien, who is also a political scientist at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, specified human rights, economic gaps, and the question of ethnic and religious differences as having the potential to polarize Moslems.
Amien defended Indonesia's human rights record, which has been strongly criticized recently, saying the critics are often no better.
He cited as an example the hypocrisy of the United States' veto of the United Nations Security Council's resolution against Israeli's plan to expropriate Palestinians' land in East Jerusalem.
"This means that the U.S. encourages Israel to rob Palestinians of their land," he said. "It's also the United States and European countries who pretend to be blind in the face of human rights violations in Bosnia Herzegovina."
"And these countries say Indonesia violates human rights because the question of East Timor has yet to be settled," he said.
He also said the Moslems should "uphold human rights" but must not be influenced by the other countries' campaigns against Indonesia.
Moslems who have a sense of nationalism and morality will not tarnish their government's name, he said.
Amien acknowledged that social gaps still exist and that they are proof of an "unhealthy social development".
"There are people who are rolling in money, while other people, especially in rural areas, can't even pay their children's school fees," he said.
He also called on the members of Muhammadiyah to tread carefully when they encounter sensitive debates on racial and religious differences. "We should be discerning, behave maturely in dealing with this issue, and not be deceived by efforts to harm national stability," he said. (har/swe)