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)