Ba'asyir urges government to institute Islamic law

Ba'asyir urges government to institute Islamic law

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir met with Vice President Hamzah
Haz on Monday, asking the government to stop what he called the
unfairness against the Muslim struggle in the country.

In the meeting at the vice president's office which lasted
almost two hours on Monday, Ba'asyir claimed that his demand for
the implementation of Islamic law (syariah) in Indonesia should
not be responded to negatively, as it was the Muslims' effort to
uphold equality.

"In the meeting, we underlined that the demand to adopt
Islamic law in several provinces was not sparked by the
enforcement of syariah in Aceh, but purely because Muslims wanted
it to be applied," Ba'asyir said after the meeting.

Ba'asyir runs an Islamic boarding school in the Central Java
town of Sukoharjo and leads the Indonesian Mujahiddin Council
(MMI). He was thrust into the spotlight after many prominent
people, most notably Singapore's former prime minister, accused
him of being an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist leader. Malaysia also
linked him to a militant group which is demanding the
establishment of an Islamic state there.

Police questioned Ba'asyir earlier this year but said they
could not find any evidence to support the allegations of
wrongdoing here and he was not put in detention.

Accompanying Ba'asyir at Monday's meeting with Hamzah were
fellow MMI leaders Deliar Noer, Mursalin Dahlan and Irfan S.
Awwas.

Ba'asyir said he was seeking clarification from Hamzah, who
recently told people in some provinces that they could not follow
in the footsteps of Aceh, which was granted syariah as part of
its special autonomy status.

Deliar said that during the talks, Hamzah stressed that he
always believed in the will of Indonesia to recognize Islamic
law.

"We also made it clear, that as the world's most populous
Muslim country, we should do it(syariah)," Deliar said.

In the meeting, Ba'asyir also hailed the government's plan to
pardon him for his conviction in a subversion case in 1978.

"I just heard about the news and I think it is a wise move
from the government. I also hope that President Megawati
(Soekarnoputri), as a Muslim, could be wiser with regard to the
state ideology," he said in a reference to Pancasila, which
includes several tenets that outline a mostly secular society and
governmental bureaucracy, and legalizes other religions in
addition to Islam.