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.