Council calls for peaceful protests

Council calls for peaceful protests

Antara, Jakarta

The Indonesian Council of Mosques wants to see demonstrations that are orderly, peaceful and "well-intentioned" during the ongoing People's Consultative Assembly Annual Session.

"Demonstrations are permissible so long as they are peaceful, controlled and, most of all, do not turn into riots," Council chairman Ahmad Sutarmadi said here on Wednesday.

Security officials are anticipating major demonstrations involving hard-line Muslim groups that want to publicize their demand for syariah (Muslim law) to be discussed in the 10 days of sessions.

Islamic parties, such as the United Development Party (PPP), Justice Party and Crescent Star Party (PBB) have sought reinclusion of the controversial Jakarta Charter in the Constitution. If the move succeeds, it would pave the way for enforcement of syariah.

Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama, the country's largest Muslim organizations, have opposed the idea to reinstate the Jakarta Charter into the Constitution.

Minister of Religious Affairs Said Agil Husein Almunawar said he did not believe in an intelligence report that hard-line Islamic groups were planning massive demonstrations in the coming few days for syariah.

"I have not heard of the plan," Said said on Wednesday. He added it would be counterproductive for Muslims to hold street demonstrations because they could disrupt the sessions.

But in the event that they had aspirations to convey to the Assembly, he said he would be glad to become their broker. "Let me handle the groups. I will communicate with them," he said.

Ahmad called on Muslims to trust MPR members in defending their interests. "Our representatives at the MPR know only too well what we want."

The Council chairman argued that syariah would apply only to Muslims and if it were effective it would not mean that Indonesia had become a theocracy.

Ahmad said that for the Council, it would be all right if syariah were not formalized into the Constitution so long as predominantly Muslim regencies had the freedom to practice it.

So far some regencies in West Java, Banten and South Sulawesi have been seeking to apply syariah within their areas.

The Megawati government has seen it as a threat to the unitary state of Indonesia and plans to revise the autonomy law.