Efforrts to stigmatize Islam as extremism

Efforrts to stigmatize Islam as extremism

By Adian Husaini

JAKARTA (JP): The editorial of The Jakarta Post on Jan. 8,
2001, entitled "Soldiers of fortune", referred to a police
statement about the involvement of the "Afghan militia" in the
recent Christmas Eve bombing.

The editorial went on to say that the young Asian Muslims,
from Indonesia and the Philippines, who took part in the Afghan
War were recruited by the CIA in the context of the American Cold
War against the Soviet Union. That they were also mercenaries.

The editorial said, "Mercenaries by definition are foreign
soldiers hired to fight a war on behalf of their sponsors. This
was the nature of the participation of the Indonesian volunteers
in the Afghan war."

The editorial was but an attempt to exploit the myth of the
"terrorism" of the Afghan mujahideens.

The mujahideens of Afghan, coming from various countries and
taking part in the war against the Soviet Union in the 1970s,
performed a noble deed. They went there to help their brethren
fight communist troops of the Soviet Union who were equipped with
sophisticated weaponry.

Calling the mujahideens "mercenaries" is an insult and
offense.

The editorial went on to ask that the identities of the Afghan
militia be revealed, because with their skills, discipline and
experience, they had the potential to launch unrest here.

By its editorial, The Jakarta Post has slapped a stigma on the
Indonesian mujahideens to Afghanistan. The newspaper, by
demanding that their identities be disclosed, has judged that the
bombing perpetrators were Indonesians who fought in the Afghan
war.

On Jan. 5, police detective chief Inspector General Engkesman
R. Hillep at the National Police stated that among those involved
in the bombing in Bandung some have admitted to being members of
the Afghan militia. The police also stated that the suspects were
members of the militia during 1990-1992.

The police, through a statement by police spokesman Saleh
Saaf, later clarified and said the correct term was "Afghanistan
volunteers." The term "militia" connotes an orderly and organized
group.

Even this clarification was still vague, so much so that only
a few publications highlighted the police allegation that the
Afghan militia were suspected of the bombings.

There are several points that beg further explanation. Police
claimed the suspects admitted to being in Afghan in 1990-1992,
when the fact was that at the time the Soviet Union had been
expelled from Afghan.

In addition, the police statement was one-sided and the public
was not given any opportunity to confirm it. The public, too,
still remembers how officials and members of the Indonesian Forum
for Peace (FID) have given various statements about the bombing
suspects. Some have linked the violence with former military
officers of the New Order, others with enemies of President
Abdurrahman Wahid, and so on.

Finally, the police statement was also premature and has yet
again stigmatized certain Muslim groups, in this case the former
fighters of Afghanistan.

The police should have avoided this "stigmatizing" by
refraining from giving out the social, communal identities of the
suspects or their ethnicity. Police do not need to say, for
instance, that the suspects are people of Batak origins, members
of Golkar or activists of certain mosques.

Stigmatizing is something the New Order often resorted to in
its earlier years. In the 1970s, for instance, the regime
shackled mosque-based youth activism by infiltrating their ranks,
seducing them into extremism and violence and ultimately creating
the image that mosque activists were terrorists. This image
effectively stifled the growth of mosque-based youth activities.

The same infiltration and stigmatization was launched again to
stifle the influential Dewan Mahasiswa (University Students
Council). Whether the same campaign was operating in the context
of the Christmas Eve bombings has yet to be clarified, but the
need is obvious for everybody to exercise self-restraint and
refrain from arbitrary condemnation of any party.

The media, too, should exercise the same restraint and refrain
from cultivating suspicions in sensitive cases such as the
bombings.

Because, the Muslim community, too--tired of being stigmatized
for decades--can have their own suspicions that the bombings were
carried out by extremists of another religion seeking not only to
further stigmatize Muslims but also to invite public (both
domestic and international) sympathy.

Creating the image of an oppressed group is something that
Israel Zionist leaders usually did par excellence. The Zionist
leaders allowed the massacre of Jews in Europe to create the
image of an oppressed group, which benefited in the long run.

In his book, A Hidden History of Zionism, Ralph Schoenman
revealed evidence of collaboration between Zionist leaders and
Nazi leaders. The Zionist leaders deliberately let the holocaust,
the massacre of 6 million German Jews, take place, and used the
tragedy as their eternal campaign to elicit world sympathy. They
used the campaign to slaughter and massacre the Palestinians, and
take over their land.

Many of the Indonesian Muslim activists remember vividly how
some military leaders in the past skillfully engineered
stigmatization and the creation of situations where Muslims were
marginalized and treated as extremists.

Given this history, it is understandable that they now
question whether the various recent incidents -- which again
stigmatized Muslims -- were yet another campaign by a certain
party to marginalize Muslims.

Is it possible the bombings of the churches was part of a
campaign to stigmatize Muslims? Wallahu a'lam (only Allah knows),
but in such an uncertain situation it would be better if all
parties waited until everything is clear before launching attacks
indiscriminately.

It would be a pity if The Jakarta Post became part of the
conspiracy to stigmatize Islam.

The writer is secretary of KISDI (Indonesian Committee for
World Muslims' Solidarity).