Give Islamic 'syariah' law a chance: Mujahidin leader

Give Islamic 'syariah' law a chance: Mujahidin leader

By Sri Wahyuni

YOGYAKARTA (JP): Some 1,500 Muslims held their first
Indonesian Mujahidin Congress in Yogyakarta on Aug. 5 to Aug. 7
which resulted in the establishment of a Mujahidin Assembly and a
document named the Yogyakarta Charter.

The Mujahidin (defenders of the faith) does not claim itself
as a group and says the Congress was only a gathering of
concerned people. It has attracted attention because the Congress
raised the issue of applying syariah or Islamic law, the
interpretation of which is not uniform among Muslims. Applying
the syariah, the Yogyakarta Charter says, is the only way out of
the "multi-dimensional" crisis.

Amid similar calls in the ongoing Annual Session of the
People's Consultative Assembly, the Charter recommended the
Assembly modify Clause 29 of the 1945 Constitution on freedom of
religion, obliging Muslims to adhere to the syariah.

The Congress also wants the same statement to be added in the
forward or the preamble to the Constitution, specifically to the
phrase "Belief in One God." The phrase is among the five points
of the state ideology Pancasila mentioned in the preamble.

The requirement for Muslims to adhere to Islamic law has been
known as "the seven words" which were dropped in an earlier
version of Pancasila called the Jakarta Charter following heated
debates in 1945.

The Constitution, more so its introduction, has for years been
considered a taboo subject for change.

The Mujahidin Assembly comprises 36 members from different
groups and includes noted scholars Deliar Noer, Mawardi Noor, Ali
Yafie -- all from Jakarta -- Alawy Muhammad from Madura and
Ahmad Syahirul Amin from Yogyakarta.

To help explain the Mujahidin's demands The Jakarta Post
talked to Irfan S. Awwas, chairman of the congress organizing
committee and initiator of the congress.

Estimated to cost some Rp 650 million he said the congress
received donations from parties that he would not identify,
including Muslims in Sweden, Germany and Australia, besides fees
of Rp 50,000 per participant.

Now a publisher, he was the chief editor of the banned
Arrisalah monthly magazine in Yogyakarta and served nine years of
an 11-year prison sentence for subversion. He was released in
1993 and is married with three children.

Excerpts of the interview:

Question: Why did the congress demand the adoption of the
Jakarta Charter into the Constitution, which already recognizes
freedom of religion?

Answer: The requirement for Muslims to apply the syariah will
give us the right to apply it in their daily lives. This means
that the government will no longer have any reasons to forbid us
from doing so (in the 1980s, for instance, women complained of
being banned by superiors or school authorities from wearing the
headscarf - Ed.)

Besides, the Jakarta Charter was a result of a national
consensus among Muslim and non-Muslim political figures (in
August 1945). It was only because of baseless provocation that
the inclusion of the seven words would make several provinces
break away from the Republic that the words were finally omitted.

Yet, now it has been proven that the separation of East Timor
and other demands from Irian Jaya and Aceh, are not because of
religion. It is more because of the injustice they received for
years from the central government.

Why did the Congress decide that the application of syariah
was the only way out of the crisis, including the threat of
disintegration?

Muslims are the majority in Indonesia. If the syariah is
applied, no non-Muslims would be forced to practice it. It's not
the same as Pancasila, which every organization was obliged (by
New Order government) to adopt as the one and only basic
principle for it statutes.

So there would be no reason for disintegration. You are free
to practice your own religion. If any disharmony involving
different religions occurs, you can just invite the involved
parties to sit together and discuss the matter.

What is the task of the Mujahidin Assembly? Would its task be
over once the MPR or the government agreed to its demands?

The assembly is an alliance of different components ... Its
task is ensuring that the syariah is upheld by Muslims in
Indonesia and in the world. Through the Assembly Muslim experts
would discuss problems that Muslims face and make decisions.

The main objective is the establishment of a khilafah or one
leadership for all Muslims in the world, similar to that in the
Prophet's era. We want to have one leader who will unite all the
world's Muslims. If the Catholics have the Pope in the Vatican,
for example, why should people be suspicious if Muslims want to
establish a similar leadership?

Muslims need an international leader, or what we call the
amirul mukminin, the leader for all Muslims. We will soon try to
convince society, especially Muslims, that only with the syariah
can we create a better life and be awarded with nobility (in
God's eyes).

We plan to set up representative offices in some 20 provinces.
They all have the task of realizing the Assembly's programs. We
will also invite mujahidin in other countries to do the same.

One recommendation in the congress was the replacement of the
Criminal Code with the syariah. Is this possible considering that
Indonesians are not only Muslims?

There is no need for non-Muslims to worry about the
application of the syariah as a positive law here. It will not
harm them at all. Islam fully guarantees the freedom of all
followers of other religions to practice what they believe in.
The Koran clearly forbids its followers to force anyone to become
a Muslim. Islamic law prevails only for Moslems.

Therefore, if non-Muslims committed wrong doings, they would
not be automatically judged according to the Islamic law, but to
the laws according to their own religions. They could even be
given the chance to choose which law they want to use. This
happened during the Prophet Mohammed's era and the following eras
of khilafah (Muslim leadership).

So the application of the syariah wouldn't be a threat for
non-Muslims?

That's right. This should have been understood by many. Yet,
since secular people are always provoking us, there is always the
fear among non-Muslims that they will be discriminated against if
syariah is applied. In fact such a thing has never happened in
the history of Islam. History shows that a Muslim majority has
never oppressed non-Muslims. What has mostly happened is the
opposite.

How do you view efforts in turning Indonesia into an Islamic
state?

I think it's understandable if a Muslim prefers an Islamic
state. Yet this is not our main goal. Our concern is the
guarantee of the application of syariah regardless of the form of
the state. It would mean nothing to have an Islamic state while
the syariah is not upheld, would it?

I suggest that people never again use the old paradigm and
suspicion to link every activity by Muslims as an effort to build
an Islamic nation. Doing so will avoid conflicts. We have to be
honest with each other now. Muslims have long been mistreated. I
believe that if Muslims are treated the way they should be, they
will not do any harm to any other community.

Muslims in Indonesia are always reactive. They will not do
anything harmful unless they are harmed first.

Actually, there are three different perceptions among Muslims
in struggling for the application of the syariah. They are
through the jama'ah or community, through power (daulah) or by
setting up an Islamic state and through the khilafah
(leadership).

If Indonesia can accept the syariah as its positive law,
especially for Muslims, there is no need to establish an Islamic
state here. I have repeatedly said that the main point is the
application of syariah. It must be much easier to accept
presently since many Indonesian elite are Muslims.

We have never been given a chance to explain or to reduce non-
Muslims' suspicion about the possibility of discrimination if
syariah is applied. Just give us a chance to prove that Muslims
can protect non-Muslims, as long as they do not treat us as
enemies, of course. History has proven it so.

Therefore, I can assure you, as far as I have observed, that
there is no strategy for a revolution to establish an Islamic
state here. We will channel our demands through Islamic parties
and organizations in a bid to uphold Islamic syariah.

What thoughts led to the congress?

It emerged from a concern toward the present condition in
which no one is proposing Islam as a solution while Muslims are
the majority here. And many others share the same view. Therefore
we invited those sharing the same vision and mission, on how to
uphold syariah, and the congress organizing committee was
eventually formed.

There were in fact three reasons why we thought such a
congress should be held. First is ideological. Every Muslim
should expect that syariah is upheld because it is obligatory.

The second is historical. For over 700 years, since Prophet
Mohammed's era, until the fall of Khilafah Usmaniah -- who was
toppled by Mustafa Kemal Attaturk -- in Turkey in 1924, Muslims
accepted syariah, and all Muslims practiced it under one leader
known as the amirul mukminin. Yet since 1924 up to the present,
most Muslims (no longer practice syariah).

Among the indications is the fact that many Muslims no longer
accept syariah and can easily say it is impossible to apply it
these days. As a result many of Allah's commands and prohibitions
seem to be inapplicable these days.

The third reason is reality. We have witnessed during the
crisis and tragedy here that non-Muslims have proposed solutions
of their own. Yet no Muslim organization or group has done the
same. Why? It's because religion has not been given its proper
role. That is also why religion, especially in Indonesia, could
never function the way it should.

Just look at adultery. It is rife nowadays despite the fact
that all religions forbid such a thing. Even the existing law
cannot punish them, as they do so with mutual pleasure and
without anyone forcing them to do so. In this particular case,
the state's law seems to be against the teaching of all
religions.

(The above reasons) have motivated us to handle problems using
the Islamic point of view. We believe that Islam is capable of
handling the crisis should the government give Islam a chance to
say what it should. History shows that Islam has the
experience ... It is naive to say that Islam does not have the
system of government or the system of leadership given the fact
that it was once in power for over 700 years.