Govt urged to launch probe into JL network
Muhammad Nafik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Muslim scholars have urged the Indonesian government to act swiftly to uncover and root out Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) as part of its efforts to combat global terrorism.
However, they could not say whether the militant group is linked to the Indonesian Mujahiddin Council (MMI) led by Abu Bakar Ba'asyir.
Ba'asyir, currently being treated in a hospital in Surakarta, Central Java, has been arrested by Indonesian authorities for his alleged involvement in a series of bombings across the country.
The Singapore government have accused the elderly Muslim cleric of being the leader of JI. He has at all times denied the accusations.
However, the scholars said Thursday that authorities should launch an investigation to ascertain the extent of JI's activities in the world's largest Islamic country.
"The government has to tell the truth. If it doesn't have evidence, say so. If it has, disclose it in detail to the people. I think if there is authentic evidence (that JI is a terrorist group), all broad-minded people will accept it," Muhammadiyah chairman Ahmad Syafii Maarif told The Jakarta Post in Yogyakarta.
The United States has designated JI as a terrorist organization allied with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda which has been blamed for the deadly attacks in New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001.
The U.S. and its allies are reportedly lobbying the United Nations to declare JI an international terrorist group over its alleged roles in bombings across Southeast Asia and a plan to crash a plane into Singapore's international airport.
"I support any move to investigate Jamaah Islamiyah's existence here. If uncovered, it must be banned, its members arrested and its assets frozen," Ulil Abshar Abdalla, a Muslim scholar from the 40-million strong Nahdlatul Ulama organization, told The Jakarta Post.
"I don't believe Ba'asyir was likely involved in the Bali bombings or directly connected with al-Qaeda, but I believe he may be linked to JI as its spiritual leader ... It's should however be proven through legal processes," he added.
Ulil said the fact that Ba'asyir had lived in Malaysia for 12 years before returning home after the downfall of former dictator Soeharto in 1998, made it "very likely" he had established relations with JI.
Syafii stressed that evidence was very important before branding Ba'asyir as a terrorist because the charges against the Muslim cleric were based on the testimony of Omar al-Faruq, a terror suspect arrested by Indonesian security forces and handed over to the U.S.
"His (Al-Faruq's) statements were just subjective. We don't know the truth for sure. I'm not surprised if this has later incited various accusations among people, including that he might be a CIA agent," he said.
Unlike in Indonesia, JI or its cells are well known in Malaysia and Singapore. The two neighboring countries and the Philippines have arrested suspected JI members.
According to various intelligence agencies, JI has been seeking to establish a theocratic Islamic state covering Southern Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and the southern Philippines island of Mindanao.
The exact number of the group's members remains unknown, but reports estimates that cells in Malaysia may comprise 200 people.
Similarly, another Muslim scholar, Riza Sihbudi, from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said an investigation was needed to uncover JI's operations in the country.
"Because they are clandestine in nature, it would be hard to trace JI's operations here. And I'm not sure it can be proven, unless its existence is engineered by the authorities," he told the Post.
Riza and Ulil said JI was little known among Indonesians, including Muslims, due to the lack of publicity and unpopularity of its figures.
"Jamaah Islamiyah is a new type of Jihad (holy war) movement that surfaced in the 1990s in Southeast Asia. it consciously uses violence as the basis of its organization in fighting America," Ulil said.
"It is a dangerous organization as it campaigns for a globalized jihad."