Indonesia's Muslims pray for peace

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Over 500,000 Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) followers turned out at the parade ground inside the Brawijaya Military Command headquarters in Surabaya on Sunday for the largest rally so far in the country against a possible United States attack on Iraq.

Apart from praying for an end to the country's worsening political situation in the face of the 2004 general election, the NU condemned the U.S-led campaign for a military invasion to disarm Iraq, Antara reported.

"It is the UN that is vested with the authority to impose sanctions against a particular country accused of violating a Security Council resolution, not the U.S.," the NU said in a statement read out by influential NU cleric Fachruddin Masturo.

Boasting 45 million supporters making it the largest Muslim organization in the country, the NU demanded that the U.S. wait for a U.N. decision on whether or not Iraq deserved to be sanctioned for possessing weapons of mass destruction.

"Should the U.S. insist on launching a military invasion of Iraq despite the fact that the latter has begun destroying its missiles, who then will be to blame for violating the U.N. resolution, the Iraqis or the U.S.?" asked Fachruddin, who is also the deputy chairman of the NU's Syuriah law-making board.

Among those attending the mass prayer were Minister of Religious Affairs Said Agil Husin Al Munawar, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda, Minister of Defense Matori Abdul Djalil and Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu. NU chairman Hasyim Muzadi, former president Abdurrahaman Wahid, National Awakening Party (PKB) chairman Alwi Shihab and former minister of defense Mahfud MD were also present.

"Our rejection of a U.S. invasion (of Iraq) should be seen as part of our efforts to respect humanitarian values, as well as to promote justice and to maintain the world order rather than as support for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein," Fachruddin said.

The Sunday mass prayer meeting was the fifth and the largest ever to have been held by NU. The first public gathering was organized in 1997, months before the economic crisis hit the country.

The previous mass prayer was held in April 2001, only three months before Abdurrahman was ousted from the presidency.

The NU and the country's second largest Muslim group, Muhamadiyah, are both regarded as moderate and to be representative of the true face of the country's Muslims.

Washington invited NU chairman Hasyim and Muhammadiyah chairman Ahmad Syafii Maarif for a visit in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. so as to seek their help in the global war on terrorism.

In Yogyakarta, Sjafii called on religious adherents to continue voicing their rejection of the U.S and its allies' threats of the use of force to disarm Iraq for fear that such an attack would harm interfaith relations around the world.

"As religious followers, people all around the world should not be divided due to certain political goals. We must be united and avoid provocation by these kind of greedy politicians," Sjafii said as quoted by Antara.

Both Hasyim and Sjafii were among a group of Indonesian religious leaders who met Pope John Paul II at the Vatican recently to voice their support for world peace.

Separately, hundreds of Muslim worshipers from greater Jakarta held a gathering at the Istiqlal Grand Mosque in Central Jakarta to listen to a sermon by noted Bandung-based Muslim preacher Abdullah "Aa Gym" Gymnastiar, the head of the Daarut Tauhid Islamic boarding school in West Java. During his address, Aa Gym opposed the possible U.S.-led military invasion of Iraq on the grounds that "any attack would only cause suffering to the Iraqi people and children".

After the Sunday sermon, Aa Gym, carrying his son, and hundreds of other Muslims, traveled to the U.S. embassy to hand over a letter to U.S. President George W. Bush. In his letter he warned the President of a further loss of credibility in the eyes of the international community should he continue to insist on forcibly disarming Iraq.

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