Islam should preach peace, President Soeharto says
Islam should preach peace, President Soeharto says
JAKARTA (JP): Force and violence are not characteristics of
Islam and those spreading the religion should clarify this,
President Soeharto said yesterday.
Soeharto told 200 Moslem leaders from 22 nations that
preachers of Islam should present the peaceful face of the
religion to the world.
He was speaking while officially opening the ninth meeting of
the proselytizing committee of the Organization of Islamic
Conference (OIC) at the State Palace yesterday.
"Indeed, in carrying out dakwah (proselytizing) we have to
show the true face of Islam, which is filled with peace," he
said. He added that the religion mandates that it be spread "with
kindness and a smile".
"The dakwah approach must indeed be polite, gentle,
compassionate and wise," he said. "This is the kind of
proselytizing that attracts the mind and heart of an individual.
"We must avoid showing a face of Islam which is without mercy,
because Allah taught to us that preaching like that will cause
people to deviate from the truth of Islam," he said.
Close to 90 percent of Indonesia's population of more than 194
million people are followers of Islam, with the other major
religions -- Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Hinduism and
Buddhism -- all recognized and accorded equal positions by the
state ideology, Pancasila.
On hand during the opening ceremony yesterday were Secretary-
General of the OIC, Hamid Algabid, Indonesian Minister of
Religious Affairs Tarmizi Taher, and the meeting's host, Dr.
Anwar Harjono of the Indonesian Council of Islamic Propagation.
The two-day meeting is discussing strategies for the
propagation of Islam over the next five years, ways to improve
cooperation among proselytizing institutions, and ways to
accelerate the campaign to correct the image of Islam, especially
in the West, where it is often associated with extremism and
terrorism.
Addressing the issue of poverty in many Moslem societies is
also seen as a very pressing agenda item for the meeting. In his
speech, President Soeharto briefly touched on how proselytizing
should never be separated from efforts to improve the people's
welfare.
"I believe that for this purpose, Islamic dakwah must be
directed towards making the ummah (people) aware of the danger of
poverty, cultivating social solidarity ... promoting the working
ethics of the ummah," he said.
He said proselytizing should also strive to develop "the
appreciation of the people towards science and technology ... as
well as making the most efficient use of funds collected through
alms."
The need for proselytizers to contribute towards welfare
improvement efforts was also stressed by Tarmizi and Algabid.
"The success of our dakwah in the future not only exists in
the sophistication of preaching, but also in the
comprehensiveness of our efforts to deal with the economic
problems and the welfare of the ummah," Tarmizi said.
"The faster the improvement of the people's economic
situation, the greater the degree of the success of our
proselytizing," he said. "Conversely, the failure to improve the
welfare of the people means the failure of the proselytizing," he
said.
He said the success of Islamic proselytizing is characterized
by several factors, including the high degree of economic welfare
and justice felt by the public.
Algabid used the occasion to express the organization's
concern over the conditions faced by Moslems all over the globe.
"The organization ... is maintaining efforts to establish peace
in Afghanistan, Somalia and Kashmir and to promote a constructive
dialog leading to a peaceful settlement of these problems,"
Algabid said.
He also expressed concern over the fate of Bosnian Moslems
entrapped in the ravaging war with the Serb aggressors. "The
Moslems ... have been suffering for more than three years from
the atrocities of a devastating war," he said. "The inability of
the international community to halt the atrocities committed
against the Moslem people is a cause of deep grief."
The meeting yesterday proceeded with presentations by
Indonesian scholar Amien Rais and Malaysian scholar Dr. Mohd.
Kamal Hassan, who explained at length the characteristics of
Moslem societies in South Asia and the need for a specialized
approach in proselytizing.
Today, the meeting will discuss the need to foster joint
activities and exchanges of expertise, as well as the religious
aspects of the controversial world conference on population, held
in Cairo, Egypt, last September. (swe)