Jihad call based on emotion: NU leader

Jihad call based on emotion: NU leader

YOGYAKARTA (JP): The way some Muslim groups have expressed
their opposition to President Abdurrahman Wahid's views on the
conflict in Maluku has raised questions about their ability to
defend the interests of Islam, a Nahdlatul Ulama official said.

Said Aqiel Siradj, deputy chief of NU's Syariah lawmaking
body, said the call for jihad by the groups was based more on
emotion than the desire to forge a strong nation and defend
Islam.

"They only create terror and do nothing meaningful in terms of
developing Islam," Said said after addressing thousands of NU
members attending a Koran recital in Yogyakarta over the weekend.

He said NU would deal with hard-line Muslim groups with
patience and would always attempt to avoid physical conflict.

"Insya Allah (God willing), we will be able to deal with the
existence (of these groups)," he said.

Jihad has been misunderstood and misinterpreted by the radical
groups, he said. Said cited as an example the fact that many
Muslims considered Indonesia's struggle against Dutch colonialism
a war against Christians.

Jihad is meant to generate goodness and peace in life, not the
other way around, he said.

"One form of jihad is providing aid for needy people, both
Muslims and non-Muslims," Said commented.

Separately, the Islamic Forum of Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaah said
here it could no longer respect and follow orders from
Abdurrahman.

"Abdurrahman is more concerned with international pressure
than rescuing his own people in Maluku. He keeps saying (the
violence in Maluku) is over, but in fact the war is still going
on," the group's leader, Abdul Fatah, said over the weekend.

"What we are witnessing now is an Umaro (leader of the nation)
who cannot be trusted," Abdul said, adding that his group would
turn to war as a last resort.

The group said it was ready to send some 400 volunteer
fighters from Yogyakarta to Maluku, adding that the volunteers
had been trained at Ihya'us Sunnah Islamic boarding school on Jl.
Kaliurang, some 15 kilometers north of Yogyakarta.

Sociologist Nasikun of Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta
said Abdurrahman's desire to accommodate different religious,
social and cultural groupings had angered certain Muslims groups.

"Gus Dur even picked Bondan Gunawan, a man who doesn't have a
track record with the Islamic movement in Indonesia, as his
acting Cabinet Secretary. However, I don't think people will
support radical movements like Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaah," Nasikun
said, referring to the President by his nickname.

Thousands of Muslims have called for a holy war against the
country's Christian minority, who they accuse of killing Muslims
in Maluku.

Leaders of several Islamic parties grouped in the loose
affiliation known as the axis force have also led protests
against Abdurrahman's proposal to lift the ban on communism.

President Abdurrahman, a moderate Muslim scholar who formerly
led Nahdlatul Ulama, the country's largest Muslim organization,
has said the ban ran counter to the spirit of democracy.

Several human rights activists favor lifting the ban, but
Abdurrahman's National Awakening Party (PKB) is the only
political party which has come out in favor of the proposal.
(44/swa/edt)