JP/4/radical

JP/4/radical

Radicalism extends roots, becoming institutionalized

Muhammad Nafik
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

There is no danger that Indonesia, the world's most populous
Muslim nation, will be turned into an Islamic state. One reason
for this is that most Indonesians practice a moderate strain of
Islam and are tolerant of different religions.

Another reason is that the nation's founding fathers, who
included charismatic Muslim leaders and ulema, never wanted
Indonesia to be an Islamic state.

Since independence, any political attempts by conservative
groups to push for the enforcement of sharia, or Islamic law,
have always ended in failure, with the proponents losing
significant public support for their ambitious campaigns.

However, the country cannot be called a secular state in the
sense that the nation embraces "total secularism", or the
complete separation of religion and state.

Religious -- Islamic -- doctrines and traditions often paint
and influence Indonesian politics and community life, which has
in turn encouraged radicalism, conservatism and fundamentalism
among some members of the public.

Now, radicalism and conservatism are putting down roots and
even becoming institutionalized in Indonesia, with both Muslims
and non-Muslims falling victims.

This deep-rooted fundamentalism is partly evidenced by attacks
on dozens of churches and other Christian houses of worship in
cities and towns across the country over the last year.

In 2005, Muslim mobs damaged, destroyed or shut down at least
23 churches in West Java alone and intimidated church officials,
according the Indonesian Communion of Churches.

Radicalism can also be said to be extending its roots when
armed mobs attack fellow Muslims who worship in a slightly
different manner, as happened in several incidents.

Mobs, including members of the hard-line Islam Defenders Front
(FPI), vandalized several mosques belonging to Ahmadiyah, a
minority Islamic sect that does not recognize Muhammad as the
last prophet, in several parts of the country.

Dozens of homes belonging to Ahmadiyah followers were also
attacked, with the most recent incident taking place in Cianjur
regency, West Java.

Liberal Islamic groups that promote a tolerant brand of Islam,
pluralism and secularism also found themselves being threatened
in 2005. In September, hard-liners forced the Liberal Islam
Network (JIL), made up mostly of young Muslim intellectuals and
scholars, to shut down its base in Utan Kayu, East Jakarta.
However, local officials came to the defense of the JIL, saying
the group could not be evicted from Utan Kayu.

The extremists also branded JIL supporters and other liberal
Muslim thinkers "infidels" or "apostates", a judgment that only
God is entitled to make.

The September jailing by East Java's Malang District Court of
Muslim preacher Muhammad Yusman Roy for introducing Indonesian
translations of Muslim prayers was another sign that freedom of
religion was not being respected. In addition, Yusman was also
forced from his home by local residents.

The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), the state's highest
Islamic authority, was partly to blame for these attacks,
particularly on the liberal groups and Ahmadiyah, because of a
series of controversial fatwas, or religious edicts, it issued.
Particularly troubling were the fatwas banning pluralism,
secularism and liberalism.

The fatwas also forbade marriage between people of different
religions and interfaith prayers, unless a Muslim leads the
prayers.

Militant Muslims used the controversial edicts to justify
their attacks on Ahmadiyah and JIL, which drew protests from
moderate scholars.

The government must also share some responsibility for the
attacks on the churches, which moderate Muslims say partly
resulted from an outdated joint ministerial decree on the
construction of places of worship.

The controversial decree, which was issued by the religious
affairs minister and the home affairs minister three decades ago,
requires anyone who wishes to establish a house of worship to
obtain approval from the local government and the local
community.

This ruling has mostly harmed non-Muslims -- Christians in
particular -- who are often unable to obtain the necessary
approval to build new churches in predominantly Muslim areas.
There have also been some reports of Muslims occasionally having
trouble building mosques in regions such as Papua, Maluku and
East Nusa Tenggara where Islam is not the dominant religion.

The controversial MUI fatwas and joint ministerial decree are
signs that radicalism and conservatism are becoming
institutionalized in the country.

Sociologist Nur Syam of the Surabaya-based Sunan Ampel State
Institute of Islamic Studies (IAIN) says radical Islamic
movements have penetrated state structures through political
parties, government bureaucracy and other institutions, including
the MUI.

Conservatism has even taken root in the country's two largest
Islamic organizations -- Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah --
which have witnessed numerous scholastic clashes between moderate
and more extreme clerics. However, the two are still generally
viewed as moderate groups.

More conservative NU and Muhammadiyah clerics supported the
MUI fatwa against Ahmadiyah, despite the country's constitutional
guarantee of freedom of religion, while the moderates opposed it.

Security authorities were also slow to deal with religious
violence, occasionally tolerating discrimination and
intimidation.

Prominent Muslim scholar Azyumardi Azra says the government
appears reluctant to publicly defend minority groups because it
fears being branded un-Islamic.

This only encourages militancy, added the rector of Syarif
Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN). "Radicalism is
already there, but sometimes it increases because of the failure
of government to enforce law and order," Azyumardi said.

Further evidence of institutionalized extremism was a series
of government policies, which included banning Ahmadiyah in
support of the MUI fatwa that declared the minority group a
heretical sect.

The ban by the Jakarta administration on supermarkets and
hypermarkets from selling certain types of alcoholic drinks
is also part of this creeping intolerance. A similar ban also
came into effect in Tangerang, Banten.

There are also examples of bylaws issued by other provinces
and regencies prohibiting women from going out at night alone or
ordering all female civil servants to wear headscarves at the
office.

At the village level, where many people are unfamiliar with
religious discourse, radicalism has also infiltrated daily life.
Clerics continue to preach against pluralism and religious
differences.

There are numerous campaigns against "Christianization" among
schoolchildren. The curriculums of many Islamic boarding schools
(pesantren) portray Islamic history as bloody and cruel, with an
emphasis on wars against "infidels".

What many (if not most) Muslim students here understand about
"infidels" is that they simply are non-Muslims. Such an
understanding is dangerous because it further promotes radicalism
and militancy.

A survey by JIL found at least 18 percent of the Muslim
population supported hard-line groups, while 6.5 percent were
actively involved in such groups.

"Maybe that number might seem insignificant, but out of a
population of over 200 million, it can be quite significant. It's
enough to build their own country," said JIL executive Hamid
Basyaib when announcing the results of the survey.

Moderate Muslims need to become more active to balance the
views of hard-liners and foster interreligious harmony.

As the country's two main Islamic groups, NU and Muhammadiyah
must play major roles in countering militant and conservative
ideas. Their continued inaction will only help ensure a
catastrophic collision between the state, religion and society.