JP/5/sharia

JP/5/sharia

Clerics meet in Bandung to press for sharia

Yuli Tri Suwarni
The Jakarta Post
Bandung

Around 200 extremist clerics began a national two-day meeting
here on Tuesday to push for the introduction of sharia law in the
predominantly Muslim country ahead of the 2004 general elections.

The forum is aimed at consolidating ulemas and habaib (ethnic
Arabs who claim to be able to trace their ancestry back to the
Prophet Muhammad), grouped in the Islamic Propagation Center
(Pusdai), in anticipation of a national leadership change after
the 2004 election.

Committee chairman Inqa Faqurroqobah said the participants
were expected to agree on support for presidential candidates who
were committed to promoting the implementation of sharia in
Indonesia.

"We don't want the next president to be someone who
arbitrarily arrests Muslim activists but rather someone who
allows Muslims to institute sharia," he told journalists on the
sidelines of the meeting in Bandung, West Java.

The National Police under President Megawati Soekarnoputri's
administration have been accused of illegally arresting extremist
activists in the fight against terrorism.

Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI
Perjuangan) was one of the major factions in the People's
Consultative Assembly (MPR) that opposed the incorporation of
sharia in the amended 1945 Constitution.

However, senior politicians in her Cabinet, including Vice
President Hamzah Haz and Minister of Justice and Human Rights
Yusril Ihza Mahendra, are among those who support the
implementation of sharia. The two are also presidential hopefuls
in the 2004 elections.

Yusril recently told supporters of his Crescent Star Party
(PBB) that he would press ahead with the struggling for the
implementation of Islamic law through constitutional means.

Inqa, a senior figure from the Bandung Mubaligh (Propagators)
Corps, further said the meeting, called the National Mudzakkaroh
(dialog), is drafting a convention on the implementation of
sharia in Indonesia, which is home to some 212 million people.

The convention will include an agreement to support
presidential candidates who are committed to Islamic law, he
added.

However, he said the campaign for the enforcement of sharia
should continue to be waged within the framework of the Unitary
Republic of Indonesia.

Inqa said the meeting was trying to combine radical and
moderate versions of sharia in implementing the Islamic law,
adding that the convention will be presented to the government
and the House of Representatives for consideration.

He had been summoned ahead of the meeting on Tuesday by the
Siliwangi military commander, reportedly to clarify whether the
forum was to be attended by members of a number of hard-line
Muslim groups, including Laskar Jihad, the Islam Defenders Front
(FPI) and Jamaah Islamiyah.

However, Inqa denied this. "I met the military chief to
discuss the agenda of the meeting," he said, but declined to go
into details.

FPI leader Habib Rizieq Shihab was scheduled to attend the
meeting, but failed to show up on the first day of the dialog.

Other participants included Ustadz (teacher) Mudzakir from the
Al-Islam Islamic boarding school in Surakarta, Central Java, who
testified on behalf of jailed terror suspect Abu Bakar Ba'asyir
during his recent trial in Jakarta.

Ba'asyir's lawyer Mehendradatta and his colleague Mursalin
Dahlan were among those present.