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.