Moderate Muslims 'need to balance' hard-liners

ID Nugroho, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya

A sociologist has warned that interreligious harmony in the country will be seriously impaired by religious radicalism if moderate Muslims do not strive to balance the beliefs of hard- liners.

Sociologist Nur Syam from the Sunan Ampel State Institute of Islamic Studies said the radical Islam movement had infiltrated the state's structure through political parties, government bureaucracy, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) and other formal institutions.

The MUI, for instance, issued edicts recently that included the prohibition of religious teachings influenced by pluralism, liberalism and secularism, as they were said to be against Islam.

Several provinces and regions also issued bylaws that veered heavily into radicalism, for instance the prohibition of women going out at night alone or the order that female civil servants wear head scarves.

"If a radical movement is nurtured in this country, the relationship between religions will be impaired. Therefore, moderate Muslim groups in this country must balance it out," he said when inaugurated as a university professor on Friday.

If moderate Muslim organizations like Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah do not do anything, there will be a collision between the state and society, he said.

Nur, however, said there was only a slight chance that the country would turn into a radical, zealous state.

"Indonesia could become a radical religious-based state, but this would go against the wishes of the majority of Muslims, who are moderate."

He said the radical movement was not confined to Islam and that radicalism in Islam was not a new phenomenon.

But Muslim groups were repressed during the previous New Order regime, and radical groups are reemerging now as the country becomes more democratic and open, he said.

Moreover, Nur proposed a concept of "particular universality" to avoid a collision between the state and the people in regard to sharia law.

The universality of sharia, he said, had to be contextualized locally or put into a particular context. Otherwise, radicalism would be fostered.

"For instance, for the five-times daily prayer, the form of the prayer should not be universalized. It has to be translated into local meaning as Islam in the Middle East and Islam in Indonesia is differently.

"Jihad has also been generalized as terror," Nur said.

Jihad, he said, now has an ambiguous meaning, as radical Muslims see it as a way to fight the vice lead on by the United States. Whereas within a local context, jihad does not mean terror.