Muhammadiyah leader Azhar Basyir dead at 66

Muhammadiyah leader Azhar Basyir dead at 66

Ahmad Azhar Basyir, chairman of Muhammadiyah, one of
Indonesia's leading Islamic organizations, died yesterday at the
age of 66 in Yogyakarta.

He died at Dr. Sardjito general hospital in the early hours
from "multi-organ complication after suffering from diabetes and
intestinal inflammation," the Antara news agency reported quoting
a Muhammadiyah announcement.

The statement was signed by deputy chairman Dr. Amien Rais and
Secretary Dr. Achmad Sayafi'i Ma'arif.

He is survived by his wife, Maria Ulfah, a son and two
daughters.

His body was buried at a family burial ground in Yogyakarta
yesterday.

Basyir had been elected during a 1990 congress to chair
Muhammadiyah for a five-year period.

He served as a member of the People's Consultative Assembly,
was a permanent member of the Academy for Islamic Fiqih (ritual
laws) of the World Islamic Conference Organization, and on the
executive board of the Council of Indonesia Ulemas.

Basyir taught at the Islamic theological institute IAIN Sunan
Kalijaga in Yogyakarta, wrote two books, one an outline of
Islamic law and the other on Muhammadiyah's mission as an Islamic
movement. He also lectured at other institutes of higher learning
in Central Java, including the Gadjah Mada University,
Yogyakarta.

He has been noted to have repeatedly emphasized that the aim
of the 82-year-old Muhammadiyah movement is "to establish and
uphold Islam toward the eventual creation of a true Islamic
society."

Born in Yogyakarta on November 21, 1928, he studied mostly in
Islamic schools until he finished his master's program at the
Islamic Higher Institute (PTAIN) of Yogyakarta in 1956.

He studied Arabic literature at the University of Baghdad in
Iraq for a year from October 1957, then moved to Egypt to study
at the University of Cairo where he obtained a master's degree
with a thesis on Inheritance in Indonesia According to Customary
and Islamic Laws (17)