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)