MUI clarifies statement on jihad

Tiarma Siboro The Jakarta Post in Jakarta

The Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI) clarified on Wednesday its call for a jihad, stressing that it did not mean that the organization was urging Muslims to take part in a war against the United States.

"Jihad fii sabiilillah means fighting in the path of Allah in a very broad sense ... not in the form of a war or physical contact," MUI Secretary-General Din Syamsuddin told the media here.

"We used the term 'jihad' in the statement because we also wanted to correct the misperception in various circles of our society that jihad always connotates physical war," he said.

Separately, Muslim scholar Azyumardi Azra criticized the council on Wednesday for making the jihad call.

Azyumardi, rector of the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic Teaching Institute, said the council must clarify its jihad call because people might interpret it the wrong way.

"I think the MUI need to clarify it. It won't be enough if they say they are urging a jihad in the general sense, because what the public perceives is the waging of a war literally," Azyumardi told The Jakarta Post during a workshop on ethno- religious conflict in Indonesia.

He said that before issuing such a statement, MUI should have first studied the matter more thoroughly.

"They should first consider very carefully whether they need to issue it or not. Because it will only foment further emotional agitation among certain Muslim groups in the country," Azyumardi said, referring to several hard-line groups which have already launched hunts for Americans residing or traveling in the country, saying that they would be expelled.

The top Islamic authority, after a meeting with the executives of 32 Islamic organizations on Tuesday, condemned the terrorist attacks on the U.S. and called on Muslims to prepare for a jihad should the U.S. and its allies attack Afghanistan to pursue Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, a prime suspect in the Sept. 11 tragedy that claimed over 6,000 lives.

Din further said jihad fii sabillilah in the context of the MUI statement meant all efforts by Muslims in various aspects of life for the glory of Islam.

Din, who is also an executive of the second largest Islamic organization Muhammadiyah, said that if the U.S. attacked Afghanistan, the Islamic world should unite.

"They should undertake various efforts to improve infrastructure -- social, economic, education, and also information. Such efforts are also part of fighting in the path of Allah," he said.

According to him, the statement was issued because the MUI and the other Islamic organizations who supported the statement believed that if the U.S. attacked Afghanistan, it would elicit a strong reaction from Muslim countries.

"It would cause a widened conflict both regionally and globally. We would be worried if this came to pass," he added.

The MUI, Azyumardi said, should have explained the stages involved in a jihad. According to him, jihad with the meaning of waging a war to defend the faith should be considered the last stage.

"As an example, in Islam studying is an obligation that is categorized as a kind of worship. If someone dies on his way to school, it can be categorized as dying while performing a jihad. He will go to heaven," Azra analogized.

Meanwhile, legislator Aisyah Amini was quoted by Antara as saying that Indonesian Muslims were obliged to wage a jihad if the U.S. went ahead with its planned aggression against Afghanistan, "but its realization should not involve the waging of war in that country."

"Jihad here", she said, "means that we oppose the wrong steps."

"Why should we go there?" she said, while explaining that Indonesian Muslims' wishes for a jihad to defend truth, justice and humanity was enough and had been heard by the international community.