Muslim groups urge Ba'asyir's supporters to stop rallies

Muslim groups urge Ba'asyir's supporters to stop rallies

Muhammad Nafik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The country's two largest Muslim organizations urged on Saturday
supporters of elderly cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir to stop
demonstrations in support of the terrorist suspect as they only
tarnished the image of Islam as a peaceful religion.

Also, street protests could disrupt the investigation into 64-
year-old cleric.

"They (the demonstrations) should end. They are
counterproductive. The tactic should be changed to strengthening
the legal team to defend Ba'asyir," Hasyim Muzadi, chairman of
the 40-million-strong Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), told The Jakarta
Post.

He said that in order to allow the police to investigate
Ba'asyir, his supporters should have exercised restraint and kept
silent instead of reacting to his forcible arrest.

"With such massive protests by Muslims, it will justify
worldwide claims by Westerners and others that Islam is not
peaceful but violent," Hasyim said.

"Ba'asyir's supporters should use his legal process as
momentum to exonerate him of all charges as a terrorist," he
added.

Ahmad Syafii Maarif, who chairs the second biggest Muslim
organization Muhammadiyah with some 30 million members, also told
supporters of Ba'asyir to cease street rallies against the
government in its endeavor to fight terrorism.

"It (the protests) is useless and harms the legal process of
Ba'asyir," he told the Post separately.

The demonstrations could harm the image of Islam and Muslims
in Indonesia in the campaign against terrorism, Syafii added.

Violence erupted when police forcibly took Ba'asyir from his
bed in the Muhammadiyah hospital in the Central Java town of
Surakarta on Oct. 28.

Since then, hundreds of his supporters staged a series of
demonstrations in Surakarta, Makassar in South Sulawesi and other
cities last week. They opposed the forcible arrest of the cleric,
who has been accused by Singapore and Malaysia of being the
leader of Jamaah Islamiyah, which has been blacklisted by the
United Nations.

Muslim leaders and other critics have also condemned the
violent manner in which the police arrested Ba'asyir, but said
Ba'asyir supporters should not have resisted the questioning.

Hasyim said both the Ba'asyir issue and terrorism should be
separated from Islam because it was not part of it. "All Muslims,
particularly Ba'asyir's supporters and other radicals, must be
able to ensure this separation".

The top NU leader said the investigation into the cleric
"should be considered merely a legal affair" and that Islam
should not be dragged into the case.

"Should we continue to use religion and mass demonstrations in
the Ba'asyir issue, Islam will be buried and the case will not be
settled because the public opinion built by Westerners is too
strong to challenge," he added.

Hasyim and Syafii also told the United States and its allies
to stop claiming that there were al-Qaeda cells operating in
Indonesia unless they had hard evidence. This would help the
process of rooting out terrorism in the country, they added.

"We have to convince other countries that someone can legally
be branded a terrorist only after a court declares them guilty of
being so," Hasyim said.

The two prominent Muslim leaders urged the National Police to
speed up the investigation into Ba'asyir to prevent further
backlashes from his supporters and other radicals as well as
suspicion from the international community.

"The questioning must be done quickly and transparently,
otherwise it could spark suspicions against Indonesia that it has
not been serious in handling the case. That would be dangerous to
the nation as a whole," Syafii said.

"If a court later acquits Ba'asyir of all charges, all people,
including foreigners, must respect that. And his name must be
rehabilitated," he added.

Ba'asyir, currently being treated at the Kramat Jati police
hospital in East Jakarta, has been implicated in a series of
bombings across Indonesia.

However, the police have not linked him to the devastating
Bali attack on Oct. 12, which killed at least 190 people, mostly
foreigners.