Muslim liberal takes on militants in Indonesia

Muslim liberal takes on militants in Indonesia

Dean Yates, Reuters, Jakarta

In the struggle for the public face of Islam in Indonesia,
militant Muslims rarely encounter anyone willing to confront them
head on.

But Ulil Abshar-Abdalla, a young moderate Muslim intellectual,
has taken the battle to the militants on the radio airwaves and
through newspaper columns to defend Indonesia's traditional
Islamic tolerance.

That tolerant image took a hit last year when the United
States attacked Afghanistan as part of the war on terror,
prompting militant Muslims to threaten violence against Western
targets and hold daily street protests broadcast media beamed
into living rooms worldwide.

The threats proved hollow and the protests fizzled, but for
several weeks in the world's most populous Islamic country the
tiny militant groups stole the show while the overwhelmingly
moderate mainstream establishment fumbled for a response.

"I have intentionally put myself at the forefront. I need to
confront them head on, people need a clear voice," said Ulil, 35,
speaking at a small cafe that serves a collection of pro-
democracy organizations and includes a small studio from where he
hosts a weekly radio talk-show on Islam.

"My project is to make democracy and modern Islam work."

Indonesia's moderate Muslim groups have long since responded
to the public challenge posed by radical Islam as the anniversary
of the September 11 attacks on the United States approaches, but
in a typical Indonesian way that avoids confrontation.

Not so Ulil, who despite criticism from friends who urge him
to tone down his language, increasingly calls a spade a spade. To
some experts on Indonesian Islam, he is destined to become a
major Muslim figure in the country in the years ahead.

"On a personal level I hate their views, but also their
attitudes, they are so exclusive. I also hate them in terms of
their interpretation of Islam...they have such black and white
judgments," Ulil said, referring to the militants.

"Of course, I respect their rights to speak out."

Ulil's main vehicles to challenge militant views are a weekly
talk-show broadcast through 20 local radio stations and a column
syndicated in 40 newspapers.

Last year he also helped set up the Liberal Islamic Network in
direct response to the growing profile of the radical groups. The
network has its own website and says it partly aims to "promote
open dialogue free of conservative pressure".

Ulil singled out the militant Laskar Jihad organization and
the Islamic Defenders' Front for particular criticism because of
their willingness to use violence.

Laskar Jihad gained notoriety when it sent thousands of
fighters to join a conflict against Christians in the Maluku
islands in mid-2000. The Islamic Defenders Front is better known
for smashing up bars and discos in Jakarta.

Nevertheless, Ulil said he had civil personal relations with
Jafar Umar Thalib and Muhammad Rizieq, the leaders of the two
groups.

"I don't think Jafar or Rizieq are a threat to Americans but
they are threat to the Indonesian people by raising the doctrine
of jihad, of armed struggle against people," said Ulil, who is
also a member of Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia's 40-million-strong
moderate Muslim organization.

"The use of violence is something that poses a threat to the
strengthening of our democratic institutions."

Ulil has been branded an infidel and threatened via telephone
calls and through email, although he ignores them.

Asked for his views on Ulil, Rizieq laughed and responded as
if his feisty interlocutor were a wayward student.

Rizieq said he admired Ulil's intellectual capacity and
referred to the Liberal Islamic Network "as our Muslim
brothers...our dialogue partners".

"But their mission will fail. They are not in touch with the
grassroots," added Rizieq.

Robert Hefner, a leading scholar on Indonesian Islam at Boston
University, said Ulil was probably ahead of the curve on most
issues in a country where even moderate Muslims hold conservative
views about public life and lifestyles.

But he said Ulil could end up playing a role similar to
Nurcholish Madjid, Indonesia's most respected Muslim intellectual
and to some the conscience of the nation.

Some Indonesians would like Nurcholis to run for president in
the next election in 2004. Nurcholis has said he does not want to
join a political party although he occasionally gets involved in
national politics, where he has the clout to wield influence.

"Ulil has to ask himself, and I think is asking himself,
whether he's going to transform into a mass leader or whether
he's going to continue to play this role as a prominent, and I
think, very courageous Muslim public intellectual," he said.

"I would have to say that my own sense and the nature of
politics in Indonesia is that the greater likelihood is that the
role he will play will be similar to Nurcholish Madjid."

Ulil spent 15 years in his father's pesantren, or Muslim
boarding school, in Central Java before going to a conservative
Saudi-backed school in Jakarta from 1988-1993. He studied later
at a philosophy institute in Jakarta and plans to take some
advanced degrees in the United States from next year.

Ulil's latest fight is with the Indonesia Mujahidin Council,
headed by radical cleric Abu Bakar Baashir, over a public-service
TV advertisement whose main slogan was "Islam has many colors"
and which pushed the case for Islamic tolerance.

The council said it insulted Islam and that the religion was
not multi-colored, and threatened to report local television
stations airing it to police. The stations dropped the commercial
a month ago.

Singapore and Malaysia officials have accused Bashir of being
a leader of a regional terror network, charges the cleric denies.