Nonmilitary approach best against terror: Workshop

Nonmilitary approach best against terror: Workshop

Ivy Susanti, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government should focus on a nonmilitary approach in fighting
terrorism to avoid misunderstandings with Islamic groups, a
discussion panel concluded on Monday.

To date, 33 Indonesians have been convicted for acts of terror
-- mostly in the October 2002 bombings in Bali and last year's JW
Marriott Hotel attack in Jakarta -- under Law No. 15/2003 on
terrorism. But such measures have not discouraged others from
planning similar crimes.

The two-day regional workshop, "Contemporary Islamic Movements
in South and Southeast Asia: Roots of Fundamentalism, Networks,
Policy and Trend", is being held in Tangerang, Banten.

The seminar was jointly organized by Ridep Institute, a
research organization in Jakarta, and Friedrich Eibert Stiftung,
a non-governmental organization based in Germany.

S. Yunanto, Ridep Institute's executive director, said that
the government should aim at the root of terrorism, which may be
social and cultural in nature such as education, and not hastily
conclude that religious fundamentalism is the source of terror.

"I want to point out here that not all Muslim activities in
this country deserve similar treatment. On the other hand, not
all fundamentalism, in the Muslim context, is a problem to the
state," he told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the workshop
on Monday.

A fundamentalist, he said, would use the literal approach to
the holy Koran, resulting in a rigid, "anti-interpretation"
personality.

"Such an approach may affect his/her political thoughts. It's
not a big problem when a fundamentalist wants to introduce
religious values in politics, but don't view this as an effort to
establish a Muslim country," he said.

But Insp. Gen. Ansyaad Mbai, head of the counterterrorism desk
at the Office of the Coordinating Minister for Political and
Security Affairs, said that the injustice and oppression may
prompt to militancy, besides the literal approach and the
misinterpretation of Islamic teachings.

Based on the National Police's investigation into the two
aforementioned cases, "... it was learned that one of the
motivations of terrorists is to fight injustice and oppression
perceived to be carried out by the West, led by the United
States."

Therefore, he said, the war against terrorism should be seen
as a war of ideas, aiming at accumulating support for respective
ideas, through correlative factors such as poverty, education and
other social problems.

"We should ask credible religious figures to teach the correct
interpretation of Islam. For example, by raising questions such
as whether religion teaches us to plant a bomb to kill people?
What kind of religious teaching is that? The Ministry of
Religious Affairs should initiate this task."

However, he did not rule out the possibility that the effort
to stamp out terrorism could sometimes have political
considerations.

"Terrorism is a politically motivated crime. The problem is,
we are facing a transitional government, meaning all the
government's acts may have political considerations. The arrest
of a terrorist suspect is just a part of law enforcement, but now
it has become a political issue," said Ansyaad, a former North
Sumatra Police chief.

Some Madrassa (Islamic boarding schools) and private schools
in Pakistan are examples of how their lessons can turn students
into perceived militants, radicals and jihadists.

AH Nayyar, a professor of physics at the Quaid-i-Azam
University, said that religious fundamentalism had gained
popularity in Pakistan, an Islamic state in South Asia, because
of a complex interplay of various phenomena, including a quest
for identity, security concerns from India and the country's
foreign policy objectives.

Former Pakistani leader Gen. Zia-ul-Haq started "Islamized"
education in Pakistan in the 1980s, through the curricula and
textbooks in public schools on social studies, Urdu, civics and
English. They were all compulsory subjects from primary to high
school.

"Textbooks in social sciences have doctrinal material aimed at
creating a pious Muslim, a patriotic Pakistani and a jihadi out
of the student."

He further noted that the effort to fight militants should
consider the issue of education. Past lessons taught the country
that under Zia's rule, religious fanatics, imbued with the ideals
of jihad and shahadat (testimonies), were created to help the
United States fight communism, then Kashmiri rebels.

Nayyar mentioned that Gen. Pervez Musharraf had identified law
enforcement and a strong security apparatus as ways to tackle the
problem of sectarianism and extremism. Pakistan, a close ally of
the United States in the war against terror, recently arrested
people with suspected links to the al-Qaeda network.