NU attacks police's new antiterror tactic

NU attacks police's new antiterror tactic

ID Nugroho, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya

A National Police plan to fingerprint all students of Islamic
boarding schools (pesantren) across the country as well as their
alumni has irritated the head of a major Muslim organization.

Nadhlatul Ulama (NU)'s East Java chapter head Ali Maschan
Moesa said that he was annoyed with the plan as it put Islamic
students under suspicion, and presumed they posed a danger to
state security.

"To tell you the truth, I feel very insulted since all NU
members fully support the country's sovereignty," Ali told The
Jakarta Post on Monday.

The plan to collect fingerprints from Islamic students was one
a police strategy to anticipate terrorist acts in the nation,
which has seen a series of deadly bomb attacks over the past
several years committed by militants, some of whom studied in
Islamic boarding schools.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla has approved the plan saying that
the police would merely be collecting data for future use,
although there has been speculation that the country's most
wanted man, Noordin M. Top, might be hiding in one of the
boarding schools.

Noordin and his Malaysian compatriot Azahari bin Husin have
been accused of masterminding several bomb attacks across the
country. Azahari was killed during a Nov. 9 police raid, while
Noordin managed to escape.

But many have criticized the fingerprinting plan, saying it
was tantamount to stigmatizing Islamic boarding schools as a
source of terrorism in the country.

NU feels insulted in this case since it is the country's
biggest Muslim organization, and its members operate the majority
of the boarding schools.

Ali argued that the police should explain where they would be
carrying out their plans and what their motives would be in
taking fingerprints, since there are many boarding schools with
different congregations.

"Some boarding schools, which have NU ideology and use the
organization's yellow book, are against terrorism. Therefore, it
is not fair if all boarding schools are viewed as one because
NU's schools are against terrorism," he said.

Ali said that the police should scrutinize each boarding
school's ideology to find out whether they were hard-liners or
not.

"The police should only watch over those (schools) who teach
violence to their students," Ali said.

Separately, National Police chief Gen. Sutanto said that the
fingerprint collections were only one part of police efforts to
preempt people who try to influence students with terrorist
ideology.

"The basic idea is to preempt people, including Muslim
students and other communities, so as not to be influenced by
terrorist groups," Sutanto said on the sidelines of the
Indonesian Navy anniversary ceremony in Surabaya, East Java.

He regretted that the plan had been misinterpreted as a form
of police suspicion of Islamic boarding schools.

"That's not true," Sutanto said.

Sutanto also urged the community, including Muslim students as
well as other groups, to work together with the police in
preempting the spread of militant ideas by terrorists.