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.