NU, Muhammadiyah agree to take lead in countering militant groups
NU, Muhammadiyah agree to take lead in countering militant groups
Muhammad Nafik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadyah, the country's two largest
Muslim organizations, have agreed to take the lead in restoring
the image of Islam, which has been tarnished by militant groups'
anti-U.S. protests.
NU Chairman Salahuddin Wahid told The Jakarta Post here on
Thursday that his organization would start talking with
Muhammadyah leaders on how the two organizations, which have a
combined membership of over 70 million, could adopt a common
strategy to counter small, militant religious groups.
"We will meet first with Muhammadiyah leaders," Salahuddin
said after addressing a seminar themed The National Interest and
the Attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in
Jakarta.
Muhammadyah Chairman Syafi'i Maarif confirmed the plan to meet
with NU central executive board members to discuss the nation's
latest problems related to the war in Afghanistan.
"We will issue a public declaration that we are not like
Muslims in other countries. Islam in Indonesia is tolerant and
moderate," he told the Post.
However, he was not able to specify the date of the planned
meeting.
Following the U.S. attacks on Afghanistan, militant groups
like the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) and Laskar Jihad (Holy War
Warriors) staged daily protests in front of U.S. Embassy in
Jakarta.
They also demanded that Indonesia cut diplomatic ties with the
U.S. and threatened to expel U.S. and British citizens from the
country.
Rector of Jakarta's Syarif Hidayatullah State Institute of
Islamic Studies (IAIN) Azyumardi Azra said in the seminar that
recent waves of demonstrations by Muslim radicals against the
U.S. and its Western allies had tarnished the image of Islam in
Indonesia as a tolerant and moderate religion that emphasized
peace and harmony.
"This shift of image has at least changed the perception and
hopes of many people, particularly Muslims in other countries,
that Indonesian Islam is an alternative (solution) to the
development of Islam amid the world's civilizations and
modernization."
He urged leaders of both NU and Muhammadyah on Thursday to
take the lead in countering campaigns by militant groups that had
tarnished the image of Islam.
"Leaders of large (Muslim) organizations like NU, Muhammadiyah
and others, should take a more proactive stance," said Azyumardi.
He said influential Muslim leaders should be "more outspoken"
and "assertive" to publicly state their groups' stance on the
attacks, both on the U.S. and Afghanistan.
Azyumardi said discussion with Muslim hard-liners was crucial
to "formulate a more proportional stance in response to various
developments at home and overseas, which have affected Muslims
and Islam" with reference to the attacks on New York and
Pentagon, and the U.S. strikes on Afghanistan.
Chusnul Mariah, a political observer from the University of
Indonesia, said the silence of Muslim moderate figures in
responding to the escalating protests against the U.S. was due to
the counterattacks by Western nations on Afghanistan.
"If the U.S. had not bombed Taliban, Muslim moderate leaders
would have spoken out," she told the same seminar.
Moeslim Abdurrahman, another Muslim scholar, concurred, saying
the anti-U.S. protests has painted a predominantly negative
picture of Islam in Indonesia, although they only involved a
small group of people.
He gave support to calls for the government, along with NU and
Muhammadiyah, to generate discussion with leaders from hard-line
Muslim organizations in order to protect the national interest.
According to him, the negative Western perception of Islam and
Muslims in Indonesia following the Sept. 11 tragedy in the U.S.
was accentuated by the absence of proper communications between
Americans and Indonesians.
Moeslim criticized Megawati for not having invited Muslim
moderate scholars, like Nurcholish Madjid, Syafi'i Maarif or
Azyumardi Azra, to accompany her during a recent state visit to
Washington in late September.
Azyumardi said the anti-U.S. demonstrations contained a
political motive to unseat Megawati's government, as the
protesters were those from extreme Muslim groups that had
actively raised the issue of gender in a move to block her
presidential candidacy.
"The anti-U.S. demonstrations were a first step in
destabilizing the country's politics. If the groups had
succeeded, they might have attempted to overthrow President
Megawati. But it's clear that she is too strong to be brought
down."
He rejected claims by foreign analysts that Indonesian Muslims
practice a Taliban-style version of Islam, perceived as radical,
intolerant, and very extreme.
"In many respects, the religious understanding and practices
adopted by (Osama bin Laden) and the Taliban are extremely
different from those adopted by Indonesian Muslims in general,"
Azyumardi said.
He said radical Muslim groups in Indonesia even termed the
Taliban a group of Khawarij-followers, who oppose the popular
Islamic school of Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamaah, to which most
Indonesian Muslims subscribe.