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.