Radicalism likely to grow in RI

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Scholars on Islamic studies warned on Saturday that religious radicalism would continue to grow over the next few years, partly due to perceived unfair treatment of Muslims around the world.

Professor Kees van Dijk if the University of Leiden said that religiously-charged international events, such as the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, have contributed to the emergence of radical Muslim groups in the world's largest majority-Muslim nation -- Indonesia.

"What the United States is doing in Afghanistan and Iraq contributes to that kind of radicalization, but it is more an anti-U.S. sentiment radicalism," van Dijk told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the annual Cleveringa Lecture at the University of Indonesian here on Saturday.

The Cleveringa Lecture is held to commemorate Rudolf Cleveringa, a prominent lecturer at the University of Leiden who campaigned for equality for all human beings.

Fellow scholar Machasin from the Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University concurred with van Dijk, and said that the U.S. attack on Iraq had boosted religious sentiment among Muslims in Indonesia.

Radical Muslim groups have been blamed for a string of terrorist attacks across the country since 2000. Powerful bombs in Bali killed more than 200 people, mostly foreign tourists, in 2002.

The terrorists also targeted the U.S.-owned J.W. Marriott Hotel in Jakarta in August 2003 and the Australian Embassy in September 2004. Dozens of people were killed in the two incidents.

Many terrorist suspects have been arrested and several of them had received heavy punishment, including death sentences. Key suspects Azahari bin Hussin and Noordin M. Top -- both Malaysians -- are still on the run.

Van Dijk said the existence of moderate Islamic organizations, such as Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, would contribute to expanding the development of moderate Islam in the country. The NU, said to be the largest Muslim organization in the country, claims to have around 40 million members, while Muhammadiyah, the second largest, has around 30 million members.

"These two groups are also important for shaping the image of Islam in Indonesia," he added.

According to van Dijk, the influence of the NU and Muhammadiyah would depend on the issues and time. He emphasized that not all members of the two organizations were as moderate as the organizations themselves or their leaders.

The most important thing, he said, was whether political leaders in Indonesia would accommodate radical thought in the legal field.

He believed that not much would change over the next few years given the fact that there was strong opposition to the radicals.

Machasin said that moderate Islamic groups in Indonesian would face challenges from internal factions.

He said there were many Muslims who do not want to have close relations with non-Muslims.

He said that the existence of radical groups in Indonesia also resulted from the interpretation of Islamic teachings.

There were, he said, many verses in the Koran that could be interpreted as encouraging radicalism. "This idea is often perceived as a more Islamic stance than one that promotes moderate thinking," he told the Post.

According to Machasin, Muslim leaders and the government must be able to introduce policies or platforms that accommodate the wishes of devout Muslims while at the same time continuing to adhere to democracy.