Religious leaders agree to pacify followers

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Fearing a local backlash due to the Middle East crisis, prominent religious leaders in the country agreed on Thursday to maintain peace among their followers.

Chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) Hasyim Muzadi said religious figures would uphold inter-religious harmony in society.

The initiative has received full support from the government, Hasyim said, after a meeting between religious leaders and Minister of Religious Affairs Said Agil al-Munawar.

"The movement is not connected with any particular case and will be conducted on a permanent basis to institutionalize unity, tolerance and harmony between different religious communities," said Hasyim, who heads the country's largest Muslim organization.

Also present at the meeting were Muhammadiyah chairman Sjafiie Maarif, head of the Indonesian Council of Bishops Julius Cardinal Darmaatmadja, Rev. A.A. Yewangoe of the Indonesian Communion of Churches and Muslim scholar Nurcholish Madjid.

The statement came as around 1,500 activists of Muslim hardline groups marched through Jakarta's main thoroughfares to protest the ongoing attacks on Palestine by Israeli troops. It was the biggest anti-Israel rally so far.

Protesters from the Islam Defenders Front (FPI), the Anti- Zionist Israel Movement (Gaza) and the Islamic Youth Movement (GPI), stopped at the UN representative office on Jl. Thamrin in Central Jakarta after an eight-kilometer-long march from Al Azhar Mosque on Jl. Sisingamangaraja in South Jakarta.

They demanded the UN take more action than issuing resolutions to make Israel withdraw its troops from Palestinian areas.

While joining the condemnation of Israel's attacks on Palestine, the religious leaders warned that the violence in the Middle East could revive sectarian conflicts in Indonesia.

"The Israeli action could be used to provoke certain religious followers to perpetrate violence here," Hasyim said.

Citing the deep concern expressed by Pope John Paul II over the attacks on Palestine, Archbishop Julius said the Catholic Church would blame whoever was at fault, regardless of their race or religion.

Julius noted that not all Palestinians were Muslims. "Many Catholic leaders were hurt by the attacks," he added.

Yewangoe expressed his concern of the double standards applied by the United States, which he said had failed to call Israel a perpetrator of terrorism.

He said there were efforts made to manipulate the definition of terrorism so that it could be attributed to a nation that used violence in self defense.

During the meeting the religious leaders also discussed a plan to visit Ambon, the capital of Maluku province in the middle of the month to promote peace in the restive province.

Separately, a delegation of 15 activists from the Hizbuttahrir Muslim group on Thursday met deputy House speakers Muhaimin Iskandar and A.M. Fatwa to show their solidarity to the Palestinian people.

The group demanded that the Indonesian government send troops there to support the Palestinians.

Responding to the call, Muhaimin said the support for Palestinian people should not necessarily mean a physical presence in the strife-torn Middle East territory, but through financial assistance or other possible measures.

Speaking after a meeting with Vice President Hamzah Haz, U.S. Ambassador Ralph L. Boyce said his government, including President George W. Bush, had been deeply involved in seeking an end to the violence and looking for a peaceful and equitable solution to the Middle East crisis.

Boyce urged all sides to agree to a cease-fire and to return to the negotiating table to prevent further senseless loss of life and to permit the peace process to move forward.

In the meantime, Jakarta urged the UN Security Council to immediately take concrete steps to deal with the Middle East crisis and deploy international security troops to enforce peace and ensure the implementation of all UN resolutions on the issue.

"The Security Council should take all steps, especially by ordering the urgent deployment of an international security force to the occupied Palestinian territories to bring this conflict to a speedy end," Indonesian Permanent Representative to the UN in New York Makmur Widodo said, in an open debate on the issue on Wednesday.