Religious leaders back surveillance on militants

Religious leaders back surveillance on militants

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Religious leaders have thrown their support behind plans to
impose the tight surveillance of a number of districts in West
Java -- believed to be home to militants advocating sharia
(Islamic law) -- as part of preemptive measures against future
terrorist attacks.

Chairman of the country's second-largest Muslim organization
Muhammadiyah Ahmad Sjafii Ma'arif said on Monday that the tight
surveillance was necessary in its attempt to thwart efforts to
destabilize the country's security.

"I agree with the measures because monitoring the suspicious
activities of citizens is, in fact, part of the police's job," he
told The Jakarta Post.

However, Syafii warned that in its campaign against terrorism
the police should uphold the due process of the law. "Persons who
are captured for suspected terrorist activities should be
accompanied by lawyers and their arrests should be based on
evidence," he said.

Asked if the move would restrict the freedom of certain groups
in exercising their religious duties, the noted Muslim scholar
replied with another question: "What does liberty mean if it
results in the suffering of innocent victims of bomb attacks?"

West Java provincial police chief Insp. Gen. Dadang S. Garnida
said among the regions to be put under tight surveillance was
Indramayu regency, where the affluent Al-Zaytun Islamic Boarding
school has been accused of serving as the ninth regional military
command (KW9) of outlawed militant movement Darul Islam.

Police are also keeping close watch over Cianjur, a regency
whose councillors strongly demanded the enforcement of sharia.
The regency is also the home-town of Hambali, born Encep
Nurjaman, the alleged top operative of the Jamaah Islamiyah (JI)
terror group.

Another regency to be surveilled is the country's most densely
populated province, Majalengka -- home to the radical movement
called Daor Koning -- which for years campaigned for the
establishment of an Islamic state.

Dadang said that the police plan to deploy intelligence
officers to gather information from local people about their
understanding of sharia.

Under the authoritarian regime of the former president
Soeharto, intelligence officers were deployed to spy on the
religious activities of citizens. Intelligence officers -- from
both the police and the Indonesian Army (TNI) -- were present at
almost every religious gatherings, such as Sunday services or
Friday prayers.

Meanwhile, the professor of history at the Jakarta-based
Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University, Azyumardi Azra,
agreed with Sjafii that the police have the authority to monitor
the activities of individuals.

"The campaign from the police is tolerable if it is aimed at
anticipating future terror attacks," he told the Post.

He also said the practice of keeping watch over suspicious
activity was common in any country as it constituted part of
intelligence services. "The difference is whether they decide to
make it (the surveillance) public or not."

He said that the practice of religion must be in line with law
and order.

"Once it goes beyond the corridor of law, the police must make
efforts to stop it," he said.