Religious leaders urged to maintain peace

Kurniawan The jakarta Post Jakarta

The country's top religious leaders on Friday called on all religious and community leaders not to create the impression that an interreligious conflict had taken place in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

The Indonesian Conference on Religion and Peace (ICRP) made the call amid growing anti-U.S. sentiment following the country's threat to attack Afghanistan in pursuit of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden.

"We request all religious leaders and public figures not to use the aftermath of the Sept. 11 tragedy to create a situation where it appears that there is confrontation between particular religions," the group said in a statement signed by 24 leaders of all main faiths.

Among them were chairman of the country's largest Islamic organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) Hasyim Muzadi, Jakarta Bishop Julius Kardinal Darmaatmaja, Buddhist leader Sukhemothera, AA Yewangoe from the Indonesian Church Union and ICRP president Djohan Effendi.

"Our plea to other religious leaders is to handle correctly the radical elements within their own religious movements ... Confrontation, whether based on religion or otherwise, will only provoke further disputes and violence," Muslim scholar Ulil Abshar-Abdalla cautioned reading the statement in a press briefing.

The group also called on religious leaders to use effective measures in controlling hard-line elements within each religion in order to facilitate dialog.

"Only through dialog peace could be achieved," Ulil said.

The briefing, held at NU's head office in Jakarta, was attended by dozens of domestic and foreign reporters.

The leaders condemned the terrorist attacks that claimed more than 6,000 lives, but urged the U.S. not to attack Afghanistan and not to target bin Laden without clear evidence.

"Because ICRP is only an organization," Djohan said, "we can only call on the U.S. not to launch a retaliatory attack on Afghanistan."

Yewangoe agreed, saying "it appears to be our moral responsibility in preventing a vicious cycle of terrorism."

The religious leaders shared the opinion that the terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon were an attack against humanity and not against a certain religion. "Therefore there is no need to inflame religious sentiment," they said.

ICRP is an interreligious organization, the local chapter of the World Conference on Religion and Peace (WCRP), which was set up in July 2000 to develop an understanding of pluralism within Indonesian society and respect for human dignity.

Earlier this week, the Indonesian Council of Ulemas (MUI) condemned the terrorist attacks on the U.S. and called for Muslims all over the world to unite for a jihad should America proceed with its plan to attack Afghanistan for harboring bin Laden.

The council clarified a day later that its call for jihad did not mean that it was urging Muslims to wage a physical war against the U.S.