Schooled for a house of Islam

Schooled for a house of Islam

Noor Huda Ismail, Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, Jakarta

The word that describes the goal of Islam -- creating a house
of Islam -- is also the name of an Indonesian organization whose
aim has been to turn the country into a house ruled by Allah's
law, sharia. As a student in one of Indonesia's famous Islamic
schools, I had a close encounter with the group, Darul Islam, and
their philosophy.

I have since adopted the life of a secular Muslim, and for
me, Darul has lost its punch. But I fear that indiscriminate
persecution of the splintered group might re-energize the group
and signal trouble for Indonesia and the region.

My Islamic studies started in 1985, when I was 12. My father
brought me to Al Mukmin Ngruki, one of thousands of Islamic
boarding schools around the country. After six years of study, I
opted for different schooling and a career in journalism. Several
of my fellow students, however, made a different choice -- one
which made my school famous: Dozens of Ngruki's alumni have been
accused of taking part in a wave of terrorist attacks against
Westerners in Indonesia in recent years.

Still, reflecting on my time at Ngruki, I realize that what is
more shocking is that more of us didn't turn to extremism. The
school sought to instill a singular message of Islamic identity
at the expense of others, and the parting message to us was to
join the clandestine Darul Islam organization.

Even outside of class, the environment fostered development of
a singular Islamic identity -- to the exclusion of other
influences. We never sang Indonesian national anthem; the only
music we heard at the school was nasyid, Arabic religious songs,
from loudspeakers in the corners of the school buildings. The
wall hangings that adorned our Spartan dormitory had Arabic
calligraphies, such as, "Live as a noble man or die as a martyr."

In classes, the message was even clearer. In our Thursday
night public speaking class, the favorite topic often was "Islam
under threat." We listened to the verse of the Koran that says
that the infidels and Jews will never stop fighting us until we
follow their religion. Our teachers did not recognize the secular
state of Indonesia; they said there was no obligation for us to
obey Indonesian law. They quoted the Koran: "Whoever does not
follow God's law is an infidel."

But it was ultimately during my final year that I learned
about the importance of solidarity among Muslims, and a driving
force behind the Islamic statehood movement. One of the teachers,
an expert in Chinese martial arts named Abdurrohim (alias Abu
Husna), said to us, "A Muslim must be in an Islamic group called
Darul Islam." Some of the graduating students, myself included,
took an oath of membership in the group, a clandestine movement
devoted to establishing an Islamic state.

Derived from the Arabic word Dar Al Islam, the term literally
translates as "the abode of Islam" or "house of Islam" -- a
reference to the Medina community founded by prophet Muhammad.
Over more than five decades, Darul has spawned many offshoots and
splinters who committed violent acts in the name of jihad. In
fact, it is impossible to have a clear and comprehensive
understanding of all jihadist movements without looking at the
dynamic and complicated development of Darul Islam.

Various incarnations of the group have been involved in
rebellions since the mid-20th century. Sekarmadji Maridjan
Kartosuwirjo started an indigenous Islamic rebellion on Aug. 7,
1949 -- just when Indonesia was gaining independence from the
Dutch colonial rule. Disappointed with the newly formed
Indonesian Republic headed by Sukarno, Kartosuwirjo proclaimed
his own Indonesian Islamic State (NII) in opposition to the
Jakarta's central government. Areas of West Java under NII
control were called "Darul Islam." An estimated 15,000 to 20,000
people died during the ensuing thirteen-year rebellion, which was
finally crushed in 1962. Kartosuwirjo was captured and executed
by a firing squad. But that was far from the end of Darul Islam.

After the overthrow of the Sukarno regime, the fortune of
Darul Islam turned. Virulently opposed to the godless Communists,
Darul veterans played a strong role in the fight against
communism, from the mid-1960s through the 1980s. All Islamic
organizations, including Darul Islam, enthusiastically backed the
CIA-orchestrated coup (from 1965 to 1966) that installed the
Soeharto dictatorship -- resulted in the massacre of an estimated
500,000 Communist Party members, workers, and sympathizers.

The December 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan galvanized
Muslims all over the world, including those in Indonesia.
Thousands of Indonesians fought in the war, of which Darul Islam
sent 360. Some of these people would later emerge as the fighters
of a pan-regional group Jamaah Islamiyah, responsible for major
terrorist attacks in the region, including the Bali blast that
killed 202 people most of them foreigners. (The alleged leader of
the group, Abu Bakar Ba'asyir's jail sentence was recently cut.)

As with Osama bin Laden, whom the CIA had backed during his
anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan, Indonesia's Islamic fighters
also benefited from an alliance of convenience with America --
only to emerge later as the sworn enemy of their one-time Western
ally and Indonesia's secular government.

Today, the objective of Darul Islam remains the same as its
initial purpose: To establish an Islamic state in Indonesia. But
they claim that they would never dream of using violence to
achieve the goal. Non-Muslims are not the enemy, they say;
rather, the enemy is the state ideology of Pancasila -- a mere
creation of humans. Darul leaders claim to seek the establishment
of a state with sharia law by peaceful means.

After my graduation from Ngruki, some Darul members approached
me to attend more classes on the faith and donate 2.5 percent of
my income to the organization. But I drifted away: Like the
majority of my fellow alumni, I opted for a successful career in
the secular world. In our daily lives, we have to acknowledge a
pluralism that is not consistent with a strict interpretation of
Islam. In fact, of the 88 percent of Indonesians who are Muslim,
most lead secular lives.

Despite my mixed family background, I remain a Muslim who
prays five times a day, reads the Koran and hopes to visit Mecca.
But at the same time, I have worked for the American media,
hosted Jewish American friends in my home, and spent Friday
nights in bars having drinks.

Though the Darul Islam as an organization may not be as much
of a threat today -- it is fragmented, disorganized -- its call
resonates with poorly educated, marginalized people in
impoverished areas. And in that vein, Darul Islam can be a
fertile ground for terrorists to recruit members of different
splinter groups who want to put into practice the teaching of
jihad. And as recent events have shown, a tiny group of people
can create an enormous amount of damage.

The fact that Darul Islam adherents share the same objective
as Osama bin Laden or Europe-based terrorist groups -- to create
a new Dar al Islam and a new Caliphate -- remains a matter of
global concern. However, to carry out arrest of current Darul
Islam members without hard evidence could turn the targets of
pressure into heroes with Muslim community.

Noor Huda Ismail is a research analyst at the International
Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, and the
Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore. Reprinted with permission from YaleGlobal
Online, (http://yaleglobal.yale.edu).