Speaking up, finally

Speaking up, finally

One may be forgiven for wondering how many more deaths our
esteemed clerics were waiting for before speaking out against
homegrown terrorists; for wondering if the clerics would have
taken a stand had it not been for Vice President Jusuf Kalla
inviting them to a screening of a chilling videotape captured in
a raid on a terrorist hideout.

The tape shows a masked man, thought to be Malaysian terrorist
suspect Noordin M. Top, saying the recent Bali suicide bombings
were part of a holy war against the West. Also shown are the
three suicide bombers, unmasked and calmly discussing in both
Indonesian and Arabic what they have planned for the innocent
people of Bali.

One of the suicide bombers smiles and says he is going to
heaven for his role in the "jihad against the enemies of Islam".

Only after the screening of the video, which police seized in
the raid that killed top terror suspect Azahari bin Husin, did
Muslim clerics announce they would join a government-sponsored
"antiterror task force".

This task force will play an active role in countering the
false Islamic teachings being spread by terrorist groups to
justify their use of violence against civilians.

Some religious leaders continue to question the authenticity
of the tape and to speak darkly of mysterious foreign plots to
cultivate terrorism in Indonesia. However, it is time for all
Indonesians to move past these conspiracy theories and accept
that terrorism here has everything to do with religion, or as the
clerics said, the misinterpretation and abuse of religion.

This new antiterror task force finally ends the conspicuous
absence of clerics in the battle against terrorism, and this step
has been rightly applauded.

Simply condemning terrorist acts and dismissing the
perpetrators as a misled few has, as we have learned to our
misfortune, done little to stop the cycle of violence. This
points to the continued success of terror networks in recruiting
foot soldiers susceptible enough to blow themselves up for a
promise of heavenly delights.

Without the assistance of Muslim clerics with the authority to
fight the "ideological war", the police have been involved in a
fruitless battle to shut down the terror networks. In the words
of the Vice President, we can arrest 10 terrorists "but the
(false) ideology continues unchallenged and the extremists
recruit 1,550 more people".

Even apparent cracks in the terror networks, as analysts and
investigators have suggested are beginning to appear, do nothing
to reduce the potential threat to civilians on Indonesian soil
and elsewhere, as only one suicide bomber is enough to kill and
maim anyone within range.

If our clerics fear upsetting Muslims by taking too strong a
stance on extremism, they need only remember the shock and grief
expressed by relatives of the three Bali suicide bombers at the
actions of their loved ones, and the relatives' support for the
fight against terrorism.

"I beg the police to catch the satans who dragged Agus into
all this," said the uncle of Agus Purwanto, one of the suicide
bombers.

Apart from countering the terrorists' violent view of jihad,
we need religious scholars and leaders of all faiths to actively
encourage the preaching of tolerance in schools and in other
public forums.

As much as people might like to have preachers screened before
they are allowed to blare out all sorts of things that justify
violence over their loudspeakers, memories of the authoritarian
New Order remain fresh. What we need instead are religious
scholars and leaders to take up positions on the front line in
these frightening times.