Students brainwashed at Islamic school: Parents
Students brainwashed at Islamic school: Parents
Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung
Islamic boarding school staff in West Java are brainwashing
students into supporting the fundamentalist group Indonesian
Islamic State (NII), parents claim.
Police and prosecutors are investigating the Al-Zaetun Islamic
boarding school in the town of Indramayu, after parents
complained to the provincial legislative council that the
school's director, K.H. Abu Toto, was a leader of the NII
movement.
"We have received reports from the parents of victims
influenced by the NII movement. They feel their children have
been 'turned over' from the true Islamic teachings," said
Ruchiyat Noor, chairman of the council's commission E.
He said the NII movement had spread to other parts of West
Java, including the provincial capital Bandung.
Most of the victims were senior high school and university
students in the first years of their degrees, who were sent to
the school to study Islam, he said.
On Wednesday night, West Java Governor R. Nuriana and chiefs
of the local police, prosecutor's office and religious affairs
office held a closed-door meeting in Bandung to discuss action
against K.H. Abu Toto, alias Panji Gumilang.
"Up till now, we have had difficulty finding accurate data on
the relation between NII and K.H. Abu Toto, who is said to be
leader of the movement," West Java police detective chief Sr.
Comr. Yono said on Tuesday.
He said his office had not yet received official reports from
the parents. The students were not boarders at the school, Yono
said.
However, Yono said the local authorities were gathering
information on the NII movement.
Head of the West Java prosecutor's office Sudono Iswahyudi
alleged campaigns for NII had widened across the province,
claiming hundreds of victims.
But it remains unclear whether NII was linked with Al-Zaetun,
he added. "We don't want to speculate until every thing is
complete."
Nuriana said he left the investigation and any decision on Al-
Zaetun to the local prosecutor's office. "It's difficult to look
into the case because those filing the complaints never live
there," he said.
The protesting families said they were shocked by drastic
changes in their children's behavior after they took religious
classes at Al-Zaetun.
"Suddenly their children refuse to perform prayers and resist
them because they consider their parents as infidel," Ruchiyat
said. "Many of them spend so much money for their struggle and
even some others are not reluctant to steal money from houses of
their neighbors."
An organization of local Muslim preachers, led by K.H. Athian
Ali, last month declared NII a deviant Islamic movement.