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.