Summit to counter misperceptions on Islam
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Around 150 of the world's Muslim leaders from 50 countries will begin a three-day summit here on Friday aimed at countering various misperceptions on Islam among Westerners following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S.
"The Islamic world has been under pressure as they (Western countries) misunderstand Islam. The summit will provide them with a proper understanding," former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid told journalists on Wednesday.
Gus Dur is one of the summit's initiators. Others are Louis Farakhan of the U.S. Nation of Islam; Imam Zaki Badawi from the London-based Muslim College; Sulayman Nyang, project director of the Muslim in the American Public; and Abdul Aziz Sachedina from Virginia University.
Gus Dur, a senior leader of Indonesia's largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), said the initiators hoped that the results of the summit would change Westerners' erroneous views on Islam that had persisted after the September tragedy.
The attacks on the Pentagon in Washington and the World Trade Center in New York, blamed on Osama bin Laden, have prompted suspicions about Islam and Muslims living in the West.
The U.S. has even imposed discriminative policies against young men applying for visas in a number of Muslim countries.
The summit covers religion and spirituality, social responsibilities and national stability, and interreligious and international relations.
Other issues on the agenda include human rights, poverty, education, morality, interfaith and intercultural concerns.
Former foreign affairs minister Alwi Shihab, who is also a noted Muslim scholar, said the summit could be used by Indonesia to show the country's actual situation, following threats by Islamic hard-liners to "sweep" Westerners in response to the bombing of the Taliban by the U.S. and its allies.
"We can explain to the world that most Indonesian Muslims have moderate views, while Islamic radicals are only a minority group," said Alwi, currently chairman of Gus Dur's National Awakening Party (PKB).
Gus Dur said radicalism and terrorism would also be discussed during the summit.
Islam is against violence or terrorism, Gus Dur said, adding that anarchy carried out by certain Muslim groups could only be a reaction against inequitable conditions, which the authorities had failed to handle properly.
He cited, as an example, that the recent violent raid on gambling dens and entertainment centers in the East Java town of Ngawi by militant Laskar Jihad forces was a response to the reluctance by police to take firm action against what the former perceived as sinful establishments.
"It is very clear that gambling is prohibited by the law, but the police did not take measures against them (gamblers). Some policemen even back up such activities," Gus Dur said.
The police in Ngawi arrested 102 Laskar Jihad members after the sweep, in which they seized six gamblers. But the authorities apparently refused to detain any gamblers, including several activists of President Megawati Soekarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan).