Summit to counter misperceptions on Islam

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).