The role of Islam in fighting global terrorism

The role of Islam in fighting global terrorism

Jusuf Wanandi, Cofounder and member, Board of Trustees,
Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Jakarta

Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim country, with almost
200 million Muslims in a total population of over 220 million
people. It is also recognized as a moderate Muslim country. It is
not a Muslim state based on Islam. It does not implement sharia
as the law of the land. Furthermore, it is not a theocracy.
However, Indonesia is not a completely secular state in the
Western sense, because it sanctions five official religions and
has a government department of religious affairs to support all
recognized religions. Religion is seen as having an important
role to play in society and is regarded as an individual choice
and a private matter by most Muslims.

Islam in Indonesia is regarded as moderate as it is willing to
coexist with other religions, it is open-minded and believes that
democracy is a natural political system, while human rights,
including equality of women, are very much part of the teachings
of Islam. Its believers also think that the private sector and
the market place should be the defining factors of the economy,
but that social justice is important for the market system to be
acceptable.

In the last few years, however, especially at the end of the
Soeharto era and especially after he had resigned, more
aggressive and even extreme Muslim groups emerged and in some
instances defined the Muslim agenda in the country. Therefore,
the question has arisen among foreign analysts and observers
whether groups like Laskar Jihad, the Islam Defenders Front
(FPI)) and others are turning Indonesia's Islam into a more
radicalized version of Islam, which will define the future of
Islam in Indonesia.

Concurrently, the question has also been raised as to whether
mainstream Islamic groups, which constitute the majority, such as
Nahdlatul Ulama, mainly active in the rural part of Java, or
Muhammadiyah, which wants to upgrade Muslims through social and
educational activities in the urban centers, have lost their
leadership and influence among the Muslim community and are
fighting rearguard actions against the much smaller but militant
and extreme groupings.

The questions are not really valid, because those extremist
groups are small and in fact negligible in influence, but they
have been very vocal and active. Combined with the weak
government that has existed in Indonesia since Soeharto's
downfall, those groups indeed look very threatening. But, most
importantly, they have not contributed anything substantial to
the intellectual debate on Islam's future in Indonesia.

Islam in Indonesia is moderate, because it was introduced
gradually (over several centuries since the 12th) and peacefully
(through trade by traders from Gujarat, Southwestern India). As
such it had to absorb elements of earlier layers of existing
religions and cultures, such as Hinduism, Buddhism and, to a
lesser extent, Confucianism, and become a syncretic mix through
acculturation processes.

Further modernization of Islam has taken place through its
educational system. One has been the pesantren (Islamic boarding
schools) of NU, that have sent their students abroad to centers
of excellence of Islamic studies, including Al Azhar in Cairo,
since the mid-18th century. Later, through IAIN (State Institute
for Islamic Studies) they were sent to centers of Islamic study
in the West.

For the past 30 years Muhammadiyah has also contributed to the
efforts and now has 14,000 conventional schools that also offer
religious teaching, as well as 60 universities.

In all these modernization efforts, former president
Abdurrahman Wahid has done pioneering work. Although political
Islam, in its many groups and manifestations, has always been
active and influential in modern Indonesia, it also has had its
ups and downs. There are small groups that want to establish a
Muslim state through insurgency. Others have tried this through
the constitutional process. In 1957 to 1958, through the
Constituent Assembly, all the Muslim parties tried to establish
Islam as the basic principle of the state. Having only 43 percent
of seats, they were defeated by the opposition.

Since then, there was a setback to the influence of political
Islam in Indonesia until mainstream leaders decided to separate
Islam as a religion from practical politics in the 1980s. Both NU
and Muhammadiyah decided to withdraw officially from practical
politics, that is from being part of the United Development Party
(PPP), although their members were allowed to join any political
party. That is how they tried to reconcile Islam, as a socio-
cultural phenomenon, with nationalism and modernization. And this
established trust between mainstream Muslim and the populace at
large.

Both endeavors, in the field of education and the separation
of religion from politics, have contributed to a moderate, open,
democratic and peaceful Islam in Indonesia. The political
discourse is led by modern thinkers, who are well versed in
Islamic thinking, both in NU and Muhammadiyah.

Previously, the debate on this took place between Muslim
leaders and non-Muslim leaders or nominal Muslims. This time it
was amongst Muslim leaders themselves. And overwhelmingly the
"moderates" among them rejected the proposal to make sharia a
positive law. This was done in a transparent and democratic way
and was most impressive.

So, there is ample reason why most mainstream Islamic
community leaders are assured that the majority of Indonesian
Muslims are moderate, open, democratic and peaceful. And if there
are extremist or radical Muslim groups, they are small and non-
influential. And they are not necessarily linked to global
terrorism. But if these groups are against the law, they should
be punished accordingly. What is important is not to make them
into heroes. Therefore, the rule of law and implementation of
human rights will be important norms to be established in the
effort against global as well as national terrorism.

Mainstream Muslim leaders are more worried about the depth of
the crisis, which is all-encompassing, and about the weakness of
the national leadership to overcome the crisis. They are worried
that Indonesia will becomes a failed state if the crisis is not
overcome soon. They recognize that only part of the problem is
related to global terrorism. The best that Indonesian Islam can
do in fighting global terrorism is by becoming a model for what
Islam really entails, namely democracy, openness, moderation and
peace.

And some analysts argue that it is now time to show to Middle
Eastern Islam that Islam has to be reinvented, led by the former
periphery, namely Southeast Asia Islam. This is because the
Middle East has been bogged down in the conservative traditions
of eight to nine centuries ago and is unable to adjust to the
challenges of the 21st century.

The new leadership of Southeast Asian Islam should give new
impetus to the old center of Islam to be able to change and
adjust to future challenges. Indonesia, as the largest and most
populous Muslim country in the world, should be in the vanguard
of these changes. It has the intellectual leadership as well as
the political will to be able to do that.

However, her capacity is still limited due to the crisis.
Therefore, international assistance and support to overcome the
deep and multifaceted crisis are important for Indonesia to be
able to play its important role in the Muslim world.