Ulema set to launch war against militant ideas

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The country's leading Islamic figures, grouped in a special task force set up last week by the Ministry of Religious Affairs, are set to launch a war against militant ideas spread by terrorists using the Islam brand.

Minister of Religious Affairs M. Maftuh Basyuni said the task force, dubbed the "antiterror team", will consists of ulema from mainstream Muslim organizations and Muslim academics.

"I have set up the team, but I haven't reported on its technical aspects to the President and Vice President," he said on Saturday in the East Java capital Surabaya after inaugurating a Buddhist house of worship.

Maftuh said the team would be involved in numerous activities, including tracking information about terror suspects and searching for books promoting radicalism so they could be banned.

The move comes in the wake of the death of top terror suspect Azahari bin Husin during a police raid on Nov. 9 in Batu, East Java. Officers involved in the raid discovered videos containing the confessions of the three young men responsible for the suicide bombings in Bali on Oct. 1.

Police also recovered a video of a hooded man believed to be terror suspect Noordin M. Top threatening further attacks against westerners.

Azahari and Noordin, both Malaysian, are believed to be senior members of the Jamaah Islamiyah terror network. For the past several years they have recruited young Indonesian men to carry out attacks here.

The establishment of the special task force marks a drastic change of attitude among many Muslim leaders, who for years have appeared reluctant to directly condemn the activities of Jamaah Islamiyah and other radical groups.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who last week invited a number of leading ulema to his residence to watch the videos of the confessions of the Bali suicide bombers, earlier angered some Muslim groups when he announced a government plan to monitor a number of Muslim boarding schools as a part of the fight against terrorism.

Maftuh said the team of ulema would be assigned to counter the "misinterpretation of Islamic teachings", particularly on the concept of jihad, by Noordin and his followers.

The team's main targets are Muslim youth and poor Muslims, who are seen as "vulnerable to the misleading teachings of the terrorists and could be easily brainwashed".

"There is no religion in the world that teaches terror," Maftuh said.

The government asked for the help of the ulema in the wake of the increasing number of suicide bombings here. According to Kalla, nine suicide bombers had been identified in a number of attacks in the country.

Among the members of the team are representatives of Nahdlatul Ulama, Muhammadiyah, the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), the Indonesian Muslim Scholars Union and the Indonesian Muslim Missionary Council.

Ma'ruf Amin, the head of MUI's fatwa body, was appointed to lead the team.

A member of the team, Muslim scholar Azyumardi Azra, said the main task for the ulema was to familiarize the people with a 2003 MUI edict outlawing terrorism and suicide bombings.

"We will also examine a number of publications allegedly containing misleading Islamic teachings," Azyumardi said.

For example, Imam Samudra, convicted for the 2002 Bali bombings, has published a book about his life.