Why jihad?
Why jihad?
It is absolutely irresponsible for such an important Muslim
cleric as Ibrahim Husein to speak to the press on such a
sensitive issue as jihad (Calls for calm, jihad over Maluku
mayhem, The Jakarta Post, Jan. 10, 2000). And to make it
completely explosive, he further said that jihad was "mandatory"!
Pak Haji, do you not realize that you are giving license to a
pack of hungry animals, probably only nominally Muslim, eager
only for the opportunity to pour out all the years of frustration
and hopelessness on to any object they can find? The legitimate
target for all those lost years is Soeharto, not fellow citizens
of Indonesia. Jihad, in any case, is more properly invoked where
Muslims are in the minority and are threatened with terrible
consequences if they do not apostatize. This is not the case in
Maluku where Muslims are the majority.
Almost certainly the trouble was started deliberately last
year in an attempt by the military to show that, with more and
more places apparently falling into lawlessness, martial law for
the whole of Indonesia was the only feasible option. Now someone
has organized hundreds of thugs to go to Maluku to do the
militia's dirty work for them.
One obvious way to lessen the killing is to impose a 24-hour
curfew, after first arranging that food supplies will continue to
reach the markets, and after ensuring that every person
understands that he will be shot at, without warning, if he is
found breaking the curfew. Each day the housewives will be
allowed to go, escorted, to market for a specific time. Without
the use of force, using metal detectors, a careful house by house
search must then be made in order to find the majority of the
weapons, using soldiers who their officers consider unlikely to
turn a blind eye, i.e., use Muslims for Christian houses and vice
versa.
The proper control of an army in peacetime rests with the
civilian government and, at present, Indonesia is at war with no
one. Any acts by the army must be with the prior approval of the
elected representatives of the people, so, let's see some
consultation, can we? Let us see some evidence that something is
being done with our approval in order to bring this quite
unnecessary bloodshed to an end.
W. WALLER
Cianjur, West Java