MUSLIM HATE IN INDONESIA!
(1999 - 2003)
Adultery in Aceh
The latest sign of creeping Shariah.
The Wall Street Journal
By SADANAND DHUME
From the Indonesian province of Aceh—epicenter of the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami five years ago that killed 230,000 people—comes fresh evidence that in the Muslim world, the most common disasters tend to be man-made. On Monday, the provincial parliament stiffened its interpretation of Shariah law by introducing the classical Islamic penalty of stoning to death for adultery. Premarital sex and homosexuality drew a lighter rebuke; for them, the pious lawmakers recommend 100 strokes of a rattan cane.
The news from Aceh, the recipient of billions of dollars in international aid, challenges two widely held beliefs: First, that Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, is somehow immune to the blend of puritanical piety and Islamist politics that over the past 35-odd years has disfigured Muslim communities from Morocco to Mindanao. Second, that moderate Muslims—those who interpret their faith in personal rather than political terms—have the will and the intellectual firepower to beat back a well-organized and motivated Islamist minority.
Even in a country that's 88% Muslim, Aceh, known as "Mecca's verandah" for its historic role as a staging point for hajj pilgrims, stands out. Politically, the area was an independent kingdom for much of its history and today enjoys an unusual degree of autonomy from Jakarta. Religiously it's distinct, too. In the 17th century, the then independent sultanate came under the sway of Nuruddin ar-Raniri, a zealous scholar and book burner from India, who gave the local brand of Islam a dour cast. In the 1950s, Aceh was a center of the Darul Islam rebellion against the central government. From the mid-1970s onward the Free Aceh Movement, known by its Indonesian acronym GAM, blended economic grievances with a sense of separateness based partly on a deeper connection to Islam and lead an insurgency against Jakarta.
Since 1999, the Indonesian government has attempted to blunt pro-independence sentiment by allowing the Acehnese to implement Shariah law. But it was only with the signing of a peace agreement between GAM rebels and Jakarta four years ago that Acehnese Islamism came into its own. Antivice squads began rounding up bareheaded women and unmarried sweethearts. Clerics mandated public flogging for sipping a beer or failing to down a shop's shutters for Ramadan prayers. Would-be canoodlers quickly found the province's once-popular beaches off limits. Stoning adulterers is only the next logical step.
Those who believe that the rest of Indonesia cannot go the way of Aceh tend to highlight the historical and cultural differences between the Acehnese and the country's dominant linguistic group, the 90-million strong Javanese. Indonesia is shielded by a 1,000-year Hindu-Buddhist past, a nonsectarian constitution and a largely moderate population. But Aceh, for all the distinctiveness of its past, also mirrors a broad nationwide shift toward orthodox piety and acceptance of the medieval norms enshrined in Shariah.
Across the archipelago local governments have begun to mandate dress codes for women. In some parts of the country citizens can't obtain a marriage license or admission to a state school without proving that they can read the Koran. Last year, the Muslim Brotherhood knock-off, the Prosperous Justice Party, or PKS, spearheaded a Shariah-inspired "antipornography" bill that encourages vigilantism and criminalizes aspects of non-Muslim cultures. Mobs have attacked mosques belonging to the "heretical" Ahmadiyya Muslim community and "illegal" house churches.
To be sure, the Islamist effort has not gone unopposed. Groups such as the Liberal Islamic Network, the path-breaking Libforall Foundation helmed by former president Abdurrahman Wahid, and assorted women's groups have pushed back. Yet while their efforts are worth lauding, they also suffer from a fatal flaw. Extremists and moderates are free to quibble over the interpretation of Koranic verses and the life of the prophet Muhammad, but any public criticism of Islam itself is out of bounds.
The Spaniard who supports contraception and gay rights can flatly declare that he doesn't care what the Bible says or what the Pope thinks. An Indonesian who says the same about the Koran and the prophet Muhammad invites charges of "Islamophobia" and threats of violence. Until this changes and Indonesian secularists begin to enjoy the same freedom to criticize religion as their counterparts in the United States, India or South Korea, they will continue to fight with one hand tied behind their back.
Because of the province's unique history, Indonesia watchers often dismiss Aceh as peripheral to the larger debate about the country's struggle with Islamism. The opposite is true. Aceh's swift descent toward barbarism is proof that making concessions to Islamists whets rather than sates their appetite. More broadly, the difficulty Acehnese face in speaking out against laws made in the name of Islam underscores the challenge of defending human rights against a backdrop of rising piety.
Unless Indonesians can learn to criticize faith in purely secular terms—to treat allegedly divine revelation and its clerical interpreters with skepticism rather than automatic deference—they may soon discover that their westernmost province is merely a few steps ahead of the rest of the country along the same slippery slope toward Shariah.
Mr. Dhume is a Washington, D.C. based writer and the author of "My Friend the Fanatic: Travels with a Radical Islamist" (Skyhorse Publishing, 2009).
Bombing at Christian market in Ambon city kills one, wounds
13
25 May 2004, AMBON - A bomb killed one person and injured 13 people in
the Christian sector of Indonesia's Ambon city and police defused another device
planted near a church. The blast at Batumeja market at around 10:30 am -- the
third in the city in three days -- sparked panic among residents and shoppers. A
nurse at Bakti Rahayu hospital nine injured people were being treated, of whom
three were in serious condition. A nurse at the Maluku Protestant Church
Hospital said five people were admitted and one of them later died.
City police chief Leonidas Braksan said officers defused a bomb planted in the
grounds of Maranatha church. He said a suspected bomb at the tax office turned
out to be a false alarm. The city in the eastern Maluku islands is still
recovering from an outbreak of Muslim-Christian violence which began on April
25. Some 38 people were killed and hundreds of homes and other buildings were
torched. Sporadic violence is continuing even though the government has sent in
hundreds of extra troops and police.
Two blasts on Sunday injured five Christians in what national police chief Da'i Bachtiar described as an attempt to provoke more trouble. "It is regrettable that there are still people who want to provoke trouble. But thank God, people can no longer be easily provoked," Bachtiar said on Monday, adding that police would search for weapons in the city. Ambon and some other parts of the Maluku islands were ravaged by three years of sectarian clashes which killed more than 5,000 people before a February 2002 peace pact took effect.
Islamic edicts rattle Indonesians
By Kalinga Seneviratne
JAKARTA - Ever since Indonesia's highest Islamic authority, the Indonesian Ulama
Council (MUI), issued 11 fatwas or edicts against liberal Islam, a fierce
debate has begun raging in the world's most populous Muslim nation on what
constitutes an Islamic society.
Though Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim nation, in these once-Hindu and
Buddhist societies the practice of Islam is colored by the liberalism of the
older faiths. Many urban middle-class Indonesians define their liberal
interpretation of Islam as "secular". But, MUI's fatwas have thrown a
direct challenge to both the government and to liberal Muslims in this country
of 200 million people, of which 88% follow the Islamic faith while 8% is
Christian and 3% Hindu or Buddhist. The 11 edicts, issued in late July, include
one that states that Islamic interpretations based on liberalism, secularism and
pluralism "contradict Islamic teachings".
Also banned are inter-faith prayers performed with people of other religions and
the intonation of amen to prayers that are led by a non-Muslim, a ritual
deemed to be haram (forbidden under Islamic law) as also are interfaith
marriages.
Analysts say that MUI's stance is a reaction to the aggressive proselytizing by
foreign-funded Christian evangelical sects in the country in recent years and
the onslaught of globalize Western culture coming in through media channels and
non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
"Challenges for the Muslims do not come from Christian evangelism only, but also
others, such as the proliferation of pornography, gambling, the spread of
religious liberalism, pluralism and secularism," argues Mustofa Kamil Ridwan, a
researcher at the Islamic think-tank, the Habibie Center in Jakarta.
In an Inter Press Service interview, Ridwan said suspicions were being created
by the activities of some Western-funded NGOs that were "using Islam as their
basis but with questionable implementation that is contradictory to the true
teachings of Islam - and sometimes too radical".
One such NGO is the Jaringan Islam Liberal (Liberal Islamic Network) an
organization that is located within Institut Studi Arus Informasi (Center for
Studies on Information Flows) and plays an important role in spreading ideas on
democratic reformation in Indonesia.
Like other NGOs, funded by Western donors, this one, too, is in the forefront of
campaigns against attempts by the government to enact laws to restrict the
spread of pornography, gambling and night clubs.
"Most progressive Muslim thinkers would not be very happy to be portrayed as
liberals," suggested Ade Armando, a member of the Association of Indonesian
Moslem Scholars.
"I think the term reformist will be more appropriate to refer to progressive
groups that try to reinterpret the Islamic teaching in a more contextual
approach, that unfortunately challenges the traditional Islamic teachings by the
ulamas [clerics]," Armando said.
Ridwan explained that from the "conservative point of view liberalism is really
a challenge" because of the fear "liberalism will make their children and the
Muslim community leave Islamic values they uphold highly".
MUI has asked non-Muslims not to be upset with the July edicts as they are only
aimed at Muslims, and are not the law of the land.
But MUI is gearing up to promote its edicts in regions where people are more
religious, conservative and impoverished. It is these poor communities that have
become the target of Christian evangelical groups for proselytizing and some
ulamas have reacted by including the MUI edicts in their sermons.
Armando argues that it is wrong to portray those who support the ulamas
as radicals who believe in using violence to achieve their aims. "They believe
it is their sacred duty to create a new Indonesia as a respectable Islamic
country," he explained.
"Many [MUI] groups are working in the institution-building level. They introduce
alternative models of schools - modern Islamic schools which differ from the
madrassas - new Islamic banking system, special novels for Islamic youth,
and they also publish magazines, new media - such as CD, CD-ROM, VCD - that
teaches Islamic values," Armando said.
Yet, Hasyim Muzadi, chairman of Nahdhatul Ulama (NU), which has about 40 million
members and is considered the world's largest Muslim organization, has warned
the MUI that its edicts may have a detrimental impact of the development of a
civil society in Indonesia.
Muzadi has asked the ulamas to define precisely what they mean by
interfaith relations and nationhood, as "we live in a diverse society and this
country is not an Islamic state".
Muslim scholar Ahmad Syafii Maarif, a former chairman of Indonesia's second
largest Muslim organization, Muhammadiyah, also warned that the edicts may
encourage radical groups to take the law into their own hands.
"Although fatwas are not binding, radical groups who have a thirst for
power will make use of them for their own interests. It is as if they have been
given religious justification,'' he told the Jakarta Post.
But, Ridwan argues that the "edict functions as a provision for the ummah
[Muslim community] to decide what they would do" and the ummah itself has
the "the last say for themselves".
Thus, the MUI's fatwas play a very important role in the ummah
decision-making process. "With the fatwa the ummah feel they have
strong hands and are more certain of overcoming the challenges in the midst of
very uncertain situation and full of upheaval,'' he told IPS.
Armando blamed the regimes of former presidents Abdurrahman Wahid (a liberal
Islamic thinker) and Megawati Sukarnoputri (a woman) for allowing reformists
within the Muslim community in Indonesia to gain in popularity.
"Very progressive books were being published in these past several years and
progressive radio talk shows were launched. And in these movements, the
forbidden organizations [during the Suharto era] dared to also openly surface,"
he noted.
"These developments, I believe, provoked reactions from the conservative groups.
And now, they see SBY [President Yudoyuano] as a new president that they can
perceive of as an ally or godfather.
"They [conservatives] also see these movements as being provoked by the
activities of [Christian] evangelists."
(Inter Press Service)
Outrage as Jakarta cuts jail term of Bali bombs cleric
August 18, 2005
Ahmad Pathoni
Indonesian authorities have cut by more than four months the 30-month jail term imposed on Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir for his role in the Bali bombings, sparking outrage in Australia.
Bakir, sentenced in March for involvement in a criminal conspiracy that led to the October 2002 nightclub bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, was one of 53,000 inmates whose term was reduced to mark Indonesian independence day.
He was cleared of more serious charges of planning terrorist attacks.
Dedi Sutardi, head of the Cipinang penitentiary in Jakarta where Bashir is being held, said Wednesday Bashir's term was cut by four months and 15 days. ``Abu Bakar Bashir deserves a remission because he is behaving very well,'' Sutardi said.
``All he does in prison is devote himself to religious service.''
Prison officials in Bali also announced sentence reductions of an average three months for 19 of 24 militants imprisoned on the resort island for the bombings.
Three of the plotters on death row and two others jailed for life are not eligible.
Relatives and friends of the victims in Australia condemned the move.
Bashir's remission ``belittled'' the lives of those who died, said a spokesman for a Sydney rugby league club that lost six players in the attack.
Adelaide lawyer Brian Deegan, whose son Joshua was killed in the bombing, called the decision "outrageous, an absolute disgrace.''
Prime Minister John Howard said he regretted the early release but understood it was an automatic step linked to Independence Day celebrations.
An Indonesian minister ``has pointed out this is something that automatically happens under Indonesian law,'' he said. ``I'm sorry - and so, I think, is the minister - that because of the relative automaticity of the law no change can be made.''
But the Australian government would still seek ways to have the remission revoked, he added.
Sutardi said prison authorities had not been aware of Australia's concerns, though that would not have influenced them anyway.
Bashir is accused by some foreign governments of being the spiritual leader of the Southeast Asian extremist group Jemaah Islamiyah, blamed for the Bali attack and a suicide bombing outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta last September that killed 11 people as well as a string of other attacks.
Both Canberra and Washington expressed disappointment at the initial length of the jail term handed to Bashir.
The militant cleric was arrested a week after the Bali bombings and was first put on trial the following year, but the terrorism charges were thrown out. Then he was found guilty of immigration offences and jailed.
Police rearrested him in April last year as he left prison after serving the immigration sentence.
Meanwhile, Sardona Siliwangi, a militant jailed for eight years in Sumatra's Bengkulu province for the 2003 Marriott hotel bombing in Jakarta blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah also received a four-month remission. Twelve people died in that bombing.
Less controversial among the releases and remissions was the freeing of about 450 Aceh rebels and reduction of sentences for more than 1,500 others as the 60th independence anniversary went off peacefully in the province days after a new peace deal was struck.
Hopes are high that the accord, signed Monday between the government and the Free Aceh Movement, will finally turn the page on three decades of violence that has left around 15,000 dead. AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Copyright 2005, The Standard, Sing Tao Newspaper Group and Global China Group.
Three Teenage Christian Schoolgirls Beheaded in Indonesia
The beheaded bodies of three teenage Christian schoolgirls were found near a Muslim town in east Indonesia Saturday morning.
Saturday, Oct. 29, 2005
The beheaded bodies of three teenage
Christian schoolgirls were found near a Muslim town in east Indonesia Saturday
morning.
Officials said that the victims found in the town of Poso in the province of
Central Sulawesi were beheaded two hours prior to the time their bodies were
discovered at the site of attack according to Reuters. The killings are now
under investigation.
According to state-run news agency Antara, the three high school students were
believed to have been murdered while they were on their way to school, about
nine kilometers from their homes, on Saturday morning.
Another three students, who were walking together with the three victims, had
suffered serious stab wounds in the attack, the report added.
The detailed account of the incident currently remains unclear. While most of
the news agencies reported that two men armed with machetes riding on a
motorcycle had slashed out at the girls, attempting to chop off the students’
heads, Reuters reported a slightly different account of the incident. According
to a statement from the National police spokesman cited by Reuters, up to six
men were responsible for the murders in Bukit Bambu village of Poso.
National police spokesman Aryanto Budiharjo told reporters in Jakarta, "The
perpetrators wore black attire and veils and they used machetes to slash (the
victims)."
Reuters reported three headless bodies, dressed in brown uniforms, were left at
the site of the attack. Three heads were found at separate locations two hours
later by local residents.
According to the Italy-based news agency AsiaNews, the three deceased have been
identified as 15-year-old Yusriani Sampoe, 16-year-old Theresia Morangke, and
19-year-old Alvita Polio.
Rais Adam, the provincial police spokesman for the province of Central Sulawesi
told the Agence France Presse (AFP) that two of the victims' heads were found
near a police post while the third was discovered outside a local Christian
church.
"We are still waiting for results from investigation in the field. We are still
trying to determine whether this case is religiously-motivated or not," Adam
said.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono expressed his pressing concern
about the killings, which he condemned as "sadist and inhuman crimes," according
to Reuters. Yudhoyono immediately called an urgent meeting with the high
security officials, including his vice-president, Jusuf Kalla, and heads of the
army, police and intelligence departments.
"I forcefully condemn these attacks against civilization and I call on the local
people to collaborate with the government to guarantee a successful outcome of
the investigations and to maintain security," stated the Indonesian president,
as quoted by state-run news agency Antara.
Sources say that Poso, which is 1,500 km (900 miles) northeast of the capital
Jakarta, had been stricken by three years of Muslim-Christian conflicts until
the peace deal in late 2001. 2,000 people were killed in the riots.
In addition, the province of Central Sulawesi has a roughly equal number of
Muslims and Christians, representing a unique community in Indonesia – the
world’s most populous Muslim nation.
Sources say the killings of the three Christian students have reignited the
tension between Muslims and Christians in Poso. Around 400 policemen have been
sent to the troubled area to maintain security, fearing that a new wave of
violence may break out, according to Reuters.
President Yudhoyono called for calm and pledged to hunt down the attackers as
saying, "I want to tell all my brothers and sisters in Poso that such violence
cannot be tolerated, and the police with the military will make sure that it
will not happen again."
October 28, 2005
The United States has warned its citizens to avoid non-essential travel to Indonesia, saying a suicide bombing on Bali island earlier this month shows terrorists are still active.
"The possibility remains that terrorists will carry out additional attacks in Bali, Jakarta or other areas of Indonesia in the near future," the US Embassy said, adding that it had received reports Americans could be targeted.
The last time Washington issued such a terror alert for Indonesia was in May.
The warning came hours before Jakarta Police chief Major-General Firman Gani disclosed at least 18 sites in the capital were potential targets of bomb attacks ahead of and during next week's celebration of the end of Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting.
"Police posts will be set up at malls, railway stations, airports, shopping centres and other places," Firman said. He did not identify the places by name.
The world's most populous Muslim nation has been hit by deadly terrorist attacks every year since 2002, when twin nightclub bombings on Bali killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.
The October 1 suicide bombings on the same island targeting three crowded restaurants killed 20 people, including four Australians, and injured more than 100.
On Friday a bomb exploded on a minibus in the Indonesian province of Central Sulawesi, a region that has for years been plagued by sectarian violence, said Major Sambas Kurniawan, a police chief in the town of Parigi.
A 54-year-old man was hurt in the blast, he said, adding that 11 people were in the bus, which was travelling from the predominantly Muslim provincial capital of Palu to the largely Christian town of Tentana.
The bomb was a low-intensity device that was apparently placed under one of van's seats, Kurniawan said.
Central Sulawesi was the scene of a bloody war between Christians and Muslims in 2001-02 that killed around 1,000 people from both communities. In May, an attack at Tentana Market in Poso killed 22 people.
The fresh US warning said Americans who do visit Indonesia should "be aware of their surroundings at all times, and vary their routes and times in carrying out daily activities".
Terrorists could target places frequented by Westerners, including hotels, clubs, restaurants, shopping centres, places of worship and schools, the warning said.
The Bali bombings and the 2003 and 2004 blasts at the Marriott hotel and the Australian Embassy, both in Jakarta, have been blamed on the al-Qaeda-linked militant group Jemaah Islamiah.
Separation of Mosque, State Wanes in Indonesia
By Richard C.
Paddock
Times Staff Writer
March 20, 2006
MALANG, Indonesia — Yusman Roy, a former boxer and a convert to Islam, is
serving two years in prison because he believes that Muslims should pray in a
language they can understand.
Roy, who led bilingual prayer sessions at his small East Java boarding school,
is seen as a heretic by conservative Muslims here. They believe true prayer can
be conducted only in Arabic.
Roy's desire to pray in Indonesian has sparked such an outrage that he was
convicted last year in criminal court of "spreading hatred." Animosity toward
Roy ran so high that police posted guards to keep an angry mob from torching his
house and school.
Now, he is kept in a cell by himself at overcrowded Lowokwaru prison, and the
warden has warned him not to preach to his fellow inmates in any language.
Roy is one of at least 10 Muslims incarcerated in recent months for what the
Indonesian Council of Ulemas, the country's most influential Muslim body in
setting religious policy, has deemed deviant thinking.
"The government and the council have been working together to suppress my
ideas," Roy said during an interview in prison. "But this will not stop me from
doing what I believe."
Indonesia is a democratic, secular country, and there is no constitutional basis
for using Islamic law in court in most regions. But insulting a religion is a
crime, and a fatwa, or religious edict, issued by the Council of Ulemas
can carry great weight as evidence of an alleged offense to Islam.
Indonesia, which has more than 190 million Muslims, the world's largest Islamic
population, has become increasingly conservative since the 1998 collapse of
President Suharto's military regime. In recent years, the government has grown
more active in enforcing religious law.
In recent months, fatwas issued by the Indonesian Council of Ulemas and
its regional councils denouncing clerics and cults as deviant have been followed
by arrests, prosecution and sometimes mob violence against the accused.
Sumardi Tappaya, 60, a high school religious teacher on the island of Sulawesi,
was locked up in January after a relative told police he had heard Sumardi
whistling while he prayed. The whistling was declared deviant by the local
ulemas, and Sumardi is now in jail awaiting trial on charges of religious
blasphemy. He faces five years in prison.
Ardhi Husain, 50, who ran an Islamic center in East Java that treated drug
addiction and cancer with traditional medicine and prayer, was sentenced in
September to five years in prison for writing a book that the ulemas said
contained 70 "errors," such as claiming that Muhammad was not the last prophet
and that non-Muslims could go to heaven. Five editors of the book also received
five-year terms. An employee who sold a copy to a neighbor received three years.
After Husain's arrest, a mob burned down his facility. No one has been arrested
in the attack.
Lia Aminuddin, 58, who claims to be the Virgin Mary and leads the quasi-Islamic
God's Kingdom of Eden cult, was arrested in December on blasphemy charges after
thousands of angry protesters surrounded her headquarters in Jakarta, the
Indonesian capital. The ulemas and demonstrators accused her of insulting Islam
by claiming that she was married to the archangel Gabriel and that God spoke to
her through him. (In Islam, Gabriel, or Jibril, is revered as the archangel who
communicated God's word to Muhammad.)
Prominent human rights lawyer Adnan Buyung Nasution, whose Indonesian Legal Aid
Foundation represents several of the accused, says the government is ignoring
zealots who commit religious violence and instead prosecuting the targets of
religious hatred.
"The intolerance is becoming worse," Nasution said. "Why are the victims being
punished?"
Fighting between Muslims and Christians has claimed thousands of lives in
Indonesia in recent years, and Islamic suicide bombers have staged high-profile
attacks in Bali and Jakarta that have killed hundreds. Less visible has been the
effort by conservative Muslims to compel other members of their faith to hew to
a more traditional line.
The Indonesian Council of Ulemas, which is made up of 43 Muslim scholars and
leaders of major Islamic organizations, was formed in 1975 to guide Muslims on
how to live in accordance with Islamic principles. Muslims make up more than 85%
of the nation's population.
The council has recently issued fatwas banning women from leading prayers
if a man is present and prohibiting Muslims from praying alongside members of
other religions. Provincial and local branches of the council also have issued
numerous fatwas regulating Islamic practices.
Ma'ruf Amin, a vice chairman of the Indonesian Council of Ulemas and the
chairman of its fatwa committee, says the ulemas' role is to define
proper behavior for Muslims and to set boundaries that protect the purity of
Islam.
He denies that the ulemas are promoting hatred, and says Muslims who engage in
deviant practices are bringing violence upon themselves.
"These kinds of people are the ones who cause all the trouble, and the people
wouldn't bother to riot if there was no one who deviated," Amin said. "These
kinds of people should not exist."
Some moderate Muslim leaders charge that the Council of Ulemas has been
infiltrated by hard-line groups, particularly the Islamic Defenders Front.
Defenders Front Chairman Habib Rizieq, who declares himself a follower of Al
Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, says it is important to keep Muslims from being
swayed by ideas deemed to be heretical, such as bilingual prayer. "All deviant
teaching has to be banned," he said.
It is clear that Roy, 51, is not a conventional Muslim.
An eagle carrying a red heart is tattooed on the back of his left hand. His
Koran is in Indonesian as well as Arabic, and on nearly every page he has
highlighted passages in yellow and marked them in pen. A flattened nose and a
cauliflower ear testify to his days as a professional boxer. He says he once
held the Indonesian lightweight record for the fastest knockout: 59 seconds.
Sitting cross-legged on a thin mat on the floor of the prison visiting room, the
father of nine contends that he is a victim of religious persecution. He says he
is being silenced for challenging the Islamic establishment, particularly the
Council of Ulemas, with his effort to ensure that all Muslims understand the
principles of their religion.
"My original thinking has made them jealous," said Roy, wearing his prison
denims and sporting a few short whiskers on his chin.
Born to a Dutch Catholic mother and an Indonesian Muslim father, Roy chose
Catholicism as a teenager but converted to Islam when he was in his early 30s.
He says Islam helped save him from a life of a crime and violence.
Even as he boxed professionally, he says, he hired himself out to businessmen
and politicians to beat up rivals and critics, collect money from debtors and
recruit thugs to carry out mayhem. He avoided prison by bribing police whenever
he was arrested, he says.
Roy embraced Islam but, like most Indonesians, never learned Arabic well.
The disadvantage is greatest when it comes to salat, the prayers
performed by the faithful five times a day while facing Mecca. Many scholars
interpret Muhammad's guidance to "pray like you see me praying" to mean that
salat can be performed only in Arabic. But other scholars disagree, saying
there is nothing sacred about Arabic itself.
In theory, Indonesian Muslims learn the meaning of their prayers in their own
language as they memorize the Arabic words. But Roy estimates that at least 70%
of Indonesia's Muslims don't know what their prayers mean. Most Indonesians
defer to Arabic speakers in interpreting the Koran, he says, which can make them
vulnerable to the teachings of militant Muslims.
"Because of their lack of understanding, they do not have high-quality prayers,"
he says. "That is why there are people who are angry and commit violence. If
they had high-quality prayers, they would not become terrorists."
At his small boarding school and residence on the outskirts of Malang, Roy
quietly began three years ago to lead salat in Indonesian for a few of
his followers. His practice might have gone unnoticed, but in his zeal to spread
his idea, he made a video of himself praying in Indonesian and Arabic and
distributed copies at nearby mosques.
Word of Roy's practices soon reached members of the Islamic Defenders Front,
whose white-robed members confronted him during a debate at his school. The
local and provincial ulema councils issued fatwas against him. Some in
the community became outraged, and Roy was put on trial.
Prosecutor Ahmad Arifin, 39, who tried the case against Roy, presented nine
witnesses, including three from the local and provincial ulema councils. The
fatwas were entered as evidence that Islam rejects bilingual prayer and that
Roy had insulted Islam.
"He distributed his video, and it spread hatred in the community," Arifin said.
"People hated Roy for spreading his ideas in a public way."
In August, the judge acquitted Roy of the charge that his teachings deviated
from Islam, but found him guilty of inciting hatred by challenging the views of
local clerics.
Roy seems to accept his fate with equanimity. Serving two years in prison for
his faith, he says, helps atone for his violent crimes that went unpunished. He
says prison has only affirmed his belief in bilingual prayer, and he plans to
continue pushing for its adoption once he is freed.
Roy's sentence is only six months shorter than the term given radical cleric Abu
Bakar Bashir, the purported spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah. The Southeast
Asian affiliate of Al Qaeda is believed to have killed at least 225 people in
suicide bombings in Bali and Jakarta.
Yet some think two years behind bars may be too short for Roy.
"Whether it is enough depends on whether he realizes his error," said Rizieq,
the Islamic Defenders Front leader. "If he doesn't, not even a life sentence is
enough."
The Sunday Times April 02, 2006
SUNBATHING tourists in Bali and barely clad tribesmen in Papua are caught up in a cultural war between a minority of puritanical Indonesian Muslims and the country’s tolerant majority.
The battle appears to be frivolous, involving, as it does, learned arguments over whether a navel is indecent, or a penis gourd, which guards the modesty of the Papuan male, constitutes nudity.
However, it is serious for dozens of people who have fallen victim to zealous prosecutors, police harassment and mob violence in a battle for the destiny of the world’s most populous Islamic nation.
The contest for the hearts and minds of more than 200m Indonesians is being closely watched by western nations, one reason for Tony Blair’s 24-hour stop here last week.
Blair saluted President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a reformer with a reputation for honesty; held brief talks with moderate Muslim leaders; and fielded questions on Iraq, Palestine and George W Bush from an articulate group of boys and girls at one of Jakarta’s religious boarding schools.
But many Indonesians fear their president is losing his grip on a political debate increasingly dominated by fundamentalists, who have made a parliamentary bill on indecency the centrepiece of their campaign to purify the nation.
“This is an attempt by some people to import Arab culture to Indonesia,” said Yenny Wahid, a Muslim campaigner for women’s rights.
The draft bill would extend a ban on indecency to prohibit kissing in public, which would be punishable by five years in prison. Public nudity or the “indecent” exposure of the stomach, thigh or hip — some religious jurists argue that shoulders could also be deemed inflammatory — could be punished by a 10-year sentence and a £30,000 fine.
Although public displays of affection, let alone nudity, are rare in Indonesia, as in most Asian cultures, the authors of the bill have also sought to censure the wearing of tight or suggestive clothing.
Opponents of the draft are trying to strike out the more draconian clauses in parliamentary committees before the bill goes to a vote, which is expected in June. A delegation from Bali, a mainly Hindu island that makes its living from sun-seeking beach lovers, has hastened to Jakarta to state its opposition to the bill.
Politicians from Papua, which is racked by internal strife, have pleaded against any law that would insult tribal culture by forcing its indigenous folk to cover themselves in deference to the mores of 7th-century Arabia.
But political analysts in Jakarta have traced a series of incidents that show some local governments and religious tribunals are imposing their own version of sharia (Islamic law) through a stream of fatwas, or decrees, backed by police action.
In East Java, a former boxer turned preacher, Yusman Roy, 51, is in prison for “spreading hatred”. His offence: reading prayers in the local language, Bahasa Indonesia, instead of classical Arabic.
A religious high school teacher, Sumardi Tappaya, 60, is facing imprisonment after a complainant heard him “whistling” while performing prayers. Ardhi Husain, 50, who ran a prayer centre that employed faith to help the sick, has been sent to prison for five years for writing a book deemed “deviant” by the ever more vigilant Indonesian Council of Ulemas.
Its “deviance” lay in affirming, among other questionable doctrines, that non-Muslims could also enter paradise. The printer and publisher also received jail terms. But nobody was arrested after an irate crowd burnt down the prayer centre.
The Indonesian
edition of US adult magazine Playboy has moved its headquarters to the
predominantly Hindu resort island of Bali.
The Detikcom online news
service reports the local company publishing the magazine was forced to suspend
its operations in April.
It follows violence by Muslim hardliners, including attacks on the magazine's
head office in the capital Jakarta.
Detikcom reports that the company has moved its base to Denpasar, after a
resident handed over some land to the company for free.
Only one issue of the local edition was published.
ABC Asia Pacific TV / Radio Australia
Ahmadiyah and crisis of Indonesian Islam
Thomas Barker, Jakarta
The Jakarta Post
July 11, 2008
It has been said of Indonesia's Muslims that they constitute a majority with a minority mentality -- a contradictory situation in which Muslims, while comprising 90 percent of Indonesia's population, have felt unjustly restricted from politics, especially from the strongly Pancasila-based governments of Sukarno and Soeharto.
This observation may not hold true today, but what we see is worse: Islam in Indonesia is experiencing a crisis of legitimacy.
It has been seven years since September 11th, after which Islam became synonymous with violence and terrorism. Although this orientalist fallacy still persists in some quarters, our perceptions of Islam have broadened. That it is as diverse as any other system of human belief should not be surprising, as its history is as rich, varied and tumultuous as any other.
However, in Indonesia -- often referred to as the world's largest Muslim nation -- the specter of violence in the name of religion has returned. Persistent attacks against and vilification of Ahmadiyah by fundamentalist Islamic groups acting in the name of a unitary Islam. Continued harassment of Christians and the destruction of their churches in Bekasi.
And one month ago, only a stone's throw away from the presidential palace, a violent attack on a rally for religious freedom and tolerance. This newspaper, like many others, has been filled with articles expressing outrage at these vigilante groups.
In broader geopolitical terms, Islam is having trouble proving to the world that it is not a religion of violence. This is the case even in Indonesia -- often seen as the poster boy for Islam and democracy working together.
While the rhetoric surrounding Islam and violence is wrong, Islam itself has failed to prove otherwise. It will continue to be plagued by the specter of violence unless it can take on a more constructive role in civil society.
This argument may seem to lump together mainstream and fundamentalist Islamic groups. But recent events have tended to blur the distinction between the two. While mainstream groups have made obligatory statements against violence, this is only the tip of the iceberg: The controversy surrounding violence points to disarray and a deeper crisis of legitimacy in Indonesian Islam.
Ahmadiyah's mistake was perhaps rather simple. By professing to be Islamic while at the same time acknowledging a prophet after Muhammad, they engaged in heresy. The sect could have avoided this situation if it had withdrawn from Islam. While Christianity, another Abrahamic religion, tolerates splinter beliefs, branches and other prophets, Islam requires the acknowledgment of Muhammad as God's true and only prophet.
However, the issue is not merely one of Ahmadis exiting Islam because certain vigilante groups have made it their mission to obliterate the sect from the archipelago, but rather: Why draw attention to them now? Ahmadis have been in Indonesia for more than 70 years, quietly building a religious community.
According to a recently quoted statistic, Ahmadiyah in Indonesia comprises 242 branches. It is understandable that smaller fundamentalist groups started to notice these branches and, feeling threatened, took action.
However, the problem does not lie with Ahmadiyah itself. Many have pointed their fingers at the government's inability to handle incidents surrounding the sect.
For example, Fahri Hamzah of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) strongly criticized the government's immature response and said the government should seek a solution in the form of an inter-Muslim dialogue. Likewise, the police have been severely criticized for failing to protect Ahmadis and their property and for being benign toward vigilante groups.
The debate has also turned to the two mainstream Islamic organizations -- Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) -- and their inability to provide a moderate response to both the question of Ahmadiyah and to the actions of fundamentalist Islamic groups. In fact, NU has started training its own militant group, Ansor, without realizing this is a recipe for disaster.
These events and responses to it all point to a religion deep in crisis. Islam in Indonesia has never been homogeneous but instead characterized by a diverse range of interpretations -- from orthodox to the particular Javanese syncretic forms.
What we see, however, is a religion that has turned (in) on itself, albeit led by its more extreme wing. Unable to effect change in society more broadly, certain groups within Islam have started to attack members of their own religious community. The move to "purify" is emblematic of a religion in crisis.
The failure of Islam, more generally, has been its failure to deal with this problem. Although it has now become the state's problem, alarm bells should have gone off long ago within the Muslim community. A political Islam, ready to take on a more active and constructive role in civil society, has not emerged from the instrumentalist policies of the New Order. Instead, the New Order accustomed Muslims to complacency and powerlessness while Islam as a moral system has failed to dominate political discourse, leaving the task to the often arbitrary and incoherent decisions of individual Muslims.
After decades of being politically repressed, mainstream Islamic groups have failed to take up the mantle of responsibility. Even today, the political arm of Muhammadiyah -- the National Mandate Party (PAN) -- is still engaged in reactionary and populist politics, just like the majority of political parties.
No coherent political platform exists to marry Muhammadiyah's ideology with its vast experience in the democratic process. Likewise the Indonesia Ulama Council (MUI), whose only activity seems to be releasing fatwa, provides little in the way of religious leadership or example.
Despite arguments from within Islam against the "Islam equals violence" fallacy, it is hard to see where the community of Muslims has made concrete efforts to substantiate its claim. There are certainly individual cases of charity and assistance -- the spate of responses to recent natural disasters being the most obvious example.
However, with current concern over food scarcity and the recent hike in fuel prices, Islamic groups have been conspicuously absent from programs of social aid and poverty alleviation. Likewise in the political arena, they have been missing from constructive discussions of possible policy solutions to these current problems.
Instead, we have seen reactionary politics from moderate Islam and violent intimidation from fundamentalist Islamic groups acting in the name of the people. Sharia law, introduced in some areas to address social problems -- so it was argued -- has become nothing more than a set of laws governing public morality, laws that unfairly target women and society's vulnerable.
Unfortunately these events reflect negatively on the entire Muslim community. The opportunities afforded by the reform era to improve governance and social conditions in Indonesia are being squandered by Islamic groups and their dearth of leadership.
