Amir Tejo & Ismira Lutfia, Surabaya – In a rarely seen community backlash against Muslim radicals, residents in a Surabaya neighborhood took a somewhat vigilante tack, physically barring the doors of a mosque they felt had been a hotbed of hard-line Islamist teachings.
Residents of Jalan Sidotopo IV in the East Java capital shut down the Al Ihsan Sabilillah Mosque for three full days before agreeing to reopen it. The resolution was brokered only after a meeting with the head of the mosque and local authorities at the Sukolilo subdistrict office.
Nur Iskandar, who lives near the mosque, said the residents' action had been the culmination of their resentment toward Umar Ibrahim, the chair of the mosque's governing committee.
She said Umar had long used the mosque to host study meetings for hard-line Muslims, and had invited militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir to speak regularly.
Bashir once headed the Indonesian Mujahideen Council, an organization advocating the implementation of Shariah law in Indonesia, until he resigned last year following a schism with rivals in the group. He has also been accused of serving as the spiritual leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist network, though he denies the group exists.
Residents in the Surabaya neighborhood said some of the subjects the clerics propagated at the mosque were offensive. "They even said that government officials were infidels, that people who participated in the election were infidels and to celebrate the birthday" of the Prophet Muhammad was heretical, Nur said.
Abdul Mu'ti, the head of Center for Dialogue and Cooperation Among Civilizations, an organization that promotes interfaith dialogue, said that the residents' actions indicated that tolerance toward radicals had worn thin.
Such hard-line movements have tarnished efforts "to build the image of Indonesian Muslims as moderates who appreciate pluralism," Abdul told the Jakarta Globe.
Local residents also expressed objections to Umar Ibrahim's use of the mosque to promote his group. The resentment came to a head as the group's meetings became more frequent following the return of Umar's son, Saifudin, also known as Abu Fida, who had served out a prison term for a minor role in the 2002 Bali bombings that left 202 people dead.
Muhammadiyah scholar Moeslim Abdurrahman said he was aware of other cases in which communities rejected hard-liners' activities, but said such objections were rarely covered by the media.
He said local residents had the right to reject teachings they considered to be hard-line, but such complaints should be properly channeled and nonviolent.
"I don't believe in fighting violence with violence. It will not solve the problem," Moeslim said. "Personally, I do not agree with such radicalism, but I respect their beliefs as long as they don't use violence to spread their teachings."
The principal of the Abu Syamsuddin Islamic boarding school in Surabaya, Husni Mubarok, said that the residents could not be blamed for the outburst of anger. He said that the Prophet Muhammad in his teachings urged people not to offend others.
"So it's natural for the people to be angry when their preachers said that civil servants were infidels, that participants in elections were infidels, and so forth," because such a message offends people, Husni said.
Last month, residents of a housing complex in the Sawangan area of Depok, after repeated protests against the activities of a small mosque there that they claimed was preaching radicalism, managed to ban the activities of the hard-liners, said one of the residents, who declined to have his name used in this article.