Nurfika Osman – The country's highest authority on Islam reminded Indonesians on Monday that it had previously issued an edict against Muslims carrying out acts of terror.
Amid claims that Indonesia was a hotbed of terrorism, the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) in 2006 issued a fatwa, or religious decree, condemning terrorism and suicide bombing. However, the fatwa remains largely unknown in the public arena.
MUI chairman Amidhan said that the council issued the fatwa in 2006 following a series of terrorist bombings between 2002 and 2005 that were blamed on Muslim militants.
"We issued the fatwa because terrorism and suicide bombings have never been justified under Islam and are definitely not part of jihad," Amidhan said, referring to the concept of jihad as a spiritual struggle. "We [Muslims] are very angry with judgements saying that those things [terrorism and bombings] are part of the teachings of Islam."
Jemaah Islamiyah, an Al Qaeda-linked network of hard-line Muslim militants that wants to establish a caliphate across Southeast Asia, was blamed for the string of bombings in Indonesia between 2002 and 2005.
In 2002, suicide bombers attacked two popular nightclubs in Kuta, Bali, killing 202 people. In 2003, a suicide car bomb exploded at the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, killing 12 people. The following year, a car bomb at the Australian Embassy killed nine. Two restaurants in Bali were targeted by suicide bombers in 2005, with 23 people dying.
On July 17, after a four-year break without attacks, suicide bombers blew themselves up at two upscale hotels in Jakarta – the Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton – leaving nine people dead.
Amidhan said that the fatwa categorized both terrorism and suicide bombings as haram, or forbidden under Islam. Fatwas issued by the MUI are not legally binding but are considered to be strong moral guidance for the country's large Muslim population.
"In the fatwa, we proclaimed that terrorism and suicide bombings are crimes that can destroy society and have serious impacts such as killing innocent people," Amidhan said.
He said that the council had circulated more than 3,000 books about the fatwa on terrorism to a number of religious institutions across the country and hoped that the recipients would further disseminate the information to local residents.
"We have informed the public," Amidhan said, "but people are likely to be more interested in capturing the terrorists rather than in the fatwa."
Meanwhile, the existence of the fatwa remains largely unheard of. "I didn't know that we had such a fatwa regarding terrorism and suicide bombings," said Razid Armand, an employee at a shipping company in West Jakarta.
Although a Muslim, Armand said he did not care about fatwas issued by the MUI and was more interested in how the police would track down those responsible for the July 17 bombings.