Jakarta – The National Police have decided to drop a widely criticized plan to monitor sermons given at mosques and mass gatherings, after a number of political parties and Islamic organizations voiced their objections to the plan.

National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Nanan Soekarna said in a text message received Sunday by The Jakarta Post that the police would not go through with their plan.

"There will be no monitoring or limiting of sermons, which has worried some. To provide order and comfort for those who are devout, I want to make this clear to avoid conflict between the National Police and Muslims," he wrote.

Nanan announced the plan Friday, saying that clerics giving provocative sermons inciting hatred would be arrested and punished with criminal charges.

"That statement was strongly related to the arrest of 18 Filipino citizens in Central Java and the question of how the police can control clerics giving sermons to provoke or even recruit terrorists."

Police in Central Java had previously taken 18 men suspected of terrorism into custody. The men had preached at several mosques.

Nevertheless, since the plan was announced, voices of public disapproval have been pouring in.

Islamic parties are among those that have most loudly voiced their criticism. The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the United Development Party (PPP) were unanimous that the plan was a threat to the freedom of religion. The more secular Democratic Party is also against spying on sermons.

"The police's decision to do that is a waste," said Anas Urbaningrum, Democratic Party deputy chairman, on Sunday. Experts deemed the strategy to be outrageous.

"[The police] have gone too far this time," said Bachtiar Effendy, a political analyst from the Islamic State University, adding the police's decision to announce their strategy was "inappropriate".

"If they want to monitor sermons, just go ahead and do it. But it was unnecessary to tell everyone about it; that will only give the wrong impression that the situation is unstable and unsafe," he told the Post.

Deputy chairman of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), Amidhan, said terrorism was an underground activity, and therefore there was no need to spy on propagation at sermons. "All sermons given in mosques never bear messages of violence nor hatred," he said with a straight face.

Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) deputy chairman Masdar F. Mas'udi, however, said there was a tendency among clerics to convey hatred in their sermons towards others due to different beliefs. "I can understand the police's plan, because preaching hatred is not part of a cleric's job. They should spread peaceful messages."

Criminologist from the University of Indonesia, Adrianus Meliala said the police's plan was unpopular and unfeasible. "This might have been a strategy by the police to make terror a common enemy." (adh)