Hasyim Widhiarto, Jakarta – A group of hard-line clerics have called on Muslims in Indonesia not to support the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), accusing the militant rebels of promoting a hidden agenda that has tarnished the image of Islam.
Speaking at a discussion on Monday evening, former commander of the now defunct Laskar Jihad paramilitary group, Ja'far Umar Thalib, said Indonesian Muslims should be wary of news regarding ISIL from Western sources and recommended seeking alternative views regarding the conflict in the Middle East.
"We can't rely on foreign media for information that is related to the interests of Muslims. In this era of globalization, it is possible for us to contact clerics or other Muslims for updates on the ongoing conflict in the Middle East," said Ja'far, who played a role in the bloody conflict between Muslims and Christians in Maluku province in the late 1990s.
Muslim cleric Abu Rusdan, who was sentenced in 2004 to three-and-a-half years in jail for harboring one of the perpetrators of the 2002 Bali bombings, also called on Muslims in the country to be cautious about ISIL, warning the group could be the creation of the local media.
Rusdan, whose father Haji Moh. Falef from Kudus, Central Java, was arrested for his alleged involvement in commando jihad warfare in the early 1980s, questioned the local media's decision to consistently place ISIL in the headlines.
"The ISIL-endorsed imamah [political leadership of Muslims] is actually not a basic foundation in Islam. So, there's no need for the media and the public in general to glorify this [ISIL] issue," he said.
Abu Rusdan said that Indonesia is the only country in Southeast Asia where ISIL receives so much attention, especially on social media.
ISIL, who also refer to themselves as the Islamic State (IS), is an extremist militant group that is currently engaged in armed conflicts in Syria and Iraq with the hope of establishing a caliphate. The group recently gained wide recognition in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority country, when a video of two Indonesians endorsing the group went viral on the Internet.
Last week, the police's Densus 88 counterterrorism unit arrested Afif Abdul Majid, a leader of Islamist group Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid (JAT), who has allegedly declared allegiance to ISIL along with firebrand cleric and JAT co-founder Abu Bakar Ba'asyir at the Nusakambangan Penitentiary on Nusakambangan Island.
The Monday meeting of Muslim clerics, organized by the Indonesian Afghan Alumni Communication Forum (FKAAI), was initially scheduled to issue a formal declaration from the meeting participants – many of whom fought in the Afghanistan war – denouncing ISIL. The declaration, however, was canceled due to disagreement from some participants.
Islamic People's Forum (FUI) secretary-general Muhammad Al Khathath, for example, urged meeting participants to focus more on discussing the future of Islamic movement in the country instead of judging the merits of ISIL.
"If there is solid evidence that there is a link between the IS movement and the West, I will be more than happy to condemn the movement," he said.
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/13/clerics-reluctant-disclaim-isil-ideology.html