Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – An aggressive attempt by Muslim hard-liners to evict the Liberal Islam Network (JIL) from the Utan Kayu area in East Jakarta has received a major blow as local residents have begun to show support for the group there.
Utan Kayu community unit head Syamsul Alam said on Monday he believed that most local residents were not opposed to the presence of JIL.
As of Monday, nearly 100 people have signed a petition in support of the group in the understanding that it does not teach a deviant form of Islam, he added. Syamsul said the petition had been circulating since Friday night and people could sign it until the end of the month.
JIL activist Nong Darol Mahmada gave a similar assurance – after his group met recently with Utan Kayu residents – that they would not evict JIL as demanded by Muslim hard-liners mostly from the Islam Defenders Front (FPI).
"I believe members of the local community will respond positively and support us, because they have no objections to our way of thinking," Nong told The Jakarta Post. "We have nowhere to go. But we have the documents to legally stay here and we pay tax. So, what reason can the (hard-liners) give for our eviction," he added.
Nong said that if the FPI was uncomfortable with JIL's religious interpretations then it was best to meet and talk face-to-face.
JIL has been branded by the FPI and other hard-line groups as a deviant organization for spreading liberalism, pluralism and secularism in the country.
The hard-line groups increased their opposition to JIL after the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) issued in July a much-criticized decree outlawing liberalism, pluralism and secularism.
Last month, FPI supporters had reportedly planned to attack the JIL office, but changed their minds due to the building's tight police security.
The hard-line groups later sought the support of cleric Ustadz Tandjung, who heads the Al-Muslimun mosque in Utan Kayu, to stop JIL's activities. They even warned the liberal group to leave the area before this year's Muslim fasting month, which starts on Oct. 5.
Apart from JIL, the extremists also targeted Radio 68H, which is headquarter in the same compound as the liberal group. The hard-liners demanded that the private radio station stop airing a weekly talk show that discusses issues on Islam and pluralism, otherwise they too would have to leave Utan Kayu.
The management of Radio 68H, however, said they would continue airing the program, which often features noted moderate Muslim scholars, including former Muhammadiyah leader Ahmad Syafii Maarif and Musthofa Bisri of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU).
In addition to JIL and Radio 68H, two other institutions Galeri Lontar and the Institute for the Studies on Free Flow of Information (ISAI) – both also headquartered in the Utan Kayu Community complex – were also on the FPI's "eviction list".
JIL was founded in 2001 by young Muslim thinkers Ulil Absar Abdalla, Hamid Basyaib, Abdul Muqsith Ghazali, Novriantoni, Guntur Romli, Lanny Octaviany, Burhanuddin and Annick HT. They are mostly activists of the NU and Muhammadiyah.