Suicide bombings not jihad, say hard-line groups

Even the nutjobs goes with the public opinion..... ~;)

Suicide bombings not jihad, say hard-line groups


Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Islamic hard-line groups joined the chorus of condemnation on Sunday against militants who used suicide bombings to wage jihad in the world's most populous Muslim country.

However, the groups called for a dialog between them and other Muslim leaders, along with the government to discuss jihad, as they said the war on terror had tarnished their image.

At a seminar attended by leaders of the Indonesian Mujahiddin Assembly (MMI), Hisbuth Tahrir, the Islam Defender Front (FPI) and several other hard-line groups, they agreed that suicide bomb attacks could not be accepted as jihad.

"It's because the attackers have committed suicide in Indonesia, which is not a conflict zone," MMI leader Abu Jibril argued.

The seminar specifically discussed the series of suicide bombings in the country, blamed widely on members of the Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) terror group.

According to Jibril, Muslims are allowed only to launch suicide attacks for self-defense.

"The recent suicide bombings were out of the context of Islamic holy war because they (the attackers) attacked target instead of defending themselves from threats, such as aggression," he said.

The MMI was founded by extremist cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, who was in April convicted of a being involved in the conspiracy that led to the 2002 bombings in Bali, which killed 202 people -- mostly Western tourists.

Jibril has taken over the MMI's leadership as Ba'asyir, who also heads the Al-Mukmin Islamic boarding school in Ngruki, Surakarta, Central Java, is serving a 30-month jail term in Jakarta's Cipinang prison.

Police also accused Ba'asyir of leading Jamaah Islamiyah, but the court was not convinced.

Similarly, Achmad Junaidi Ath-Thayibiy of the Hizbuth Tahrir said the recent terror attacks in the country by suicide bombers were haram (forbidden under Islam), and could not be considered as jihad.

Once again, he stressed that Indonesia was not a conflict zone.

"The Koran sets a condition before Muslims can wage holy war and die as martyrs, namely it must be defensive, not offensive, in nature, and the target must be clear.

"If the attackers target the U.S. and its allies as their enemies, they must not victimize women, children and other innocent people," Achmad told the seminar, which was also attended by former chairman of the Indonesian Communion of Churches (PGI), Rev. Nathan Setiabudi.

Imams have also strongly condemned the suicide bombings as un-Islamic, saying the terrorists had misinterpreted Koranic verses on jihad to launch the attacks.

Nahdlatul Ulama leader Hasyim Muzadi asked the government and Muslim leaders to sit down together to talk about the true concept of jihad in an effort to ensure the success of the national campaign against terror.

The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) ended a two-day national meeting here on Sunday with a decision to strengthen its stance against terrorism.

"We are planning to facilitate a meeting of all religious groups, be they hard-line or moderate ones, to find a clear definition of jihad. Of course, our stance is clear that we are against terror because Indonesia is not a battle zone for jihad or suicide attacks," MUI deputy chairman Ma'ruf Amin, who was appointed to lead the antiterror task force, told The Jakarta Post.

He said the MUI would reissue its 2003 fatwa that outlaws all acts of terror.

The council, however, criticized the security authorities for stigmatizing hard-line groups and a number of Islamic boarding schools.

Last week, the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) said that as part of the fight against terrorism, it would infiltrate radical groups in order to destroy their organizations from within.

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According to Jibril, Muslims are allowed only to launch suicide attacks for self-defense.

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Islam prevents comitting suicide at all. If you are forced into a situation where you have to do some martial action in which you will be killed too, then that's not suicide. (Say, you're guarding a building that the enemy should not take over at all cost. You blow it off and go along with it. You are killed but that's not a suicide.)

Nothing new. ~:handball:
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The interesting is that the fundamentalist organizations actually express these opinions. A clear sign that they at least officially have to bow for the public pressure.

I find it truly bizarre that people who presumably regard themselves as men of God are drawing the sorts of distinctions in this article. In fact it makes me regard them in an even worse light than before.

The discussion on what jihad actually is continues....


To ban or not to ban, and catching up with terrorists


Ati Nurbaiti, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Death is most beautiful, and is far from terrifying -- after reading a few paragraphs of certain interpretations of the Koran. It's nothing to dread -- and it's for the defense of the underdog, like the thousands of infants killed in Iraq because of the "terrorist-like" policies of the U.S. and its allies.

Except that the resulting deaths from followers of such teachings have come from suicide bombing targeting other infants and innocents. The scriptwriters of such terror have found passages from the Koran that they say justify the targeting of civilians, even women and children, a researcher on terrorism has said.

The new government sponsored "task force" of ulema and other religious leaders and scholars are preparing to actively counter extremist teachings and even ban publications that incite violence, like the biography by Imam Samudra, the convict on death row for his role in the 2002 Bali bombings.

On jihad, for instance, extremists draw an analogy from the issues of ritual prayer, or sholat. Referring to the understanding of most Muslims, they point out that a Muslim intending to perform sholat would not merely raise their hands into the air -- that is not the form of sholat that mandatory five times a day in Islam.

Similarly jihad, they point out, cannot be reduced to "the war against one's own lust", the version preached by some moderates.

Now, imagine if such views were banned from publication. There wouldn't be much protest except maybe from purist advocates of freedom of expression -- one of our hard-won liberties. Even in the United Kingdom, media regulations prohibit broadcasting content that "incites hatred". Following the bombings of London last July authorities pushed for the screening of Muslim preachers and the banning of organizations considered to be extremist.

The Governor of Maluku, during the height of the Ambon communal conflicts, also closed the radio station of Laskar Jihad and threatened to close other media too, which were considered to be factors worsening the violence.

However the mind-set of deciding to ban publications for the public good raises the New Order specter of "Big Brother knows best", as if all readers would be gullible enough to switch their understanding of Islam and condone such methods of jihad.

The publication of counter interpretations of religion by our leaders and scholars is sorely needed, and they would have to be equally convincing rather than merely reiterating that Islam is a "religion of peace". Such statements, as we've seen, only fall on deaf ears among those who have absorbed arguments discussed in books like those attempting to justify the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Further, how would our scholars, teachers and leaders know what to counter if those extremist views were banned from being published? Years ago there was an article in the London-based Index on Censorship monthly -- published by one of those fierce guardians of freedom of expression. A Jew shared his pain in reading anti-Semitic writings, but added, "If such writing was banned, how could I know what they (anti Jews) felt against me?" At least those hurtful words put him on guard, he said.

The Soeharto regime forbid the broadcasting and publication of information -- let alone opinions -- regarding differences in society, promoting the belief that the nation lived in harmony. As a consequence, the media itself started believing its own self-censored perspectives it published. The result: Utter shock among the public and also the media at all that saber swaggering, shooting and burning among civilians, apparently all running amuck once Soeharto stepped down. Ignorance led to wrong perceptions and disbelief when myths went up in smoke.

In the case of those seeking recruits to carry out acts of terror, the means of publication, extremists' websites and videos such as that shown to religious leaders by Vice President Jusuf Kalla -- have been the main tools enabling our ulema and scholars to know of the existence of what they recognize as misleading and dangerous views.

Ban them -- and the teachings will still quietly spread, as they have been spreading for years, as only now we know -- through the diligently built networks of closed "religious study" groups and pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) set up by those extremists in remote areas.

Residents in several hamlets such as in West Java and, the latest, in Hetiva in Maluku, have said they only realized the activities and intentions of their "guests" when it was too late; once police came to raid the areas, or after their neighbors' faces and identities appeared in the media following a fatal explosion.

Banning publications and screening preachers is the easier way. But the "task force" of religious leaders and scholars need to seek other ways to win this deadly catch-up game; they are just beginning to approach the pesantren and their teachers, while the masterminds continue to stealthily pluck young men, dangling heavenly pleasures, material incentives, or both, and targeting more and more innocent victims.

Times are getting tougher for the militants in Indonesia.


Militants Cut Indonesia Ties

Two Jemaah Islamiyah leaders have cut their ties with the Indonesian-based terrorist group and established a base in the southern Philippines to continue waging attacks in both countries, according to a captured Indonesian militant.

The Indonesian militants - Dulmatin and Umar Patek - have trained recruits and plotted attacks in their southern Philippine base, but their efforts have been hampered by several arrests and army offensives, according to a report on the interrogation of Abdullah Sunata, an alleged rebel leader captured in Indonesia in June.

A copy of the confidential report on Sunata's interrogation in Indonesia was seen by the Associated Press on Thursday (1/12/05).

Dulmatin, an electronics specialist known for his bomb-making expertise, and Patek, who has focused on recruitment and training, are key suspects in the 2002 nightclub bombings that killed 202 people on Bali.

Last October, Washington announced rewards of up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Dulmatin, and up to $1 million for the capture of Patek, citing their alleged role in the 2002 Bali attack and involvement in Jemaah Islamiyah.

But Sunata said the two men told him in 2003 that they had cut their ties with Jemaah Islamiyah amid an intense manhunt for them by Indonesian police for their alleged roles in the Bali attacks.

He said the two fled separately to Mindanao sometime in March and April of that year, according to the report.

Meanwhile, analysts have dismissed a website message posted by a previously unknown group warning the governments of the United States, Thailand and their allies of imminent "annihilation.”

The lengthy message from the so-called Mujahidin Operational Centre, written in Malay and Indonesian and posted on October 5, delivered a "threat of annihilation to the infidel regimes of Thailand, America and their allies.”

It also warned Muslims in the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia to avoid public places, diplomatic offices, police and military stations.

Rohan Gunaratna, head of terrorism research at Singapore's Institute for Defense and Strategic Studies (IDSS), said the threat had no basis.