*IBRAHIM ISA'S SELECTED NEWS AND VIEWS*
*Wednesday, June 30, 2010*
*-----------------------------------------------------------------------------*
*FOCUS ON FRONT PEMBELA ISLAM <FPI>*
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- INDONESIAN MILITARY BEHIND ISLAMIST THUGS
-- ISLAMIC HARD-LINERS A THREAT TO THE NATION
-- FPI MUST BE BANNED : HOUSE LEGISLATORS
-- DISBAND FPI, SAY LEGISLATORS AND ACTIVISTS
-- CHRISTIANS ASK FOR INTERFAITH FORUM AMID TENSIONS
-- DEMANDS FOR FPI'S DISBANDMENT CONTINUE
-- FPI, NO PROBLEM !!??
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
INDONESIAN MILITARY BEHIND ISLAMIST THUGS
A lawmaker on Wednesday accused the security forces of secretly
supporting Islamist vigilantes as a kind of paramilitary force to
intimidate opponents and commercial rivals.
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle lawmaker Eva Kusuma Sundari said
extremist vigilantes known for violent attacks on bars, minorities and
human rights advocates had direct links to military and police generals.
The organization is now part of the conflict management strategy the
Indonesian military exercises to maintain its power, she told AFP,
referring to the stick-wielding fanatics known as the Islamic Defenders
Front (FPI).
There are several military personnel who still use the services of
the FPI... I suspect they maintain and protect the FPI because they
still have interests with them.
The FPI is known for threatening, intimidating and physically attacking
Indonesians with almost complete impunity, despite repeated calls for
the government to ban the organization.
On Sunday it threatened war against the Christian minority in the
Jakarta suburb of Bekasi and urged all mosques in the city to create
armed militias. Sundari is a member of a group of MPs who has demanded
the government crack down on the vigilantes after they burst into an
official meeting on health care in East Java last week and accused the
organisers of being communists.
FPI chairman Habib Rizieq hit back at the groups critics, saying they
were part of a conspiracy among communists and liberals against the
imposition of sharia or Islamic law in the secular but mainly Muslim
country.
Police should not discriminate -- whoever propagates communism should
be brought to justice as it is a criminal offence, he told a press
conference at FPI headquarters in Jakarta.
He did not renounce violence and when a journalist asked him to respond
to community concerns about violence he accused him of being a communist.
/Agence-France Presse/
ISLAMIC HARD-LINERS A THREAT TO THE NATION
Jakarta Globe Editorial, June 27 2010 -
Religious tolerance and freedom is the fundamental pillar of our
society. The nations founding ideology, Pancasila, is centered around
the freedom to worship and to believe in ones God.
It is against this backdrop that recent developments in Bekasi are
profoundly disturbing. Over the past few months, hard-line Islamic
groups have sought to impose their will on the residents and dictate
what is acceptable and what is not.
Now, several Islamic organizations in Bekasi have recommended that every
mosque in the city form a militant unit and that local Muslims prepare
for the possibility of war against what they perceive to be the
Christianization of the city. A new group calling itself Bekasi Islamic
Presidium, formed at the close of the two-day Bekasi Islamic Congress at
the Al-Azhar Mosque on Sunday, said these militant units were important
to guard Bekasi Muslims against conversion to Christianity. The
presidium is also expected to forward several recommendations to the
Bekasi administration to create policies that are compliant with Shariah
law.
These developments and recommendations should be looked into seriously
and weighed with great care. There is a growing perception that Muslim
hard-liners who shout loudly are not challenged, irrespective of the
damage they cause in communities that do not share their views, as long
as they are not visible from the metropolitan center of Jakarta. Most
recently this has been seen in Bogor, in the Koja protests, and now in
Bekasi. However, if left unattended, these simmering religious tensions
have the potential to erupt into an open conflict with far reaching
repercussions.
Talk of open war and the formation of local militant units is dangerous.
We only need to recall the bloodbath in Poso and Maluku where thousands
of people lost their lives and homes in religious conflict between 1999
and 2000 to understand how quickly the fire spreads once lit, and how
difficult it is to extinguish.
We are encouraged by a statement from the Bekasi chapter of the Islamic
Defenders Front (FPI) saying they would seek a dialogue with the citys
Christian community. We hope a truly open and rational dialogue takes
place so a middle path can be found.
It is also imperative that the authorities move quickly to restore peace
and harmony in Bekasi. We cannot afford another religious conflict in
our midst after working so hard this past decade to promote Indonesia as
a tolerant and moderate country.
If laws have been broken, those responsible must be brought to justice.
Religious leaders must calm their followers and preach tolerance. No one
group should be allowed to take the law into their own hands.
Bekasi is a litmus test of how the new Indonesia deals with such age old
fissures in our society. It will test our legal and religious
establishments to the full and it will test the local governments
ability to maintain the public peace. This is one test the country and
the government cannot afford to fail.
FPI MUST BE BANNED : HOUSE LEGISLATORS
Hans David Tampubolon, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 06/28/2010
*Islamic Defender Front: *(JP)
A multi-party coalition of legislators in the House of Representatives
legislators demanded that the Islamic Defender Front (FPI) be officially
declared a forbidden organization, said a coalition representative.
"We are not concerned about their mission. We concerned about the way
implement their goals," said Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle
legislator Eva Kusuma Sundari at a press conference at the House on
Monday.The FPI has been implicated in too many violent incidents and
there is more than enough evidence for police to bring criminal charges
against the group, she said.
"The police must follow up reports on the FPI so that the courts will
have a firm basis to determine that the organization should be
forbidden," she said.Eva also urged President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
to use his authority to take firm action against the FPI.
DISBAND FPI, SAY LEGISLATORS AND ACTIVISTS
Bagus BT Saragih and Hans David Tampubolon, The Jakarta Post | Tue,
06/29/2010 9:
Legislators and activists have called for the banning of the Islam
Defenders Front (FPI), a hard-line group known for its violent,
vigilante actions against perceived threats to Islamic values.
The Indonesian Parliamentary Pancasila Caucus, a group of legislators,
regional representatives and activists, said President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono should prove that the state cannot cower to acts of violence
shown by the FPI and other similar groups.
All victims of the FPIs thugs should report to the police so that the
courts can classify the FPI as an outlaw group, the Caucus told a press
conference on Monday.Their statement was triggered by FPI actions on
Thursday against legislators in Banyuwangi, East Java.
Legislator Ribka Tjiptaning of the Indonesian Democratic Party of
Struggle (PDI-P) had reported the FPI to the police for breaking up a
meeting on the new health bill in a restaurant, which she was attending
with two other legislators.
Ribka also reported the incident to the National Commission for Human
Rights (Komnas HAM), which, she said should issue a recommendation to
ban the FPI because of its frequent violation of
human rights.Banned groups, according to a 1985 law, include those who
disrupt security and public order and which spread communism or
Marxism-Leninism or other teachings in opposition to state ideology
Pancasila and the Constitution.
Ribka was attending the meeting with fellow members of the House of
Representatives Commission IX overseeing health affairs, Rieke Diah
Pitaloka and Nursuhud. Ribka also reported Banyuwangi Police chief
Adj. Sr. Comr. Slamet Hadi Supraptoyo for negligence, saying police
stood by as the FPI hooligans intimidated members into breaking up the
meeting.
Members of the Banyuwangi branch of the FPI, the Inter-religion Harmony
Forum (FKUB) and NGO Gerak disrupted the gathering, which they believed
to be a meeting of former members of the banned Indonesian Communist
Party (PKI) and their families. Ribka is the author of I Am Proud to Be
a PKI Child, published in 2002.
The secretary-general of the Jakarta branch of the FPI, Habib Novel,
said the meeting was actually a reunion of PKI members or their
sympathizers.We couldnt allow the meeting to take place because the
PKI is a banned organization since 1965,
he said.
FPI commander M. Sidiq said the group was used to calls to disband.
Only its members or the Home Ministry could disband FPI, he said.
In 2008, FPI leader Habib Muhammad Rizieq bin Husein Syihab was jailed
for 18 months for inciting violence against members of the Alliance for
the Freedom of Religion and Faith at a peaceful rally in Jakarta.
Another Caucus member, Muslim scholar Ulil Abshar-Abdalla, and a new
member of the executive board of the Presidents Democratic Party, also
cited the FPIs systematic violence over the past years.
Its important for us to continuously push the government to disband
the FPI, he said
--------------------------
CHRISTIANS ASK FOR INTERFAITH FORUM AMID TENSIONS
Hasyim Widhiarto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta |
Christian leaders and activists in Bekasi have called on local Muslim
groups in the area to engage in talks to resolve inter-religious
tensions that have recently threatened to boil over.Albert Siagian, the
secretary-general for the Christian Youth Movement of Indonesia, said
recent disputes between Muslims and Christians were rooted in a lack of
mutual understanding and tolerance between the groups.
Many Muslims, for example, will perhaps question why Christians include
singing as their rituals or why they are allowed to hold mass at their
houses, said Albert, who lives in Harapan Jaya.Albert said the small
disputes that have recently broken out could worsen if local religious
leaders failed to bridge their differences.
Rapid development in residential and industrial estates has turned
Bekasi, a satellite town that lies to the east of Jakarta, into a
culturally and religiously diverse city.A number of conflicts have
stemmed from disputes over churches built by Christian congregations
that Muslim groups claimed were not permitted.
On Sunday, a group of hard-line Muslim organizations officially demanded
the local administrations implement Islamic sharia law, a move they
described as a response to the ongoing attempt to convert locals to
Christianity.The accusation was referring to Christian prayer services,
some of which are held outdoors, that have led some to suspect they are
attempts to convert Muslims to Christianity.
Theophilus Bela, chairman of the Communication Forum for Jakartas
Christians, strongly denied the allegation, saying that Christians in
the area had been pressured to stop their services by hard-line Muslim
groups.Theophilus, who is a resident of Pondok Gede, Bekasi, said there
were not enough churches in the area to accommodate all Christians in
the municipality, and that it was therefore normal for church
congregations to propose the establishment of new churches.
Most of the time, local residents have ended up misinterpreting
[efforts to establish new churches] as attempts to impose Christianity
[on them], he said.
Last week, a group of local Muslims raided a baptism ceremony at a house
in the upscale Kemang Pratama Regency estate.A group of Muslim residents
said they had become suspicious after seeing hundreds of people some
of them wearing veils arriving by bus and entering a house belonging
to a Christian social foundation.
The spat ended when police arrested the home owners and ordered the
people who had come to the house many from areas outside of Jakarta
to go home.Antonius Warlela, 32, a Catholic living in Pondok Gede, said
he had no problem with the implementation of sharia law in the city as
long as Muslims could convince all residents to agree to the proposal.
But do all Muslims themselves agree with the implementation of [sharia]
law? he said.
DEMANDS FOR FPI'S DISBANDMENT CONTINUE
Andi Hajramurni, The Jakarta Post, Makassar | Fri, 06/06/2008
Pressures were mounting for the government to immediately outlaw the
Islam Defenders Front (FPI) held responsible for the attack at the
National Monument (Monas) on Sunday.
Some 30 students from various universities went to the streets in
Makassar on Thursday, demanding the banning of the hard-line Muslim
organization. "The violent acts committed by FPI have tarnished
religious harmony in the country and clearly violated the 1945
Constitution and basic human rights," said rally coordinator Murad.
The students also urged the police to arrest and prosecute FPI members
who perpetrated the attack and assaulted members from the National
Alliance for the Freedom of Faith and Religion (AKKBB) during a rally in
Jakarta on June 1.
Councilors who received the protesters at the legislative building
supported the students' demand, saying no groups were allowed to use
violence against others. In Bandung, hundreds of members of the Alliance
for Religious Tolerance (AKUR) stormed the FPI's local chapter office on
Jl Pasteur on Thursday, demanding the head of FPI's advisory board sign
an undertaking to stop using violence in the city.
AKUR coordinator Yaman Didu said they had taken this step in order to
maintain stability in the West Java provincial capital. "We don't want
people saying they have the right to resort to violence in the name of
religion, because every religion teaches peace," said Yaman.
Bandung FPI's head of the advisory board Ayub Solihin expressed his
disapproval of disbandment on the grounds that they were not involved in
the Monas attack.
"We have been carrying out peaceful actions in Bandung so far, like
other groups. They have no right to disband us," said Ayub.
He also said none of the FPI members from Bandung were involved in the
attack in Jakarta. "Only the government can dissolve us, not the police,
especially not other mass organizations," Ayub said.
In Cirebon, West Java, thousands of people from various groups and
Islamic boarding schools, mostly affiliated with Nahdlatul Ulama (NU),
took to the streets Thursday to demand disbandment of the FPI. The
demonstrators held rallies at the Cirebon regency police office and the
local legislature, arriving in dozens of trucks and with hundreds of
motorcycles.
Nurjaman, caretaker of the Kempek Islamic boarding school and
coordinator of the rally, said the attack carried out by the FPI against
one of the NU's clerics and an AKKBB activist, KH Maman Imanulhaq
Faqieh, was a dishonor to the NU as an institution.
"The FPI had the audacity to attack a cleric who is an influential
figure in the NU. Laskar FPI had also attacked AKKBB activists who were
commemorating Pancasila Sanctity Day on June 1, meaning they have
dishonored Pancasila and the NU at the same time. We condemn their
behavior and insist the government disband the FPI immediately," said
Nurjaman.
Protesters also urged local legislators to immediately enact an
ordinance banning the FPI and organizations that disrespected Pancasila
and often resorted to violence in the name of r
FPI NO PROBLEM !!
*WHAT WE SHOULD CONDEMN EVEN MORE IS THE POLICE AND AUTHORITIES
WHOHAV NOT, AND STILL ARE NOT, DOING ANYTHING AGAINST THESE GROUPS*
The Jakarta Post | Wed, 06/30/2010 | Editorial
Most urban swells seem prone to it gang violence, mob culture and a
general abandonment of the law and order. Some excuse it as street
justice, others couch it as a poverty related phenomenon.
*But the main difference ultimately is whether authorities, in this case
the police and the city administration, actually do something about it.*
Cities such as Jakarta are not on the brink of anarchy. But it has
descended into a chaotic temperament of might is right and an
understanding that if no one does anything about it, bedlam is
permissible irrespective of rights of others. Mobs have a long history
in Indonesian politics. Most of the major socio-political organizations
in this country have some form of youth wing in their ranks. How they
choose to use them depends on the nature of the organization,
circumstance and the level of political desperation on the day. These
multipurpose garrisons are employed for a diverse range of activities,
from social and political ones to being an intimidating deterrent.
One thing is clear, they are meant to be a tour de force of political
prowess.
In some cases, youth wings can be an asset primarily because their
parent organization is legitimate entities that engage in the formal
socio-political sector.But when a mob culture seeps the masses,
potentially productive elements become a threat. In a liberal political
setting, without the patronage of a genuine organization, these groups
become roving mobs that act like criminal gangs.
In brief, the culture of thuggery.We applaud that the practice of
thuggery, which has become so prominent in this metropolis, is finally
being rightly vilified at the highest levels.
*A multi-party coalition of legislators at the House of Representatives
has condemned the actions of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI), demanding
that the organization should be forbidden.*
A 1985 law raises the possibility of banning groups disruptive to
security and public order, along with those which spread teachings in
opposition to state ideology Pancasila and the Constitution. But banning
the FPI, as a matter of fact, is unimportant. Perhaps even unnecessary,
especially using laws that are rather draconian and originally designed
to mitigate freedom of political association.
To invoke the law now could actually open the flood gates of
proscription for political motives toward legitimate groups who may be
critics of the status quo.Whats in a name? Banning the FPI would only
disperse membership into smaller, and even more radical gangs.
*The trouble with the FPI may not even be the FPI itself. *
It is the omission by the police to effectively encourage lawless
activities through a do nothing attitude when such incidents arise. In
fact, it seems almost a standard procedure to let incidents occur first,
then take action once property and peoples heads have been bashed away.
The police realize their duty to fight crime, but they certainly neglect
a more important obligation to prevent crime. Some have even accused
people close to police sources of actually being backers of groups of
street thugs as part of a wider underworld racket that includes
protection money and debt collection, among others.
This habit of omission rewards anarchic behavior, empowering groups such
as the FPI and a half dozen others in the capital with a sense of impunity.
Actually, we cannot blame serial thugs for their behavior. There is no
point expecting the higher rules of moral civility to groups of men (and
some women) who are cowards and hypocrites by preying on pacifist
civilians in the name of God.
/*What we should condemn even more is the police and authorities who
have not, and still are not, doing anything against these groups.
Ultimately, they become the real brutes who decline communities and
create public insecurity.*/
* * *
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------------------
=======================
Milis Wanita Muslimah
Membangun citra wanita muslimah dalam diri, keluarga, maupun masyarakat.
Twitter: http://twitter.com/wanita_muslimah
Situs Web: http://www.wanita-muslimah.com
ARSIP DISKUSI : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wanita-muslimah/messages
Kirim Posting mailto:wanita-muslimah@yahoogroups.com
Berhenti mailto:wanita-muslimah-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com
Milis Keluarga Sejahtera mailto:keluarga-sejaht...@yahoogroups.com
Milis Anak Muda Islam mailto:majelism...@yahoogroups.com
Milis ini tidak menerima attachment.Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wanita-muslimah/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wanita-muslimah/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
wanita-muslimah-dig...@yahoogroups.com
wanita-muslimah-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
wanita-muslimah-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
