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TEMPO Magazine, No. 04/II/October 2-8, 2001
Cover Story
JIHAD JIVE
Hardline Muslim groups in Indonesia are calling for jihad in Afghanistan and signing up volunteers, in reaction to US anger towards Kabul. But in most cases there's little substance behind the empty threats.
After attending Friday prayers last week, Handriansyah got down to work at his headquarters in Jalan Menteng Raya, Central Jakarta Commander of the Brigade of the Islamic Youth Movement, he was trying on clothes like a teenager heading to a party.
At first he wore green, covered up by a long white jubah, the long, flowing gown often worn by Arab men and other Muslims. Not long afterwards a friend helped him put on his headband. They put it on the wrong way around. Well, they fixed that. But then it fell off again. So they replaced it with a kafiyeh, a bit like Yasser Arafat's, with a red and white checked pattern. Finally Handriansyah decided to take off his white jubah and replace it with a grey one. It all looked good in the end.
But this thin youth was not heading for any party.
"We are going to demonstrate at the American embassy," he said.
Handriansyah, 26, was only one of thousands of members of Islamic mass organizations like Laskar Jihad, the Defenders of Islam (FPI) and the Indonesian Committee for Solidarity of the Islamic World (KISDI), which nearly all of last week hit the streets of Jakarta to oppose America's alleged 'plan to attack Afghanistan'.
The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York and the Pentagon in Washington D.C., not only killed around 7,000 people. They also provoked knock-on effects in the Islamic world, the intensity of which is still being felt. They have reached Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country. Although Washington has yet to publish firm proof—and has suggested it may not do so in order to protect sources—the US government accuses Saudi dissident and exile Osama bin Laden of masterminding the attacks.
The Saudi Arabian businessman is in exile in Afghanistan. America has beefed up its military might in the Gulf over the last few weeks and has suggested it may attack Afghanistan if the ruling Taleban there do not hand bin Laden over.
The plan to attack Afghanistan produced a hard reaction from Muslims here, especially young men like Handriansyah, after the knock-on effects showed themselves also in a wave of attacks on Arabs and other Muslims in the US. There were even attacks on people of other religions whose attire vaguely resembles that of some Muslims, like Sikhs. It spread to other Western countries as well, with the burning of a mosque in Australia.
President George W. Bush visited the Islamic Center in Washington and made a statement in defense of Muslims and Arabs. But it was too little, too late for some. Bush's rhetoric and his earlier blundering talk about a 'crusade' against bin Laden, not to mention his mobilization of the US military machine against Afghanistan for an operation called 'Infinite Justice', were taken up by many as a challenge to the Islamic world as a whole, not just the controversial bin Laden and the equally controversial Taleban.
In Solo, Central Java, some Muslim youths took the matter into their own hands, carrying out raids to search for American citizens in hotels. In Jakarta, the US embassy became the target of almost daily demonstrations whose size grew and grew as the days wore on.
The Indonesian Ulamas Council (MUI) also heated up the tinder. In a joint statement with 32 Islamic organizations, MUI called for Muslims to 'jihad if America and its allies attack Afghanistan'. In the statement, issued through its secretary-general Din Syamsuddin, the MUI also criticized the terrorist attacks on the WTC, whose victims included a large number of Muslims. It also called on Muslims not to carry out violence towards US citizens in Indonesia.
"Violence will destroy the image of Islam as a religion of peace," he said.
But the other parts of the statement did little to counteract the word jihad, which has some hard connotations for non-Muslims—just like Bush's use of the word 'crusade' for non-Christians. Its sound has drowned out that of other statements by MUI.
For the commander of Laskar Jihad, Jafar Umar Thalib, the MUI call showed a sympathetic attitude and great commitment from the institution, intended to reflect the overall aspirations of the Muslims of Indonesia. Laskar Jihad is a new Muslim organization but its reputation has quickly grown thanks to its support of the Muslim side in the conflict with Christians in Ambon.
"The MUI statement very much represents the aspirations of the Islamic religion in general," he said. "This is a reaction to various violence and the arrogance shown by America to the Islamic religion all this while."
There was also agreement from Habib Rizieq Shihab, chairman of the FPI, an organization which is better known for its operations against drugs and alcohol at bars and discotheques in Jakarta. In response to the call from MUI, FPI opened a jihad volunteers list for its own members. Money is no problem, said Rizieq.
"All this while the FPI has held a jihad account filled by donors from all over Indonesia. Several Islamic businessmen are also ready to give large sums of money to send forces to Afghanistan," he said.
How big? Rizieq did not want to say.
"A number of members of FPI even are ready to go using their own funds," he said.
The Islamic Youth Movement or GPI was even more energetic. Through a brigade led by Handriansyah, they opened a general signing-up post. An official there said that as of midday Friday last week, four days after it opened, around 700 people had signed up as ready to become volunteers, 20 among them women.
GPI did not only open volunteers lists in Jakarta, but also in at least eight regencies and municipalities in the predominantly Muslim region of South Sulawesi. It generally has been carried out through large mosques in Makassar and its environs. The GPI claimed it had obtained money from donors, community donations and its own 'big family' to help pay for the departure of the candidate defenders of the faith.
In Madura, there is another group that does not want to be outdone. In Pamekasan, the Madura Ulamas Forum has distributed 10,000 forms to sign up for jihad across the regencies of East Java. It is coordinated by Abdul Hamid and the conditions for volunteering are simple: being a Muslim, and being prepared mentally and physically.
According to forum secretary Syaiful Hukama' Syafi'i, there is a lot of enthusiasm about the call among the community. Some 3,000 forms have come back from Malang, he says, some 1,000 from Sumenep and some 3,000 from Pamekasan.
"Last night a bus from came Bondowoso and everyone immediately signed up," Syaiful told Kukuh Wibowo of TEMPO.
Of the thousands of people who listed, many are members of the Majelis Taklim Nurut Tauhid, spread across East Java.
But there has been plenty of criticism of the MUI call and advice to reflect more deeply on the implications. Both Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, Indonesia's two largest Islamic organizations, gave it all a rather cool response, if not downright cold. Neither plans to open signing-up posts for those who want to go on jihad.
Amien Rais, chairman of the supreme People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) and former chairman of Muhammadiyah, urged his fellow Muslims not to choose the option of jihad too hastily. Conscription for jihad, he said, should only be done if the US has carried out a cruel bombing or other such attack on Afghanistan, without differentiating between military and civilian targets.
"While this attack has not taken place, don't make a jihad, because that will only confuse the situation," said Amien.
Accorfding to Syafii Maarif, current Muhammadiyah chairman, the call for jihad is "not wise and is not beneficial for Indonesia". He says there must be certain preconditions for jihad, so it contains meaning and precise aim as a holy war. In the atmosphere of injustice as now, the call has the potential to stimulate radicalism.
"It may become dry grass for a fire," said Syafii.
NU chairman Hasyim Muzadi prefers the 'holy war of diplomacy' to prevent the US invasion of Afghanistan. Anti-terrorism and anti-violence statements could be quite effective, he said.
"This method will be more effective and will reach the target compared with mobilizing the faithful," he said.
Religious affairs minister, Said Agil Al Munawar, even took the view that MUI had overstepped the mark. It had ventured into the realms of 'practical politics' which was not its concern, he said. Said Agil's statement reflects the fear in the government of President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who has her own problems with some of Indonesia's hardline Muslims. The wave of anti-Americanism has left the government in a dilemma. In Washington DC last week, President Bush promised Megawati he would issue a loan of US$400 million to the Indonesian military, restoring military ties severed over East Timor. On the other hand, Indonesia was asked to 'help America oppose terrorism'. Or perhaps in more explicit terms, oppose bin Laden and the Taleban.
Some ministers, including defense minister Matori Abdul Djalil and chief security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, are convinced that the wave of protests at the US embassy will not influence the national commitment. But a tense debate last week between US ambassador Robert Gelbard and members of Commission I of the DPR, the body that deals with security concerns, signalled the opposite.
Gelbard was invited to clarify his decision to pull some of his staff from Jakarta, as well as urging his citizens to consider leaving and advising his business people to defer investment in Indonesia. Gelbard accused the legislators of having an 'anti-American' stance, while members of parliament accused Gelbard of being too arrogant.
Sympathy toward Afghanistan has become a new symbol of the anti-US sentiment in Muslim countries like Indonesia. Sentiment like that in truth has been there for a long time. Ahdian Husaini, secretary-general of KISDI, identified US policy towards the Middle East as the root cause.
"MUI should have issued a fatwa like that a long time ago when America supported Israel to kill the Palestinian people," he said, quoted by Koran TEMPO.
Sua'ib Didu, an official for signing up jihad volunteers at the GPI, is convinced that his actions have a noble aim: defending the truth.
"We do not want to defend Osama bin Laden, but the Afghan people who are going to be oppressed by America," said Sua'ib.
But even if you accept that argument, sending volunteers to Afghanistan is no easy task. As Hasyim Muzadi of NU points out.
"Just imagine if you really want to send people to Afghanistan: how about transport, how about military supplies, how about ability to read the field?" said Hasyim.
In the last few years Indonesian Muslims have shown great solidarity towards Muslims who are attacked overseas, like in Bosnia, Chechnya and Afghanistan under Soviet occupation. The intriguing exception is one in their own back yard—Aceh. Signing up volunteers for jihad is not new. However, the limited funds, the poor organization, and the limited desire to make war—not to mention skill at it—makes jihad little more than a political statement. Unless a few defenders of the faith actually make it to the battlefield, that is what generally happens.
In any case, Indonesians and Muslims don't have a monopoly on sympathy for Afghan civilians. Anti-war activists in the US from various religions have openly opposed any attack on Afghanistan. They see it as paying back terror with terror. Despite the great sadness for those Americans who died on September 11, and the hundreds of foreigners who included many Muslims, they held a pro-peace demonstration in various cities. They certainly did not call it a jihad or holy war.
Wicaksono, Ardi Bramantyo, Adi Prasetya, Agus Hidayat
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