The Jakarta Post, September 06, 2005
Hard-liners step up pressure for JIL to close
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Muslim hard-liners have continued intimidating the Liberal Islam Network (JIL), an
organization that promotes pluralism and liberalism in the country, after failing to
realize their threat to attack its office in Utan Kayu, East Jakarta, last month.
The radical conservatives are now seeking support from Utan Kayu residents to stop
the activities of JIL -- who they accuse of spreading a defiant tenet of Islam -- and are
warning the liberal group to close its office by Tuesday evening.
In addition to JIL, several other institutions -- including Galeri Lontar, the Institute for
the Studies on Free Flow of Information (ISAI), and private radio station Radio 68H,
which are all headquartered in the Utan Kayu Community complex -- were told to halt
their operations.
Cleric Ustadz Tandjung, who heads the Al-Muslimun mosque in the area, has
accused ISAI, Radio 68H and Galeri Lontar of being parts of JIL's undertows for
similarly promoting liberalism, pluralism and secularism.
Leaflets have been distributed among local residents, asking them to support the
attempt to evict the four institutions from Utan Kayu.
Several figures from JIL and the other threatened institutions, grouped as the Utan
Kayu Community, held a meeting on Sunday night with the local district head to
discuss the threats from the hard-liners.
"Figures from the Utan Kayu Community prefer to pursue peaceful ways by clarifying
our activities here. We told the local district head that we have not committed any
crimes, and the leaflets have spread false information against us," Lalang, a staffer
working for the ISAI, told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
"We believe that the district head has understood the situation. And now, we are
organizing a dialog with local religious leaders and other residents living in the Utan
Kayu area to make them understand our activities here," he added.
Lalang said the dialog session is planned for Tuesday evening with the local
community and religious leaders.
On the same day, activists of JIL, ISAI and other institutions would also hold a news
conference at their office compound.
Muslim hard-liners have increased their threats against JIL after the Indonesian Ulema
Council (MUI) in July issued a much-criticized decree outlawing liberalism, pluralism
and secularism.
Early in August, hard-liners from the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) had reportedly
planned to attack the JIL office, but the threat failed to materialize as the building was
tightly guarded by police.
In 2003, hard-liners from the Islamic Community Brotherhood Forum (FUUI) had even
declared that the blood of JIL coordinator Ulil Absar Abdalla was halal (permitted
under Islamic law), meaning that he was allowed to be murdered by Muslims.
Separately, leader of the country's largest Muslim organizations Nahdlatul Ulama (NU)
Hasyim Muzadi, appealed to Muslims to not commit acts of violence against others,
saying that religions must solve problems rather than creating them.
"Radicalism and liberalism are like a coin. One leads to another. And, I hope that
Muslim followers can use their religious thought truly, which respects their own
community, as well as that of non-Muslims," he told a news conference at NU
headquarters in Central Jakarta.
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