‘True Islam’ Key Against Terrorism: NU

Jakarta Globe, Anita Rachman, March 26, 2010

The country’s largest Islamic organization, the Nahdlatul Ulama, on Friday said that its clerics should help the fight against terrorism.

It also recommended that the government’s anti-terrorism desk, currently attached to a super ministry, be upgraded into a special body.

“Combating terrorism is about the cultural and ideological approach of NU clerics toward their followers in villages,” said Masykuri Abdillah, chief of the recommendations committee at the ongoing Nahdlatul Ulama’s national congress.

“It is our job to straighten out those who have been turned against or misguided about true Islam,” he added.

In battling terrorism, Islam must grow in line with the Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama’ah principle, or the words and deeds applied by Prophet Muhammad and his companions.

“The recommendation we’ve issued is not only to our government but to all parties across the nation, about safeguards for religion in Indonesia. Religion should never again be hijacked by terrorists or radicals,” Masykuri said.

He said combating terrorism was not only the job of the National Police’s anti-terrorism unit, Densus 88, but of clerics at every NU branch in the country.

“Jihad, in Arabic, is a noun that means ‘struggle.’ Jihad does not mean terrorism. Islam is not terrorism. Because terrorism hides behind the name of religion, NU would also like to recommend that the status of the government’s Anti-Terrorism Desk [at the Coordinating Ministry for Security, Political and Legal Affairs] be upgraded to that of a special body.”

That body, Masykuri said, should be occupied not only by law-enforcement officials, but by religious clerics as well.

“Cracking down on terrorism should be implemented via the cultural and ideological approach of the NU, aside from the tactics applied by anti-terrorism forces in the police,” he said.

Teachings by religious leaders should also broach the topic of what was the actual understanding of Shariah among their followers.

Masyhuri Na’im, deputy chairman of the NU legal advisory board, said that for some, the idea of implementing Shariah, in accordance with a very strict inter pretation of the religion, was ideal. “However, we have seen many times that it is not good,” he said.

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