10/06/11 Indonesia (Gosepl Herald) – The suicide bombing of a church in Central Java on Sept. 25 pointed not only to a new level of attacks on religious minorities in the world’s largest Muslim-majority country but to a political bent that accommodates Islamisc extremism.
“Radicalization of Islamic teachings and understanding is a problem in Indonesia,” admitted Dr. H. Nasaruddin Umar, director general of Islamic Community Guidance under the Ministry of Religious Affairs. “There’s a need to re-explain the concept of jihad.”
Pino Damayanto, aka Ahmad Yosepa Hayat, who blew himself up wounding over 20 members of the Sepenuh Injil Bethel Church (Bethel Full Gospel Church) in Solo on Sept. 25, apparently believed it was his religious duty to kill “the enemies of Islam,” according to his understanding of “jihad.”
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Washington’s war against terror has stakes in Indonesia, which came to light after the 2002 Bali bombings by the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah group, of which Bashir is seen as the spiritual head. Bashir is co-founder of an Islamic boarding school, Al-Mukmin, near Solo. People linked to Bashir’s school have been implicated in terrorist attacks.
Dealing with terrorists alone, however, may not help much. Extremism that breeds terrorism needs to be checked, hinted the Wahid Institute’s Rumadi, who uses a single name. The Wahid Institute works towards “a just and peaceful world by espousing a moderate and tolerant view of Islam and working towards welfare for all.”
There are extremist groups in Indonesia that are not known to have exploded bombs, but they practice violent moral policing and persecute minorities, sometimes beating members of minority communities to death. According to a human rights group in Jakarta, the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace, there were at least 75 incidents, including violent attacks, violating religious freedom of the Christian community in 2010.
The most prominent name among these violent extremist groups is the Front Pembela Islam (Islamic Defenders Front or FPI), according to the Setara Institute. The FPI was founded in 1998 by Saudi-educated Muhammad Rizieq Syihab. These groups oppose the doctrine of “Pancasila,” the Indonesian goal of “unity in diversity” in the Indonesian Constitution, which calls for religious freedom and democracy.
In March, an FPI member and eight others were convicted in the Sept. 12, 2010 clubbing of a pastor and the stabbing of a church elder of the Batak Christian Protestant Church in West Java. Christians and human rights activists, however, condemned the light sentences of only five to seven months.
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