Groups join NU to tackle extremism

Jakarta, NU Online
A number of minority groups have joined Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country’s largest Muslim organization, to launch a nationwide, grassroots movement aimed at combating extremism.
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The organizations, which include the Indonesian Communion of Churches (PGI), the Indonesian Bishops Conference (KWI), the High Council of Confucianism in Indonesia (Matakin) and the Indonesian Buddhist Association (Walubi), joined the movement in its effort to maintain the country’s foundation of pluralism, which is under threat from extremism.

The organizations plan to hold a mass rally at Lapangan Banteng Square on Jan. 17 in which thousands of their members are expected to participate.

“With this mass rally we want to bring the message home that diversity should be this nation’s strength. We must show that peaceful coexistence is possible,” Father Guido Suprapto of the KWI told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

NU chairman KH Marsyudi Syuhud said that the rally would be the start of a nationwide movement campaigning for tolerance and pluralism under the banner of Islam Nusantara (Islam of the Archipelago).

The NU promoted the concept of Islam Nusantara during the organization’s 33rd congress last year, where it espoused that Islam was compatible with nationalism and indigenous values.

Marsyudi said the peaceful and tolerant brand of Islam was currently under threat from the rise of fundamentalism.

“This is the start of a movement to counter the perception that Islam is not a peaceful religion because we now see Muslims attacking one another, between Sunni and Shia. And this is before we talk about our relations with other faiths like Hinduism and Buddhism,” Marsyudi said.

Marsyudi also said the interfaith movement would guard the country from the intrusion of extremism that came from abroad in the form of radical groups like the Islamic State (IS) movement and others that wanted to impose a single interpretation of Islam.

“The danger is clear and present. Now we see they have the courage to fly the IS flag at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle. We also had people rallying at Senayan Stadium and openly expressing their wishes for changing Pancasila as the state ideology,” he said.

The interfaith group also expressed concern that the growing extremism sprung from what it deemed a government failure to address radicalism.

“We have people returning from fighting with IS in Syria and the government does nothing. This makes people believe that the Arab Spring will certainly come to Indonesia soon,” Marsyudi said.

The National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) assured those concerned on Thursday that 149 Indonesians returning from war-torn Syria, home to the radical IS, would not cause security problems here.

BNPT said that IS returnees would undergo thorough screening before being allowed to rejoin society.

Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said recently that at least 800 Indonesians had joined IS and that 284 of these had been identified and 52 had died.

Father Edy Purwanto of the KWI said that Catholics in the country would join the NU-initiated movement.

“We are aware that the NU always gets divine help to deal with problems in the country. We will support the movement and six million Catholics in the country will join the effort,” he said. (masdar)