The southeast Asian archipelago of
Indonesia, with a population of some 255 million, is the
world’s largest Islamic nation. Almost 90 per cent of the
population practises the Muslim faith.
A moderate, secular democracy since the
turn of the century, the country has not until now faced the
sectarian clashes and autocratic rule that have plagued many
other Muslim nations. Is that changing?
“Democracy gives a greater space to
everyone, including greater space for radical Islam,” observed
Melissa Crouch, a senior lecturer at the University of New
South Wales in Sydney.
Since the 1980s, Saudi Arabia has built
dozens of schools, distributed scholarships and religious
materials, and constructed mosques in the country, promoting
its strict Wahhabi form of Sunni Islam.
In mid-February, Muhammad al-Khaththath,
leader of the Forum Umat Islam, explained the direction in
which he hoped to push Indonesia.
Sharia would become the law of the land and
non-Muslims would lose their leadership posts. He also
criticized Joko Widodo, Indonesia’s pluralist president.
A bill before parliament would ban alcohol,
while the Constitutional Court is hearing a petition by a
group demanding that the adultery law be broadened to
criminalize sex between any unmarried people.
On May 21, police in Jakarta arrested 141
men at a sauna in the capital on suspicion of having a gay sex
party.
Tobias Basuki, an analyst at the Center for
Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta, said the
police appeared to be formally taking on a role that had
previously been held by hard-line Islamist groups. “The
government is trying to co-opt the religious narrative.”
As well, radicals have assaulted Ahmaddiya
Muslims, often considered heretics, so the Indonesian
government issued a decree warning them against propagating
their beliefs, invoking the blasphemy laws.
What the Islamists have in mind already
exists in Aceh Province, on the northern tip of Sumatra. It
began instituting Sharia law in 2001 after gaining autonomy in
an attempt to end a long-running separatist war.
Many see it as a model for the whole
country. On May 17, a court in Aceh sentenced two gay men to
85 lashes in public.
The government has now disbanded Hizb
ut-Tahrir, an ultraconservative Islamic political movement,
which aims to create a Pan-Islamic state among predominantly
Muslim countries, by force if necessary.
Created in Jordan in 1952, it came to
Indonesia three decades later, and the country has become an
important base. At its 2007 conference in Jakarta, some
100,000 people came out to a sports stadium in support.
The group rejects the, multi-religious
national ideology, known as Pancasila, Indonesia’s state
ideology, which includes belief in god, the unity of the
country, social justice and democracy, and which enshrines
religious diversity in an officially secular system.
Hizb ut-Tahrir was accused of having ties
with another regional militant group, Jemaah Islamiyah,
founded in 1993, which is already illegal.
Jemaah Islamiyah became influential after
conflict erupted between Christians and Muslims in Indonesia
in 1999 and 2000 during the country’s difficult transition to
electoral democracy, and its fighters attacked Christian
churches and priests, in response to Christian attacks on
Muslims.
In October of 2002, it perpetrated its most
notorious attack when it bombed two Bali nightclubs popular
with foreign tourists, especially Australians, killing 202.
It also mounted attacks in Jakarta, bombing
the J.W. Marriott Hotel in August 2003 and the Australian
Embassy in September 2004. In October 2005, another suicide
bombing in Bali killed 26.
However, increased security efforts forced
the group to rethink its strategy. Its energies became more
focused on above-ground religious outreach efforts aimed at
creating a mass base and its leaders gave greater priority to
education.
But arrests since 2014 have revealed Jemaah
Islamiyah retains a highly structured operation, with branches
extending throughout Indonesia.
And it has also been trying to rebuild a
clandestine military wing, despite arguing that violence on
Indonesian soil is currently counterproductive.
That’s because it maintains that all its
members must be prepared for an eventual military showdown as
the movement strives to build an Islamic state -- even if, at
the moment, there is no rationale for armed struggle.
Meanwhile, on May 24 the Islamic State group claimed
responsibility for suicide bombings in Jakarta that killed
three police officers at a bus station and wounded 12
others.
President Widodo indicated that Indonesia
needed to accelerate plans to strengthen anti-terrorism laws
to prevent new attacks.
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