While radical Islam is on the march worldwide, Indonesia’s largest moderate Muslim groups are pushing back.
Indonesia’s two largest Islamic groups, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, are gearing up to spread the message of moderate Islam as they discuss their programs for the next five years, during their national congress that kicked off Aug. 1. The organization boasts around 90 million members across the country. NU, which boasts 35 million members nationwide, also kicked off its national congress this week, which is focused on spreading the message of tolerance.
The congresses come amid the strong influence from radical groups in the Middle East, most of all ISIS, which has overrun vast swaths of territory in Syria and northern Iraq. While the U.S. has waged what critics call a half-hearted air bombardment campaign against the barbarians, it has not slowed the extremists down. The militants’ success, as well as their ability to thumb their nose at the world’s superpower, has galvanized admirers worldwide. Some Indonesians have reportedly joined with Malaysian radicals and formed their own Malay-speaking ISIS unit in Syria, which experts say could expand radicals’ reach in Southeast Asia. Last year, it was reported that the number of Indonesian ISIS recruits more than tripled to more than 500 fighters in a matter of months.
The congresses also happen as support for ISIS is growing at a rapid clip among Islamist radicals in Southeast Asia, and experts and law enforcement fret that the right laws are not in place to prevent Indonesian extremists from spreading their ideology at home. There are no laws that allow ISIS supporters to be arrested or detained and no laws barring Indonesians from traveling overseas to get military training, although some officials are pushing for tougher restrictions.
In an editorial published Friday, The Jakarta Post called on the congresses to ramp up calls for tolerance, contending: “The country could benefit the most from the organizations if they intensify calls for tolerance across faiths, and also within Islam. We still have Ahmadiyah and Shiite minorities who have been expelled from their homes years ago because they follow teachings that differ from the nation’s mainstream Islam.”
ARE A FEW HUNDRED EXTREMISTS A THREAT?
The question is whether we should concerned about just a few hundred radicals in the Muslim world’s most populous country?
The answer is yes. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, it was noted that a small number of radicals returning from Afghanistan were able to wreak havoc in the early 2000s.
“Nearly 200 Indonesians trained in al Qaeda-linked camps in Afghanistan in the 1980s and ‘90s,” said National Police Inspector-General Tito Karnavian, as quoted by the Journal.
In a much shorter space of time, more Indonesians are going to join ISIS than ever went to Afghanistan, Security expert Sidney Jones, director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, said in the Journal.
“The question to ask then, is what is the consequence globally when all of these people who have made contacts with each other don’t have anything to do?” she said, as reported in the Journal.
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