Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !

Southeast Asia

Indonesia’s top Islamic clerics object to US LGBTQ rights envoy’s visit

2022-12-02

[BenarNews] Indonesia’s top Moslem holy manal body on Thursday spoke out against a planned visit by the American LGBTQ rights envoy, saying it would not welcome a guest "whose intention is to undermine our nation’s cultural and religious values." Same-gender sex is not a criminal offense in Indonesia except in its Aceh province, but the world’s most populous Moslem-majority nation has seen growing anti-LGBTQ sentiment. Jessica Stern, the U.S. special envoy to advance the rights of LGBTQI+ persons, is scheduled to visit Indonesia on Dec. 7, after trips to Vietnam and the Philippines, the State Department said. LGBTQI+ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex persons. During her Southeast Asia trip, Stern will reportedly meet with government officials and civil society representatives to discuss "advancing the human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... of LGBTQI+ persons," the department said on its website. The Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) Deputy Chairman Anwar Abbas said the organization "categorically rejects the visit by the special envoy." The MUI "cannot welcome a guest whose purpose in coming here is to damage and undermine the noble religious and cultural values ​​of our nation," Anwar said, calling homosexual behavior "dangerous." "If this behavior is tolerated, it will lead to humanity’s extinction, because if men marry men and women marry women, they will not reproduce," he said. MUI Chairman Cholil Nafis, a board member at Nahdlatul Ulama, the country’s largest Islamic organization, tweeted that Indonesian officials should "not to take the time to meet the LGBT envoy." Indonesian Foreign Ministry front man Teuku Faizasyah said he had no details on Stern’s visit and declined to comment about the opposition to her trip. Although same-gender sex is not illegal, discrimination against the LGBTQ community appears to be on the rise in the Southeast Asian country. In May, the government summoned the United Kingdom’s envoy after the British embassy came under fire from conservative Moslem groups and politicians here for flying a rainbow flag in support of sexual minorities. In Aceh, the only province that applies Islamic law in Indonesia, same-gender couples have been caned after sharia courts found them guilty of being intimate. The Indonesian military, which bans same-gender sex as "inappropriate behavior," recently imposed seven-month prison sentences on two soldiers for having physical relations, according to Agence La Belle France-Presse news agency. In addition, the soldiers were kicked out of the army. Meanwhile, ...back at the shootout, bullets whapped! around Butch as he tried to tie his scarf around his shoulder as a tourniquet...... rights activist muppets are concerned about the new draft criminal code bill set to pass this month that could criminalize so-called deviant sexual behavior and sex out of wedlock. MUI’S STATEMENT ’DISRESPECTFUL’ Indonesia is not just the MUI, said Dede Oetomo, a university lecturer and LGBTQ rights advocate, who added that he had been invited to an online audience with the U.S. envoy next week. "Indonesia is diverse. There are also people who are gay," Dede told BenarNews. He called the MUI’s statement on Stern’s visit "disrespectful" and "not in accordance with the etiquette of international relations." Andreas Harsono, an Indonesia researcher for the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), said the MUI had no power to stop Stern from visiting Indonesia. "In any good country, someone like Jessica Stern ... is welcomed to visit especially as she is going to talk about an important issue," he told BenarNews. "LGBT rights — whether you like it or not — is a very important issue."

Link

Olde Tyme Religion

New Chief of Indonesia’s Largest Islamic Group Seeks to Reform Orthodox Doctrines

2022-01-15

[BenarNews] The new leader of Indonesia’s largest Moslem organization is calling for the reform of orthodox Islamic doctrines which, he says, are incompatible with modern realities in the 21st century. A tradition of tolerance that Moslems across the Indonesian archipelago have practiced for centuries could be an antidote for religious extremism and contribute to global peace, according to Yahya Cholil Staquf, the chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama. "We will continue our efforts to strengthen Islamic civilization, which has grown and developed in Indonesia for a long time and has been proven up to now to be able to maintain a harmonious socio-cultural order, despite diversity," Yahya told BenarNews during an interview after being elected as the new chief of NU in late December.

Link

Southeast Asia

Indonesian president signs regulation banning Hizbut Tahrir

2017-07-13

[Jakarta Post] President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has signed a regulation to ban Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI), an Islamic organization seeking to establish a global Islamic caliphate. Presidential spokesperson Johan Budi said that Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Wiranto would announce the decision on Wednesday. Chairman of the country's largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama Said Aqil Siraj, who met Jokowi on Tuesday, also confirmed Jokowi's decision to disband HTI, adding that the announcement would be made on Thursday, not Wednesday. Earlier in March, the office of Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs announced that the government would ban HTI from operating in the country on the grounds that its vision of establishing a caliphate contradicted the value of Pancasila, which values diversity and pluralism. The decision to ban HTI came amidst worsening sectarianism during the course of the Jakarta gubernatorial election which saw Christian of Chinese descent Basuki Tjahaja "Ahok' Purnama facing off against former culture and education minister Anies Baswedan. If the HTI is eventually dissolved, it would be the first Islamic organization to be banned in the period following the downfall of the New Order authoritarian regime in 1998. During the three decades of that regime, president Soeharto banned numerous Islamic organizations whose activities and ideas deemed to be threats to the country's founding ideology Pancasila.

Link

Southeast Asia

Jihad monument to be unveiled in Indonesia

2011-10-22

Indonesia's biggest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), will officially unveil its jihad monument to commemorate the battle of Surabaya, where many of its members fought as volunteers, in 1945. NU, which plans to present the monument on Sunday in Surabaya, East Java, hopes it will remind Muslim people of the true meaning of jihad. Chairman Saiful Chalim of NU's Surabaya branch said that his organization wanted Muslims to understand that the concept of jihad is not merely a war against infidels. Chalim said, "In 1945, NU called on its adult members to perform jihad by joining Indonesian soldiers fighting against the Netherlands and Britain. This monument will be a reminder of our past struggle and the meaning of jihad." Thanks for explaining the true meaning of jihad, guys.

Link

Southeast Asia

GP Ansor: Madrassa must be closed

2011-07-17

The youth wing of Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama, GP Ansor, said that Umar bin Khattab Islamic madrassa in Bima, West Nusa Tenggara, should be closed for its alleged connection to a terror plot. On Sunday, GP Ansor chairman Nusron Wahid said, "Otherwise, it could lead to the stigmatization of other Islamic boarding schools as a perpetrator of violence." The madrassa is where a bomb killed school treasurer Suryanto, aka Firdaus, earlier this week. The police said they also discovered jihadi documents at the school. The police faced resistance from people at the school when attempting to enter the school grounds to investigate. They were only permitted entry after a series of negotiations. Principal Abrory and some of his students are wanted in the aftermath of the discovery of homemade bombs, arrows and sharp weapons at the school. When the police entered the school, the principal and some students had already fled. Eight people have been named as suspects in the case.

Link

Southeast Asia

Indonesian Muslims told to change prayer direction

2010-07-19

Indonesia's Muslims learned on Friday they have been praying in the wrong direction, after the country's highest Islamic authority said its directive on the direction of Mecca actually had people facing Africa. Muslims are supposed to face the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia during prayer and the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) issued an edict in March stipulating westward was the correct direction from the world's most populous Muslim country. "But it has been decided that actually the mosques are facing Somalia or Kenya, so we are now suggesting people shift the direction slightly to the north-west," the head of the MUI, Cholil Ridwan, told Reuters. "There's no need to knock down mosques, just shift your direction slightly during prayer." Ridwan said Muslims need not fear that their prayers have been wasted because they were facing the wrong way. "Their prayers will still be heard by Allah," he said. Said Agil Siradj, head of Indonesia's largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama, told English language newspaper the Jakarta Globe that the confusion showed the MUI issued edicts too fast and that this was a lesson for them. The MUI has, in the past, issued controversial edicts banning Muslims from chanting during yoga, and from smoking. Indonesia is a majority Muslim but officially secular country.

Link

Southeast Asia

Indonesian Muslims told to change prayer direction

2010-07-17

Indonesia's Muslims learned on Friday they have been praying in the wrong direction, after the country's highest Islamic authority said its directive on the direction of Makkah actually had people facing Africa. That's why they have all those earthquakes and tsunamis, I'll betcha... They probably moved stuff around... The Chinese have had compasses for 3000 years now, and we Americans have GPS ... I wonder how many will quietly give up on Islam as a result? Muslims are supposed to face the holy city of Makkah in Saudi Arabia during prayer and the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) issued an edict in March stipulating westward was the correct direction from the world's most populous Muslim country. "But it has been decided that actually the mosques are facing Somalia or Kenya, so we are now suggesting people shift the direction slightly to the north-west," the head of the MUI, Cholil Ridwan, told Reuters. "There's no need to knock down mosques, just shift your direction slightly during prayer." Ridwan said Muslims need not fear that their prayers have been wasted because they were facing the wrong way. "Their prayers will still be heard by Allah," he said. How do you know? You're the one who was telling them to pray towards Africa. Maybe Allah's saying "Hmmmmm. I haven't heard from my Indonesian followers. Maybe this will bring them around." Before you know it, you're under 10 feet of water. Again. Insh'allah... Said Agil Siradj, head of Indonesia's largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama, told English language newspaper the Jakarta Globe that the confusion showed the MUI issued edicts too fast and that this was a lesson for them. The MUI has, in the past, issued controversial edicts banning Muslims from chanting during yoga, and from smoking. Indonesia is a majority Muslim but officially secular country.

Link

Southeast Asia

Indonesia Muslim group slams Obama demos

2010-03-16

[Al Arabiya Latest] Indonesia's largest Islamic organization on Monday condemned protests by hard-line groups against U.S. President Barack Obama's planned visit to the mainly Muslim country. Nahdlatul Ulama deputy chairman Maskuri Abdillah said the visit would strengthen frayed ties between the United States and the Muslim world. "We call on all Muslims in Indonesia not to join any protest rejecting the visit of President Obama to Indonesia," he told AFP. "This call has been made following our concerns about a number of protests by some Muslim groups who stand against the visit. "We must welcome Obama as his visit will be positive in terms of the U.S. relationship with the Muslim world." Thousands of demonstrators from radical Muslim group Hizbut Tahrir, which aims to establish an Islamic caliphate, rallied against Obama on Sunday, tearing U.S. flags and calling America a terrorist state. Such groups have little support in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country where Obama lived for four years as a child. He is scheduled to leave the United States on March 21 for the trip, which will include stops in Guam and Australia. The visit is expected to build on a speech Obama gave last year in Cairo, in which he promised to mend fences with the Islamic world after years of discord under the previous administration of George W. Bush. "Obama has a different personality to his predecessor George Bush. Obama has the political will to improve U.S. ties with the Muslim world," Abdillah said.

Link

Southeast Asia

Clerics warn against V-Day

2010-02-13

[Straits Times] MUSLIM leaders in Indonesia on Friday told the faithful not to celebrate Valentine's Day because it is sinful and leads to 'free sex'. They're right, of course. I've seen this with my own eyes. The Pajamagram arrives, she puts it on, she takes it off, and Allen's averting his eyes. 'We forbid Muslims to celebrate Valentine's Day,' said Mr Abdullah Cholil, an East Java leader of Nahdlatul Ulama, the mainly-Muslim country's biggest Islamic organisation. "No Pajamagrams, damn you!" 'The day is often celebrated by young, unmarried people. They celebrate Valentine's Day by holding hands or having free sex, which they are not supposed to be doing,' he said. That hand-holding is guaranteed to ruin virtue. Mr Lalilurrahman, the East Java branch chief of the country's highest Islamic body, the Indonesian Ulema Council, said the celebration of romance and love was a Western tradition and therefore should not interest Muslims. 'Valentine's Day originated from Western culture. It's not in accordance with Islamic and Eastern culture,' he said. "We Muslims have no tradition of romance or love, both of which are rooted in respect of a man for a woman and vice versa. We work toward a sterile, loveless world in which women are breeding stock and men are cannon fodder. It is the Islamic way." Shopping centres in Indonesia's major cities are decked out with Valentine's Day gift offerings as well as displays marking Chinese New Year. Most Indonesians are moderate Muslims and few pay much attention to the moral edicts of local Islamic leaders.

Link

Southeast Asia

Muhammadiyah chairman urges MUI to prioritize its fatwahs

2009-02-06

Muhammadiyah chairman Din Syamsuddin on Thursday called on the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) to exercise restraint in its issuance of fatwas. "I feel that the MUI doesn't know how to prioritize, issues like vote abstaining don't require a fatwa but, rather, a general encouragement for the public to participate in the general election," Syamsuddin told tempointeraktif.com. "That fatwa isn't based on sound judgment, and it's clear the MUI has erred in terms of legal priority," he added. Syamsuddin, who is also the deputy chairman of MUI's central committee, reiterated that he had not been involved in the issuance of the Council's recent edicts. "The fatwa commission contained more members from the Nahdlatul Ulama," he explained, naming a dominant conservative Sunni Islam organization in Indonesia. He urged the Council to issue edicts of real importance, such as the need for improvement of human resources, the urgency of fighting corruption by public officials and other more fundamental concerns.

Link

Southeast Asia

NU Group Backs Fatwa, Modern War Too Complex for Nation’s Jihadis

2009-01-22

A think tank linked to the East Java branch of Nahdlatul Ulama has rejected suggestions that the organization’s fatwa, or religious decree, banning Indonesians from fighting alongside Palestinians in Gaza could be perceived by other Islamic groups as “cowardly.” “They’re welcome to think of this fatwa as cowardly,” said Imam Syuhada, the secretary of Lembaga Bahtsul Masail. “We are only thinking about the interests of the” Muslim community. NU’s efforts to achieve settlement for Palestinians have so far consisted of encouraging diplomatic efforts in international forums rather than endorsing a call to arms. That approach stands in contrast to the popular, if somewhat empty, rallying cry among a number of Islamic groups in Indonesia. Imam said it is the duty of Muslims to defend adherents of the same faith, but that duty does not apply to Indonesians who may have courage but lack the required skills to engage in combat. “This war is obviously different from the wars in the times of Prophet Muhammad, when troops still engaged the conventional way, brandishing swords and riding horses,” he said. “In such a war, physical reinforcements were indeed necessary.” Times have changed, Imam said, and the advanced technology and strategy of modern warfare means sending untrained combatants into harm’s way would do more damage than good. “Our people have hardly ever seen a missile,” he said. “Feel free to engage in jihad when you have the skills and the state’s permission. Otherwise, it would be better to contribute money to buy medicine or ammunition,” Imam said. Doctors, on the other hand, are encouraged to go, he said. Din Syamsuddin, the chairman of Muhammadiyah, Indonesia’s second largest Muslim organization after NU, said that it would not issue a similar fatwa, saying a decision to enter the conflict zone was a personal one. “The organization has not issued an official stance,” he said. “There is no need to overreact.” However, he said if some followers decided to enter the combat zone, Muhammadiyah would not hold them back. “But I don’t have enough confidence that they would make it,” he said. “There are many things to prepare, including adequate funds, permission and many other things.”

Link

Southeast Asia

Indonesian biggest Muslim organization declares to halt terrorism

2008-01-26

(Xinhua) -- The Indonesian biggest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulema (NU) vowed on Friday to stop the spread of misteaching of Islam, which could trigger radicalism and spark terrorism in the biggest Muslim country, the chairman of the organization Hasyim Muzadi said here. Terrorim has grown fast in recent years in the country, which was supported by poverty and lack of understanding of the true Islam, through the spread of misteaching of the religion. Among the teaching was hatred to the West and encouragement for retaliation through jihad in the form of attacks or suicide bombings targeting on the Western people or interest in Indonesia. Many young people had been recruited and shifted to become suicide bombers, especially those from remote areas in the country which 87 percent of its more than 220 million population are Muslim. The more-than 40-millions followers Nahdlatul Ulema had the capacity to oppose the terrorist movement up to the level of grass root, said Muzadi. "The Nahdlatul Ulama has a capacity to halt it (the spread of terrorism). The NU has an obligation to stop it. The (NU followers) at the grass root stage can be used to stop it," he told a press conference after meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the State Palace here. The chairman of the NU said that tens of millions of members of the organization spreading across the archipelago would be a bastion of the spread of the wrong deliberation of Islam by terrorists. "Should the followers of the Nahdlatul Ulema at the stage of grass root was already sterilized from the extremism, that would be very easy to stop the spread of the misteaching of Islam," he said. Muzadi said that a proactive moves would be conducted to the community about the true Islam. "We gave sermon to the people about how is the right teaching of Islam," he said. Terorist has misinterpretated a Koranic verse about the legality for revenge through suicide bombings on infidels. A top leader of the Southeast Asia militant group of Jemaah Islamiyah Noerdin Moh. Top and other terrorist fugitives are still at large in the country. Top has led and recruitment young people for suicide bombings since operating in Indonesia in 2000. He also organizer of the bombings. Many believed that the Jemaah Islamiyah had been behind the bloody attack in the country. Most of the 87 percent of Indonesia's 240 million population is moderate, but the rest is radical which are vulnerable from the spread of terrorism.

Link

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-12 More