From: John MacDougall <apakabar@clark.net>
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From apakabar Wed Aug 3 08:22 EDT 1994
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From: yhenuk@metz.une.edu.au (YUSUF HENUK)
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Subject: Al-Arqam 'GO MALINDO'!.
Date: 3 Aug 1994 04:37:22 -0500
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Teman-teman Indonesiaku Yth.,
Jika ada diantara kita yang membaca dengan teliti kutipan-kutipan berikut
maka disana nanti akan terbaca: 'THE SECT [OF DARUL ARQAM] HAS ALREADY
BEEN BANNED IN WEST SUMATRA AND ACEH BUT IT IS FLOURISHING IN OTHER PARTS
OF SUMATRA AND JAVA, PARTICULARLY AMONG EDUCATED YOUTHS".
Dengan perkataan lain, mengapa justru pemuda-pemuda Muslim terdidiklah yang
terpengaruh dengan sekte ini? Tidak hanya itu, mengapa justru MUI terlalu
cepat merekomendasi agar pemerintah mem-'breidel' secepatnya sekte ini di
Indonesia?
Singkatnya, jawaban untuk kedua pertanyaan yang terbaca mungkin dapat terja-
wab dengan mudah dalam kutipan-kutipan berita dibawah ini:
[1]. AL-ARQAM in MALaysia:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
KUALA LUMPUR, Wed.- The Government will send out a second circular to
the 7,000 government employees who have joined the Al-Arqam if the fi-
rst one fails to persuade them to leave the movement. Deputy Minister
in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Dr Abdul Hamid Othman said
on July 7 1994 the second circular would be the final one before disc-
iplinary action was taken against them.
He said the first circular which had been sent out was to inform them
that they must leave the movement. "It will require between one and
two years for the members to adhere to the requirement and the second
circular will only be sent out after that," he told reporters in the
Parliament lobby.
Abdul Hamid said experience showed that time was required to get foll-
owers of deviationist movements to leave after being informed of the
real situation. He reiterated that the Government had evidence that
the Al-Arqam followers were being prepared mentally to turn militant.
In Kota Baru, Menteri Besar Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat said it was not
wrong for Muslims to be involved in the Al-Arqam movement as long as
they do not practise the Aurad Muhammadiah which is a deviation if tr-
ue Islamic teachings.
He said the State Government, in not restricting its employees from be-
coming Al-Arqam followers, would, however, see to it they did not pro-
fess the Aurad Muhammadiah (the way of Muhammadiah). "We stand by the
fatwa (religious ruling) issued by the State Religious Council that the
Aurad Muhammadiah contradicts Islamic teaching," he said (THE NEW STRA-
ITS TIMES: 'ACTION ONLY AFTER SECOND CIRCULAR ON AL-ARQAM MEMBERSHIP,
Thursday, July 7, 1994: 2).
[2]. AL-ARQAM in INDOnesia:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
JAKARTA (JP): The Goverment says it is studying the demands made by a
number of Moslem organizations to ban the activities of the Darul Ar-
qam, a flourishing Moslem sect with headquarters in Malaysia.
Attorney General Singgih said on Saturday that the fate of Darul Arqam
will be determined at a coordination meeting scheduled for tomorrow in-
volving his office, the Ministry for Religious Affairs, the Armed Forc-
es and the Indonesian Moslem Council (MUI).
The MUI, the influential umbrella organization of a number of Muslem
groups, has issued a recommendation that the government ban the sect
nationwide. The sect [of Darul Arqam] has already been banned in West
Sumatra and Aceh but it is flourishing in other parts of Sumatra and
Java, particularly among educated youths.
Singgih, responding to the calls for a nationwide ban, said there were
a number of procedures which the government would have to take before
moving to ban any particualr organization. Minister of Religious Affai-
rs Tarmizi Taher has also supported the call to ban Darul Arqam, more
popularly known in Malaysia as the Al-Arqam.
Al-Arqam founding leader ASHAARI MUHAMMAD, currently living in exile in
THAILAND, recently announced his intention to return to Malaysia and to
challenge the national leadership, promising he will lead the country
one day. His announcement sent ripples as far as Indonesia, where he has
thousands of followers and the government has been keeping a close watch
on their activities.
Minister Tarmizi has already announced that ASHAARI is barred from enter-
ing Indonesia for political reasons. Al-Arqam's followers in Indonesia,
while revering their leader ASHAARI, say that the organization in Indone-
sia is apolitical, focusing more on promoting the welfare of the Moslem
community.
In a recent interview with the JAKARTA POST, AHMADI RAFEI, chairman of
the group's JAVA I branch, said he did not see any reason why ASHAARI sh-
ould be barred from entering Indonesia given that he has never aggravated
the Indonesian government. AHMADI also said that Al-Arqam's activities in
Indonesia are open for all to see. "The government knows exactly we're do-
ing here, whether we undermine national stability or not ....And if it ha-
ppens (the banning), I will sent Allah Himself judge us since the truth
comes from Allah".
POLYGAMY
Many ulemas noted that some of the religious practices of Al-Arqam follow-
ers are in violation of Islamic principles, including their belief that
they can communicate with Allah through ASHAARI. They also questioned Al
Arqam's policy of encouraging polygamy among its men followers.
One Moslem leader however came in defense of the group, not its belief or
practices, but its right to exist. Nurcholish Madjid said no one, not ev-
en the government, had the right to prevent others from embracing a beli-
ef. "It's impossible," he said, stressing that if the government was con-
cerned about the impact of Al Arqam's teachings, then it should deal with
the matter properly and not ban the organization outright (THE JAKARTA
POST: 'GOVT STUDYING DEMANDS TO BAN MOSLEM SECT', Monday, July 25, 1994:
3).
[3]. DARUL ARQAM in INDONESIA:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MELBOURNE'S La Trobe University has produced a fair crop of student act-
tivists in its time. But it's not often that its graduates come to the a-
ttention of the Indonesian authorities. Mr AMAL ARIFIN, 32, a 1984 La Tr-
robe agricultural science graduate is one of the founders of the Al Arq-
am movement in Indonesia - a radically conservative Islamic group that
the Indonesian Government is now considering banning.
He first encountered Al Arqam at La Trobe in 1983 and later studied in
Malaysia with the movement's founders before returning to Jakarta in 19
88. A number of government departments and the armed forces intelligen-
ce agency are now closely scrutinising Al Arqam before deciding later
this month to outlaw the movement.
The Indonesian Minister for Religious Affairs, Mr Tarmizi Taher, said re-
cently that Indonesia did not wish to be the stepping stone for the poli-
tical ambitions of the movement's Malaysian leader, Mr ASHAARI MUHAMMAD.
Mr Taher travelled yesterday to the resort of Langkawi Island, Malaysia,
where he will discuss the future of Al Arqam with his Association of So-
uth-East Asian Nations counterparts from Singapore, Brunei, and Malaysia.
The Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dr Mahathir, has called Al Arqam a secu-
rity threat and the sect's founder Mr ASHAARI has been expelled from Mal-
aysia and banned from visiting Singapore, Indonesia and Brunei. Mr Arifin
told THE AUSTRALIAN yesterday that Al Arqam was simply an organisation to
promote the teaching of Islam.
"I do not believe the authorities could ban us on the basis of our teach-
ings. Some Islamic scholars in the Nahdatul Ulama (Indonesia's largest
Muslim organisation) are in accord with our approach. "There is no reason
why the Government should ban the movement in Indonesia. They can see for
themselves that we don't have any political ambitions. We have good rela-
tions with all political parties including Golkar (the ruling political
organisation)".
The Al Arqam sect was founded in 1968 and now numbers around 100,000 mem-
bers, most of whom live in Malaysia. It reportedly has more than a dozen
branches and around 1000 members in Indonesia where the movement is known
as DARUL ARQAM. The Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI) has called on the Gov-
erment to ban Darul Arqam claiming the movement's teachings deviate from
Islamic principles [(!)]. Two provinces with a history of Islamic radical-
ism, Aceh and Riau, have already banned Darul Arqam.
Yesterday Darul Arqam's Jakarta branch appealed to ASEAN religious minist-
ers meeting in Langkawi not to resort to "despotism" and oppressive tacti-
cs and ban the movement. The New Order Government has largely suppressed
Muslim political activity, proscribing Islamic political parties that fl-
ourished during the Sukarno era such as Masyumi, and establishing the Uni-
ted Development Party (PPP) as the official political organisation for t-
he Islamic community.
The armed forces are overwhelmingly Muslim both in terms of leadership
and rank-and-file but ABRI retains a visceral fear of any form of Islam-
ic radicalism or extremism. The armed forces' leadership understands im-
plicitly that if the tide of Islamic fundamentalism ever swept across In-
donesia it would irreparably split the nation.
Although around 90 per cent of Indonesians are Muslim, Indonesia has not
evolved into an Islamic State with rigid adherence to "shariah" or Islam-
ic law. Religious tolerance is carefully fostered by the Government and
strong Christian minority continues to play a disproportionately influn-
tial role in political life.
Where more radical and extremist Muslim groups have emerged they have be-
en carefully monitored by the authorities and occasionally, as in Tanjung
Priok in 1984 and Lampung in 1989, brutally supressed by ABRI (Patrick W-
alters: 'LA TROBE FOSTERS RADICAL CONCERN', THE AUSTRALIAN, Wednesday, A-
ugust 3, 1994: 7).
[-------------------------("Armidale, 03/08/94\YLH")--------------------------]
P.S.: "The Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI) has called on the [Indonesian]
Government to ban Darul Arqam claiming the movement's teachings de-
viate from Islamic principles" [(!)].