Charles Honoris, Tokyo
Hundreds of supporters of former president Abdurrahman Wahid gathered in front of the National Police Headquarters last week, to protest the attempt by several radical Muslim groups to disrupt and drive out the former president during an inter-faith dialog in the city of Purwakarta, West Java, several days earlier.
The protesters also demanded that the police disband and outlaw the radical Islamic groups involved, as they were seen to be the source of national disintegration, by instigating numerous public disturbances and acts of terror in the past few years.
Since the resignation of Soeharto in 1998, radical Muslim groups have mushroomed, and have launched violent attacks against those they deem as indecent or heretic. The Islam Defenders Front (FPI), for example, have launched attacks against bars, mosques operated by the Ahmadiyah sect, foreign diplomatic establishments, and also threatened to conduct ""sweepings"" against Westerners during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.
They have also terrorized several public figures who publicly opposed the enactment of the controversial pornography bill. Several critics of the group have also alleged that the groups have extorted money from entertainment establishments.
As an ideology, since 9-11, radical Islam has proliferated significantly around the globe, including in Indonesia. Political Islam, espoused by Sayyid Qutb and Maulana Maududi, has also started to gain popularity and is seen as an alternative to Western democracy.
These ideas include, but are not limited to, the idea of establishing an Islamic Caliphate in place of the nation-state system, upholding Islamic sharia, and the use of violence to ""defend Islam"", even when it involves attacks on innocent civilians. It is also evident that many times, these ideas are used by terrorists to justify their attacks on innocent civilians. The question then is how do we deal with radical Islam? Should it be outlawed?
Banning radical Islamic thought as an idea would not be the solution. More importantly, it would be contrary to the Indonesian Constitution, which protects the freedom of expression, thought and religion. It would also be counter-productive as radical groups would operate underground and still gain sympathizers, as happened during the authoritarian rule of Soeharto.
In mature democracies, such as the U.S. and Japan, radical religious groups also exist, with extreme ideas ranging from racial supremacy to worship of aliens. In fact, according to an estimate by the Japanese government, there are more than 200,000 religious cults in Japan.
The best way to challenge Islamic radicalism is to counter it with ideas that promote justice, tolerance, rationalism and humanism. NGOs, moderate Muslim groups and civil liberty groups should lead in the battle of ideas through public discourse and debate.
How do we deal with the violent ones? Should they be banned? The answer to that is to uphold the law. In 1995, after the Aum Shinrikyo cult unleashed deadly sarin gas in a Tokyo subway station, the Japanese police launched a crackdown on the group and arrested its leaders. U.S. federal agents arrested and prosecuted many members of the white supremacist group, the KKK in the 1970s and 1980s, for their involvement in lynching and attacks against the African-Americans and civil rights activists.
The question of whether or not to ban a particular group should be left for the authorities to decide after an extensive investigation, providing that their decision is still within the framework of the Constitution. The National Police should investigate and prosecute religious groups that are involved in violent criminal acts and not heed to pressure from groups who claim to speak for a religion. This is more important than to just formally banning a group, as the group can always disband and reemerge under a different name.
Indonesia's journey to democratization has been a turbulent one. Over the years, it has been colored by waves of ethnic and sectarian violence, whilst corruption is also still rampant. Weak law enforcement is a major factor in the ongoing problems the country is facing.
The issue of violent radical Muslim groups is not just a matter of law and order. It is a matter of whether democracy itself is sustainable and can be consolidated. In its 2006 report, the NGO Freedom House rated Indonesia as one of the few free democracies in the Islamic world and the only one in Southeast Asia. If the government allows mob rule to continue Indonesia's democracy will certainly not last.
The writer is a student of political science and law at the International Christian University, Tokyo.
