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group of Islamic organizations urged the government on Friday to investigate the alleged link between the Al-Zaytun Islamic boarding school in West Java and the Indonesian Islamic State (NII) movement.

Din Syamsuddin, the chair of Indonesia’s second largest Muslim organization Muhammadiyah, said at a joint press conference held by 15 major Islamic organizations in the country, “If the government has enough evidence [about the link], don’t stand still.”

It has long been rumored that the Islamic boarding school in Indramayu, West Java — often billing itself the largest Islamic boarding school in Indonesia — has received funds from various illegal sources, including the NII movement.

Many have said the school was used by NII to promote its ideology and recruit followers. The school is often thought to be the base of the NII Commandment Area (KW) 9, a splinter group of Darul Islam Indonesia, the militant movement founded in 1949 that aims for an “Islamic State of Indonesia”.

“We’re not sure if the Al-Zaytun leader is also the president of NII KW 9, but some of its founders were NII members,” Din said.

Al-Zaytun founder Panji Gumilang has dismissed allegations that his institution is linked to the NII. “The NII dissolved when [the leader] Kartosuwiryo was arrested [and executed] in 1962,” Panji was quoted as saying by Tempo on Friday.

In the joint statement, the 15 Muslim organizations slammed the government for letting the radical NII grow uncontrolled in the country. “NII wants to establish a country within a country, that is subversion and thus the government has to take strong action,” Din said.

The Muslim organization leaders also said they were ready to be involved in the government’s efforts to curb radicalization by the NII.

Meanwhile, the Jakarta Police urged the public to actively participate in the effort to eradicate the spreading of the NII ideology by taking more initiative to report any suspicious activity that could be related to the group.

“We need the public’s participation so that we can follow up on any possible findings [about NII’s activities],” Jakarta Police community development directorate chief Sr. Comr. Erwin Usman said Friday.

“We are going to summon all prominent figures from the public, including religious leaders, public security officials, neighborhood unit heads, district and sub-district police chiefs, military officers and village guidance leaders so that we can coordinate together to anticipate,” he said.

Erwin said that so far the City Police had yet to receive any reports from residents about NII activities conducted within the metropolis.

Jakarta Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Baharudin Djafar said the police could only arrest people who were allegedly linked to the NII after receiving reports from residents.

In another development, several universities in Jambi province are anticipating NII intrusion onto their campuses. Jambi’s Batanghari University will deploy security officers to list students staying over at the student center. Sultan Thaha Syaifuddin Islamic State University will gather information from its lecturers and students about suspicious activities at the campus.

The NII, which has existed since the early 1950s, has been blamed for the disappearance of a number of university students in several regions in the country, alleged to have been brainwashed into joining the movement. NII has also recently been linked to terrorism after a former member, Pepi Fernando, allegedly masterminded a terror attack that included planting a bomb weighing 150 kilograms next
to a gas pipeline near a Protestant church in Serpong, Tangerang, last week. (swd)