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Radicalism emerges from failed Islamic countries: Kalla
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Vice President Jusuf Kalla (second right) talks with former president Megawati Soekarnoputri (second left), Nahdlatul Ulama central board chairman Said Aqil Siroj (left) and Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) chairman Ma'aruf Amin (right) during the opening ceremony of the International Summit of Moderate Islamic Leaders in Jakarta on Monday. (Antara/Muhammad Adimaja)
R
adicalism movement arise from Islamic countries that have failed to develop and exacerbated with the internal conflict that spreads to other countries, Vice President Jusuf Kalla said on Monday.
He noted recent history which showed that radicalism that apparead from failed Islamic countries such as Al Qaeda that started in a failed Afghanistan and later, Islamic State (IS) that derived amid the chaos in Iraq and Syria, Kalla said in his opening remarks at the International Summit of the Moderate Islamic (ISOMIL) in Jakarta.
The failures of Islamic countries that lead to radicalism rooted from two points, the tyranny of the government and the public's anger towards the government itself.
"We know the condition in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya, how the leaders of the government do not value their own citizens. So big countries invade those countries on the reason of democracy," Kalla told audience on Monday as quoted by Antara news agency.
The destruction inside the failed countries had become the cause for citizens to become concerned about the future of their homeland, such conditions then become the beginnings for radicalism which eventually became terrorism, Kalla added.
Therefore, there are increasing needs among Islamic countries to unite and address issues of radicalism and terrorism.
The existence of Muslims, which reaches 1,6 billion people and spread across 57 countries, should be a force to spread the goodness of Islam, the vice president said.
"If all problems could be solved with a conference, I'd think of course it'd be easy. However, to solve the problems in the Islam world is not as easily solvable in a conference, but needs unity and strength from us all," he said.
Summit chair KH Ma'aruf Amin, who is also the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) chairman, said the conference had an important role to protect the moderate preach in a world with growing number of extremist groups.
The International Summit of the Moderate Islamic is held for the first time in Jakarta in the effort to influence public policy in solving issues of radicalism and terrorism.
The summit, held in Jakarta on May 9 to 11, gather around moderate Islamic clerics from 33 countries as well as a number of ambassadors from Islam countries, with the aim to create peace in the Middle East. (liz)
