« Pakistan: Maulana of Haqqania Abandons Islamic Alliance |
| UK: Giant Mosque Planned By Extremists For London Olympics Site »
November 26, 2005
Indonesia: Muslims Disagree Over Banning Of Extremist Books
We described earlier the phenomenon of the bestselling book, "Saya Melawan Teroris" (Me Against Terrorists). It is written by Imran Samudra, the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist now on death row for his part in the 2002 Bali bombings. At that time, Hasyim Muzadi, the head of Indonesia's largest Islamic organisation, the 40-million-member Nahdlatul Ulama was arguing for the book to be banned.
Now, according to the Jakarta Post, the Ministry of Religious Affairs has also urged that the Attorney General's Office should ban this and other extremist books.
However, the second-largest Islamic organisation, the 30-million-member Muhammadiyah has countered this view, saying that such a ban would cause people to seek out these books.
Faisal Ismaili, secretary general of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, has said is office was examining a number of books to see if they promoted radicalism and violent jihad. He was specifcally concerned with the works of Samudra and Amrozi, another member of the 2002 Bali terror cell who is also on death row.
"If we do not pull these books from the shelves, people who read them could be swayed by these false teachings on jihad. These books also quote Koranic verses to justify violence," he stated.
Din Syamsuddin, chairman of Muhammadiyah says that as the books were already in the public arena, there should to be an effort to prove they are based on false premises. "I do wonder how books that contain teachings justifying acts of terrorism are able to circulate. But if they are banned now it will just make people curious and encourage them to read the books. It would be better to publish books that explain the true teachings of Islam," he said.
No matter what the leaders of Muhammadiyah or Nahdlatul Ulama may say on the matter, the ultimate decision is not theirs to make. Only the Attorney General's Office have authorization to prohibit literature and teachings seen as a threat to the state.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at November 26, 2005 11:01 PM
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)