Survey Results

… NU
1.7%
12.2%
73.8%

Muhammadiyah
4%
12%
76%

Other
7.7%
19.2%
65.4%

None
3.3%
13.7%
62%

This first question is fairly well-asked although it is unknown what exactly is in the minds of people when they think about such things. Perhaps, in general terms we can think of …

Israel’s Rejection

… can contribute to UN peacekeeping forces regardless of their ethnicity, religion, or location.

Muhammadiyah chairman, Din Syamsuddin, said Israel's point of objection was irrelevant and Indonesia should ignore it, and :

Indonesia cannot and will not establish relations with Israel so long as Israel occupies Palestine. Especially not when Israel keeps attacking Palestine and Lebanon.

He advised also that Israel be charged with war crimes.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono …

Lebanese Jihad

… Lebanese ambassador in Jakarta, says Lebanon does not need foreign fighters.

Din Syamsudin of Muhammadiyah believes the sending of private armies to Lebanon would not be effective. He recommended instead that politcal pressure be put on the United Nations to act. Later, on the 10th, Din recommended that Islamic groups cancel their plans to wage jihad in the middle east, and, instead give the money which had been gathered for this purpose to Hizbullah so that weapons could be …

Morality Law for Depok

… akan memberikan dukungan kapanpun dan dimanapun dibutuhkan.)

Said mediaindo Muhammadiyah Depok secretary Syamsul Kamar.

Not only Muhammadiyah, but Hizbut Tahrir, Jemaah Sholat Shubuh Gabungan Kota Depok, Forum Mudzakaroh Syariat Islam, Pemuda Islam Indonesia, Remaja Islam Depok, Ittihadul Muslimah Depok, also support the the bill.

Syamsul said that the bill was needed to maintain public order and security in Depok, citing data from the National Narcotics Agency of …

Israel & Lebanon II

… reactions to it.

Continued from part I and the Palestinian cause.

Jihad

Muhammadiyah advises against sending any jihadists to Palestine & Lebanon. The United Nations should be relied upon to resolve the problems, Muhammadiyah leader Din Syamsuddin said on 28th July. But, he said, those who did go to Lebanon could not be classed as suicide bombers, suicide bombing being sinful. In any case he doubted that any Indonesian had already gone there due to the …

NU Conference

… modern Gontor Islamic boarding school in Ponorogo, East Java, which is not affiliated to NU, or Muhammadiyah, the second largest Muslim organization in the country, owns a gasoline station.

Liberalism

There was intense debate within the congress about what the NU's stance should be on liberal Islamic thinking. Some participants went as far as suggesting that the NU ban members from joining the Liberal Islam Network (JIL). JIL activist Zuhairi Misrawi says he is unconcerned about …

Israel & Lebanon

… opened by the KNRP has so far received 1.5 billion rupiah, about 160,000 dollars, said Caca.

Muhammadiyah contributed 50 million rupiah, about $5500, not to the fund, but directly to the Palestinian mission in Jakarta. The leader of Muhammadiyah, Prof Dr Din Syamsuddin, said :

This is not just about trampling on a nation's sovereignty, it's also a matter of human rights, breaking human rights agreements, breaking United Nations conventions, and other forms of terrorism.
(Ini bukan …

Banning of the FPI

… bubarkan dengan susah payah, kemudian mereka mendirikan lagi.)

Meanwhile the chairman of the Muhammadiyah Youth, Abdul Mu'ti, says that some mass organisations (ormas) are out of control and advises the government to draft new laws to contain the problem. He said that there many organisations that had sprung up recently, with unclear motives and goals, and these groups were likely to use violence or intimidation.

Mass organisations have on several occasions recently been the cause …

NU Mosques Subverted

A leader of the Nahdlatul Ulama says hundreds of his organisation's mosques have been taken over by fundamentalists.

Chairman of the Pengurus Besar Nahdlatul Ulama (PBNU), or central committee of the NU, Masdar F Mas'udi, while speaking out against violence and intimidation done by radical Islamic groups, made the interesting statement:

Recently hundreds of mosques built by NU people …

Comment by Anonymous_aloy: … indeed. Both Muhammadiyah and NU are veering to the …

Debate on Morality Bill

… and attended by members of the following Islamic groups:

Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI), Muhammadiyah, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Persatuan Islam (Persis), Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI), Al Irsyad, Ikatan Da'i Indonesia (IKADI), Forum Betawi Rempug (FBR), Partai Keadilan Sejahtera (PKS), Dewan Dakwah Islamiyah Indonesia (DDII), Front Pembela Islam (FPI), and the Badan Kontak Majelis Taklim (BKMT).

Muslims rally in Jakarta.

The members and supporters of the PKS formed the …

Critiques of Moderate Indonesia

… to all this, UCLA International Institute reports on a speech given by M. Din Syamsuddin of Muhammadiyah and the Ulema Council at UCLA last week.

Hasyim Muzadi Interview

… protect Muslim culture/society. There has to be a movement against it. For example by the NU and Muhammadiyah, by individuals, by families and children. As Muslims are we already moral? As Indonesians are we already moral? Because if it's only done from the legal side, and the law cannot lift people's moral standards, then extremists will use the law for violent ends.

RUU APP is thought to carry connotations of Arabisation or Talibanisation. Is it a veiled form of sharia application? …

Social Issues

… the new emphasis on laws to control issues of morality. Read.

Din Syamsuddin, president of Muhammadiyah, warns about the rise of Islamic extremism in Indonesia in the Washington Times.

A report on a new film, Berbagi Suami ("Sharing a Husband"), discussing the issue of polygamy from the woman's perspective in the Financial Times.

Depok PKS Leadership

… services, and inefficient management of public transportation. Heru Suyanto, local leader of the Muhammadiyah-based PAN, National Mandate Party, explains:

They work very slowly in delivering on the promises they made while campaigning.

Heru says people are still waiting on the promises made by Nurmahmudi Ismail, such as provision of cheap health services, free marriage services, Rp. 2 million life insurance payouts, improvement of public transport services, and the turning over of …

Islamic Mob Rule

… pro-democracy activists from the country's two largest Muslim organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, as well as from NGO's and academia.

Speakers said Islamic hardliners were increasingly gaining sway over mainstream society, as they took advantage of an administration in Jakarta disoriented by newfound democracy and human rights issues. Weak government, combined with ineffective law enforcement, has allowed mobs to take the law into their own hands with no intervention by the …

PAN & The Big Picture

… a modern semi-religious party (which won 6.5% in the last election and has its roots in the Muhammadiyah organisation,), he says detik , there are more important problems:

We are committed to staying focused on handling important national problems rather than trivial things.

Let that issue [porn] be handled by other parties. We will debate the fundamental issues, those which can save the nation.

( Rais is a former leader of Muhammadiyah. The current leader, Din …

Tony Blair & Moderate Islam

… State Islamic University, and Din Syamsuddin, leader of the country's second largest Muslim group Muhammadiyah, among a couple of other moderates. Both men told Blair that the presence of western troops in Iraq was the root of all problems there and that Britain should pull out. Din Syamsuddin is reported to have added later:

He didn't respond specifically to our requests, but hopefully tonight he will wake up and realize our suggestions make good sense.

Great stuff. Din Syamsuddin …

Russia & Islamic World

… or a foreign minister but he is the chairman of the second largest Muslim group in the country, Muhammadiyah, and his willingness to jaunt off to Moscow to attend the talkfest is some evidence of the attractiveness of the Russia-Islam alliance idea to some in Indonesia. (It would be interesting to know what Din Syamsuddin and other Islamic leaders attending the conference think of this idea interfax from a Russian missionary.)

At any rate Din doesn't seem to see the proposed alliance …

Porn Battle Rages On

… rate. He declared "war" on all forms of pornography and indecency.

Muharrar Mahfudz, from Muhammadiyah, also addressed the crowd.

I'm so proud to see the young generation still care for the morality and religion of Indonesia, I hope that our struggle will go on and that we struggle each in our own way.
(Saya sangat bangga dan terharu melihat para generasi muda yang masih peduli terhadap moral bangsa Indonesia dan agama, saya minta agar perjuangan diteruskan dan kita berjuang …

Support for Sharia & Islamic Radicalism

… 3.9%
Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia (MMI): 65%, 11%
Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI): 72%, 59%
Muhammadiyah : 83%, 54%
Nahdatul Ulama (NU): 86%, 72%.

For some more information on some of these groups see
http://www.indonesiamatters.com/94/youth-political-religious-affiliation/.

The next part asks:

Are suicide bombings carried out against the enemies of Islam justified?

Always - 0.5%, Often - 1.6%, Sometimes - 9.6%, Never - 74.3%.

Do you agree with these …

Islam and The West

A useless conference called "Islam and The West: Cooperation or Confrontation" was held at the Muhammadiyah University in Surakarta, central Java in which most of the participants fell over themselves to deceive and offer platitudes on the problem of world Islamic terrorism.

Speakers included Amien Rais, the leader of the National Mandate Party, PAN, the regional police chief, Dody Sumantyawan, a representative from the US embassy, Bruce Lawrence, Daniel Petz, the ambassador for …

Attitudes to America & Terrorism

… Muslim attitudes. Supporters of NU, or Nahdatul Ulama, are more anti-west than supporters of Muhammadiyah, which is a little surprising perhaps, but both groups hostility to the west is dwarfed by those classified as belonging to "other Islamic organisations".

Young people, those aged under 29, also tend to be more favourable to Bin Laden while at the same time show the highest regard for America. On some of the questions those who replied "Don't know" are in the 40-50% range and this …

Porn & Pornoaksi

The contradictions at the heart of the make up of the Indonesian nation are on display in a somewhat comical way presently in the attempts by Islamist lawmakers in Jakarta to enact a new, draconian law against pornography ( pornografi ) and supposed public indecency ( pornoaksi ).

The proposed law, called locally the Anti Pornografi dan Pornoaksi law (RUU APP) is significant mainly for …

Comment by N. Mark Castro: … at the front page, Muhammadiyah chairman Din Syamsuddin …

Denmark Tells Danish Citizens to Leave Indonesia

… to other parts of the country, including Bali.

According to Din Syamsuddin, the chairman of the Muhammadiyah organisation, most of the protests in Indonesia against the cartoons are being orchestrated by a "a certain person", although he did not name him but stated that domestic political factors are the motivating reason.

The Clash of Christianity & Islam

At a news conference in Jakarta the chairman of Muhammadiyah, which is a modernist Islamic social group with about 25 million members, Din Syamsuddin, said that religious harmony was difficult in Indonesia because Christianity and Islam were by nature proselytising faiths and naturally collided with each other.

Looking to protect his turf Syamsuddin said:

The idea of dissemination is crucial and Islam and Christianity are both …

Youth Political & Religious Affiliation

… "Banser", 10 matches
"PKB", 50 matches
"Partai Kebangkitan Bangsa", 50 matches

Muhammadiyah/PAN

Muhammadiyah is a modernist/Arabist, fairly strict but relatively moderate Muslim social group. It's male youth wing is called Pemuda Muhammadiyah (Muhammadiyah Youth). Another youth group, open to both sexes, is called Ikatan Remaja Muhammadiyah (Muhammadiyah Teenagers' Association). It's students group is called Ikatan Mahasiswa Muhammadiyah. The political party most …

Ahmadiyah Lombok

… to uphold the Constitution. How can we be a great (nation) without upholding the Constitution?

Muhammadiyah chairman Din Syamsuddin also chimed in with his usual blathering about how true Muslims never commit violence:

It was an un-Islamic act. No religion justifies violence as a means to resolve differences in faiths.

Ahmadiyah Indonesia spokesman, Syamsir Ali, said:

We live in a country where every criminal should be arrested and put on trial, but none of the attackers here …

Pogroms in East Java 1965-66

… [E] actions, there exists a committee consisting of the NU, IPKI, the Catholics, the Protestants, Muhammadiyah, and the PNI-Hardi, for the purpose of forming a “brain trust” [E] for the crushing of the PKI.
Clearly again there is broad-based, inter-faith cooperation.
Victims
So who were the victims? To the author of the report there is no question, the targets are communist cadres, leaders and officials of the Communist Party in east Java. However in several places he voices …