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 have been taken over by fundamentalist groups. The reason they give is that this is a house of god. They even say that the teachings of the NU are heretical.
(Akhir-akhir ini saja sudah ratusan mesjid yang didirikan jemaah NU diambil alih kepengurusan (ta’mir)-nya oleh kelompok-kelompok fundamentalis itu. Alasan mereka ini mesjid Allah. Mereka juga bahkan berani menyebut ajaran NU sebagai bid’ah dan menyesatkan.)

Masdar F Mas’udi said this kompas at the Wahid Institute in Jakarta on the 24th May.

The teachings of the NU are indeed heretical, to many an Arab or Saudi type Muslim. Those same teachings are what makes Indonesian Islam relatively relaxed and moderate. What would be even more interesting to know is the amount of money at the disposal of these radical groups and its origin.

16th June 2006. Masdar Farid Mas’udi, again says the organisation (NU) is under siege from fundamentalists.

As the largest Muslim group in the country NU was a big target for radical Islamists and Masudi said islamemansipatoris that such people sought to subvert NU figures, or nahdliyin, in order to create conflict in the ranks of the organisation, divide and conquer.

The infiltrators, he said, went about saying that NU teachings were full of heresy and superstition and had to be wiped off the face of the earth. They claim themselves to be the most holy, most faithful, as the bearers of the truth of Islam.

The fundamentalists were working their way through NU mosques in a systematic, co-ordinated way, in the town and the village. He said they were well-funded.

They take over the NU mosques, beginning from the leadership positions until the ownership of the land.
(Mereka kuasai masjid-masjid nahdliyin, mulai dari kepengurusan takmirnya sampai dengan status tanahnya.)

Mas’udi pleaded for unity among the NU faithful in order to guard against the threat and asked for NU Muslims not to become involved in political manouevrings.

While the NU is certainly an Islamic organisation its teachings and especially practises often have non-Islamic bases and overtones, often deriving from Hindu and animistic beliefs. It is hard to see how, logically, the NU can stand up to the assault of the orthodoxy mongers, how its more thoughtful members can elucidate the validity of NU positions in a way that is likely to satisfy enquiring minds.

31st March 2007. The writer of a new book called “NU Studies”, Ahmad Baso, says NU is being weakened by inroads into its base made by such hardline groups as Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia (MMI), Front Pembela Islam (FPI), and Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI). Mosques and mushollas “owned” by the NU were being taken over by these groups, he said. He blamed the problem on the movement of NU young people away from regular attendance at mosques. He could not give a percentage of the number of mosques subverted but said the central board of NU was currently working it out. tempo

Other reports state the Ahmad Baso also warned of the danger of western, particularly American, attempts to change the fundamental outlook and approach of NU. The western attempt to subvert NU was based on criticism of NU’s teaching system and methods, he said. republika

Masdar F. Mas`udi is still hammering away at his favourite topic. In Surabaya on 22nd April 2007 he told an NU gathering that nahdliyyin had to guard their ownership of NU mosques.

Imam Ghazali Said, principal of a school in Wonocolo, Surabaya, agreed and there many extremist Islamic groups trying to win over NU congregations. antara