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Tempo: A.B. Ba'asyir Akan Gugat AS, M'sia, S'pura Bila Terus Tuduh Teroris
By Retno Sulistyowati

26/1/2002 1:24 am Sat

http://livenews.lycosasia.com/cgi-bin/get.pl? pi_news_id=1462340&pi_ctry=my&pi_lang=en


Abu Bakar Ba'asyir Akan Gugat AS, Malaysia, dan Singapura Bila Terus Tuduh Teroris

TEMPO Interaktif, Jakarta: KH Abu Bakar Ba'asyir akan menggugat pemerintah Amerika Serikat, Malaysia, dan Singapura bila masih terus mendiskreditkan dan menduganya sebagai teroris. 'Saya akan menggugat mereka melalui kuasa hukum saya,' ujar Abu Bakar seusai klarifikasi dengan Tim Intelpam Hubungan Luar Negeri, Mabes Polri, Jakarta, Jumat (25/1) malam.

Abu Bakar menjelaskan bahwa dirinya telah mengklarifikasikan segala hal tentang dirinya dan aktivitasnya selama di Indonesia maupun di Malaysia.

Pimpinan Pondok Pesantren Al Mukmin itu yakin bahwa pada dasarnya Polri telah memiliki data akurat tentang dirinya dan pihak-pihak lain yang didiskreditkan sebagai teroris. 'Saya yakin, Insya Allah, polisi dan pemerintah akan melindungi warga negaranya,' paparnya.

Kiai asal Solo itu juga yakin bahwa yang diincar bukan hanya dirinya tapi juga beberapa ulama lain. Namun demikian, ia tidak bersedia menyebut nama-nama ulama yang dimaksud. 'Saya hanya sebagai pintu masuk yang tujuannya mengincar para pimpinan Islam,' tambahnya.

Hal itu dilakukan, lanjut Ba'asyir, supaya bangsa dan negara Indonesia dapat dikuasai. Selanjutnya, mereka akan menuntut pemerintah Indonesia mengikuti kemauan yang diarahkan.

Usai memberikan keterangan kepada polisi selama sekitar tujuh jam, Kiai Ba'asyir juga menegaskan bahwa dirinya bukan teroris. 'Saya bukan teroris dan tidak ada bukti bahwa saya terlibat teroris,' tambahnya.

Ia juga memastikan bahwa dirinya tidak memiliki hubungan apa pun dengan kelompok Al Qaidah pimpinan Usamah Bin Ladin. Ia menjelaskan, secara fisik dirinya tidak berhubungan dengan Usamah, tetapi secara iman ada. 'Dan saya memuji perjuangannya dalam melawan teroris AS,' tukasnya.

Mengenai Fathur Rohman Al Ghozy, Kiai berjenggot putih itu menjelaskan, bahwa konon, Fathur memang pernah sekolah di pondok pesantren yang didirikannya. 'Tetapi waktu itu saya sudah di Malaysia,' katanya.

Meskipun termasuk Fathur muridnya, Kiai Ba'asyir mengaku tidak mengetahui apa-apa tentang diri Fathur, karena ia meninggalkan pondok pesantren sekitar 15 tahun.

Sedangkan terhadap Abu Jibril, seorang penganut aliran As Sunah yang ditangkap Kepolisian Malaysia, Kiai Ba'asyir mengaku kenal.

Abu Jibril, lanjutnya, adalah mubaligh yang baik. Keduanya sering melakukan tukar pikiran tentang agama. Penahanan tersebut, menurut Ba'asyir, karena dia dianggap telah mengajarkan ajaran jihad dan mati sahid, yang dianggap membahayakan pemerintah Malaysia. 'Inilah keanehan bagi negara yang mengaku Islam,' kata dia.

Menanggapi kebiasaan Abu Jibril yang suka berganti nama, misalnya dengan nama Iqbal, Kiai Ba'asyir menjelaskan bahwa nama asli Abu Jibril adalah Mohamad Iqbal Bin A Rahman. 'Abu Jibril adalah nama alias,' katanya.

Di dalam Islam, lanjut dia, Abu adalah sebutan kehormatan. Ia mencontohkan, dirinya yang mempunyai anak bernama Rasyid, maka bisa dipanggil Abu Rasyid.

(Retno Sulistyowati-Tempo NewsRoom)





http://about.reuters.com/dynamic/countrypages/ malaysia/1011922819nJAK111167.ASP

FEATURE-Asia casts worried eye on its Islamic schools

25 Jan 2002 01:40

By Achmad Sukarsono

JAKARTA, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Centres for learning the Koran and computers with a desirable dose of discipline thrown in? Or havens for preachers of hate and violence?

These are questions Asian authorities are asking as they cast a worried eye on Islamic schools or madrassas, concerned they encourage the attitudes that lead to terrorism.

But madrassa administrators warn restrictions imposed because of these concerns could trigger a backlash among millions of Muslims who revere the schools.

They say the vast majority of madrassas still concentrate on their traditional role of teaching pupils Islamic values and rules and how to read the holy Koran and write its version of Arabic, with many adding the benefits of mathematics, computer studies and European languages.

Although most madrassas stand against the use of violence, in a radical minority Islamic teachers slam Western policies they say repress Muslims, preach violent reprisal for alleged grievances, and include military training in the curriculum.

FIGHT FOR ISLAM

"Basically, the children are taught to fight for Islam," said one official in the Catholic-dominated Philippines which has around 1,500 madrassas for its Muslim minority.

Since December police in Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines have arrested dozens of people who allegedly had links to the al Qaeda network, which the United States blames for the September 11 terror attacks. Many studied and taught in madrassas in those countries or elsewhere in Asia.

Singapore's Islamic Religious Council (MUIS), which administers the island country's six madrassas, said it has been updating its register of religious teachers or ustadz.

"We don't want any Tom, Dick or Harry calling themselves ustadz," MUIS President Maarof Salleh said last week.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's government is considering changing rules governing madrassas. Religious affairs now fall within the purview of the country's sultans and state governments issue the schools' licences.

In Pakistan, where most of the Afghan Taliban militants studied a purist version of Islam, President Pervez Musharraf has made it clear he would get tough on the schools.

There are more than 7,000 madrassas in Pakistan catering to several million students from around the world. The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan estimates around a third provide some kind of military training.

But in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country with more than 180 million Muslims, most of whom spend at least some time in madrassas, authorities are less nervous.

"We do not see any worrying sign. We will not intervene with them because intervention will only breed distrust," said Muhammad Irfan, director of Islamic religious schools at Indonesia's ministry of religious affairs.

PARAMILITARY FORCE

Such comments are likely to be grist for critics who say Indonesia does not take the threat of terrorism and reality of communal violence seriously enough.

Thousands of members of Indonesia's Muslim paramilitary force Laskar Jihad, known for its battles against Christians in the nation's bloodied Moluccas islands, once attended madrassas owned by the group's mother body, Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jamaah.

Singapore said Ibrahim bin Haji Maidin, the leader of the Jamaah Islamiah group it accuses of planning attacks on U.S. facilities in the island republic, was an ustadz and recruited members through his religious classes.

Several of those recently detained by the Malaysian government were also religious teachers, including the son of Nik Aziz Nik Mat, spiritual leader of the country's top Muslim party.

Last week, Manila arrested a terror suspect originally from Indonesia who spent years in a central Java Islamic boarding school, popularly known as a 'pesantren'.

Jakarta authorities told Reuters these schools should not be the scapegoat.

"Honestly, there are graduates who do bad things but that does not mean it's the voice of the pesantrens," said supervisor Irfan. "We won't let some wayward few destroy tens of thousands of pesantrens that have brought peace to this country for ages."

POLITICAL PURPOSE

Islamic schools elsewhere in the region also warn against hasty government moves.

"I'd be worried if there were any attempt to change the curriculum of the schools," Naiem Wongkasorn, spokesman of Thai Muslim education group Anurak Moradok Islam, told Reuters.

"If it happened we'd know it was for political purposes and because of pressure from outside Thailand. Muslim schools have never had any problem...never teach anyone to be violent."

Free board and education lure poverty-stricken families in Asian countries to send their children to these schools. Most are in rural areas that often lack other affordable education.

And because many madrassas are administered from generation to generation by the same family and become part of a community's heritage, often they are more accepted than conventional schools.

Their existence as the last bastion of non-Western education in many Asian countries has earned them standing in Muslim society. In the view of the faithful, it is a plus that the schools are often loosely coordinated by a state religious body rather than secular-oriented education ministries.

In typical Islamic boarding schools students follow a regimented programme from dawn to dusk with tough old-fashioned rules, often enforced through corporal punishment.

But many Asian madrassas have also adopted modern curricula and English and equipped themselves with sophisticated computers and laboratories to keep up with the times.

Most do so voluntarily and say they need no government intervention. Insensitivity and stereotyping all madrassas as grounds for Muslim militants would only backfire.

"Do not insult us with that. If anyone tries to control the pesantrens, our community will react and that means half of this country's population will rumble," warned Hasan Mutawakkil, who leads the moderate Association of Indonesian Pesantrens.