"" Pie in the sky?""

Caucus Tells SBY to Get Tough on Islamic Hard-Liners

A group of lawmakers are demanding action be taken to shut down the hard-line Islam Defenders Front.

“We’re asking the president to keep his word, that the country will not bow to vigilantism. He is the one who could end this movement,” said Eva K Sundari, who initiated a petition through the House of Representatives’ Pancasila Caucus.

Ulil Abshar Abdalla, from the Democratic Party, said civil society groups and political parties must keep up the pressure on the militant group, despite limitations in the legal framework.

The group, known as the FPI, is legally registered and thus cannot simply be disbanded.

The caucus has initiated a petition to this end and has so far managed to gather 20 signatures of lawmakers, members of the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) and civil society groups including the Setara Institute, Kontras and the National Democrats.

Ulil said he would pass on the caucus’s demand to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

The group blames poor law enforcement for allowing the FPI to do whatever it wants.

Eva said the National Police, military and government had played significant roles in giving rise to such militant groups.

“But they failed to prevent the group from becoming an organization that takes matters into its own hands,” she said.

I Wayan Sudirta, a DPD member from Bali, questioned the apparent special treatment given to the FPI, saying there was ample evidence of it getting away with wrongdoings without any significant punishment.

Benny Susetyo, of the Indonesian Institute on Democracy and Peace (Setara), said the government had let violent conduct mushroom.

“The government is afraid and bows down to violence,” he said.

Imam Prasodjo a sociologist from the University of Indonesia, agreed the rise of organizations such as the FPI was the result of the government not enforcing the law, although the police sometimes used the group for their own purposes.

“For instance, when the police want to raid gambling centers during Ramadan, some might be owned by an army officer. So what do they do? They hire the FPI to raid the place,” he laughed. “It’s a love-hate relationship.”

Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Boy Rafli Amar, however, said police always arrested lawbreakers, regardless of who they were.

“People should not take justice into their own hands,” he said, adding that police had arrested two FPI members who allegedly attacked a reporter during a liquor raid last month in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta.

FPI secretary general Ahmad Shabri Lubis said the group would sue the caucus for slander and defamation.

“It is of course their right to make such reports. We also support everything related to law enforcement,” he said. “However, we have to be cautious because it might be one of the dirty ways of the neo-communists and neo-liberals to sneak into this country.

“We are not as aggressive or as radical as most people think. I think this is a desperate move by the people who failed to erase the 1965 Religious Defamation and Blasphemy Law.”

Representatives of major Islamic organizations called for a more rational approach.

“The violent acts conducted by the FPI cannot be tolerated, but there should be dialogue,” said Slamet Effendy Yusuf, a senior member of Nahdlatul Ulama, the country’s largest Islamic organization. “We cannot dissolve or declare them a forbidden group as it will violate human rights. Continued dialogue is the key. The FPI also has a right to establish an organization.”

Rosyad Soleh, secretary of Muhammadiyah, the second-largest Islamic organization, said stricter law enforcement was needed.

“It is going too far if we have to dissolve the FPI, as what they need is guidance and education,” he said. “If the government upholds the law there will be no room for disruptions. We need to realize that immoral things do happen in our society, but all we need is a law that can punish the perpetrators and make them renounce what they have done.”

Imam also said the FPI basically had good intentions.

“Only their way of expressing it is a bit primitive,” he said.

“We cannot dissolve or declare them a forbidden group as it will violate human rights. Continued dialogue is the key. The FPI also has a right to establish an organization.” said
Slamet Effendy Yusuf,"

What old Kesasar says? I can think of several instances where religious groups have been blocked or prevented from their form of worship, and that includes not just Christians! And the FPI having basically good intentions? Now that's a laugh! I suppose it depends from what angle you look at it, intentions to maim, disrupt, harm , and violate anyone elses human rights and what else have you! If they call them selves Muslim let them first learn what is written in the Quran and abide by it, these thugs are not judge and jury put into one, only Allah is Judge, and He knows best!