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Tag: Indonesia

  • Muslim Asia Caught In The Middle As Diplomatic Row Rocks Middle East

    Muslim Asia Caught In The Middle As Diplomatic Row Rocks Middle East

    Non-Arab nations in Asia, such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Pakistan, are getting caught in the middle after Saudi Arabia led a clampdown on Qatar, accusing the tiny emirate of supporting pro-Iranian militants.

    Malaysia had rolled out the red carpet for Saudi Arabia’s King Salman at the end of February, the first by a Saudi king to Malaysia in more than a decade. Then, the following month, Kuala Lumpur signed a defence cooperation agreement with Qatar.

    A source close to the Malaysian government said that the recent efforts to strengthen ties with Qatar, including a visit by the foreign minister last month, will probably now be put on the backburner.

    “We have more to lose by siding with Qatar,” said the source, who requested anonymity.

    On Monday, a half-dozen countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Bahrain, cut diplomatic ties with the energy-rich emirate, accusing it of backing Tehran and Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood. Qatar has said it does not support terrorism and the rupture was founded on “baseless fabricated claims.”

    Doha now faces an acute economic plight as it relies on Gulf neighbours for 80 per cent of its food imports.

    The diplomatic clamp down on Qatar is seen as an indirect jab at Iran, and leaves non-Arab Muslims countries in an “uncomfortable position”, according to James Dorsey, a senior fellow at Singapore’s S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS).

    “The Saudis view Iran as the foremost terrorist threat rather than the Islamic State and a lot of non-Arab Muslims countries … would probably not agree with that,” Dorsey told Reuters.

    PAKISTAN’S OFFICIAL SILENCE

    Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan are predominantly Sunni-Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia. Jakarta has sometimes tried to play a mediating role when inter-Arab tensions have flared, particularly between Saudi Arabia and predominantly Shi’ite Muslim Iran.

    Jakarta’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi received a phone call from Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Monday who wanted to discuss the rift, Foreign Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir said.

    Indonesia has called for reconciliation and dialogue in the latest diplomatic clash.

    The dilemmas are particularly acute for nuclear-armed Pakistan, which has the world’s sixth-largest army and the largest military in the Muslim world.

    Sunni-majority Pakistan maintains deep links with the establishment in Riyadh, which provided Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif with political asylum after he was ousted in a 1999 military coup.

    But with a large Shi’ite minority and a shared western border with Iran, Pakistan has a lot to lose from rising sectarian tensions. In 2015, Pakistan declined a Saudi call to join a Riyadh-led military intervention in Yemen to fight Iranian-allied insurgents.

    Pakistan has maintained official silence about the latest rift in the Arab world, loathe to be seen taking sides between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Pakistan also has close ties with Qatar itself, including a 15-year agreement signed last year to import up to 3.75 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas a year from the emirate, a major step in filling Pakistan’s energy shortfall.

    “Pakistan has to act very carefully. In my opinion, there is only one option for Pakistan: to stay neutral,” said retired army Brigadier Shaukat Qadir, now an independent risk and security analyst.

    ISLAMIC MILITARY ALLIANCE

    Pakistan’s recently retired army chief, General Raheel Sharif, travelled to Riyadh in April to lead the Saudi-led Islamic Military Alliance. The stated mission of the multinational alliance is to fight terrorism but it is increasingly seen as anti-Iran.

    “There are rumours flying around that Raheel Sharif is pulling out of the Saudi-led military alliance. I hope they are true and he comes back soon,” said Qadir.

    Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in January 2016 visited both Riyadh and Tehran along with Shariff, who was then the army chief, in an attempt to bridge the deepening chasm.

    Relations between Malaysia and Saudi Arabia have been in the spotlight over the last two years after Saudi Arabia was dragged into a multi-billion dollar corruption scandal at Malaysian state fund lMDB, founded by Najib.

    Najib has denied any wrongdoing in the money-laundering case which is now being investigated by several countries including the US, Switzerland and Singapore.

    During King Salman’s visit to Malaysia, Saudi oil giant Aramco [IPO-ARMO.SE] agreed to buy a US$7 billion equity stake in Malaysian state energy firm Petronas’ major refining and petrochemical project.

    But Qatar has also invested between US$12 billion and US$15 billion in Malaysia, according to media reports.

    RSIS’ Dorsey said non-Arab Muslim countries like Malaysia would be “put on the spot” if the Saudis demand that its trade partners pick a side.

    “They (Malaysia) can say either I do business with you, or say I’m not going to make that choice. Then the question would be how would the Saudis or Qatar respond to that,” Dorsey said. “But we’re not there yet, and there’s no certainty that it will get there.”

     

    Source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com

  • Sakdiyah Maruf, The Indonesian Muslimah Comedian Standing Up To Terrorism

    Sakdiyah Maruf, The Indonesian Muslimah Comedian Standing Up To Terrorism

    Wearing a red hijab and all-encompassing gown, Sakdiyah Maruf cuts an unusual figure in a dark, smokey Jakarta bar as she reels off taboo-breaking jokes to laughter from a rapt audience.

    She is a rare character in Indonesia — a female Muslim stand-up using humour to challenge prejudice against women and rising religious intolerance.

    Despite resistance from those who believe a woman’s place is not on stage cracking jokes, even within her own family, the 34-year-old has forged ahead and is winning fans at home and abroad.

    In the country with the world’s biggest Muslim population, she does not shy away from sensitive subjects. Her jokes touch on topics ranging from Jakarta’s recent religiously-charged election — which saw the Christian incumbent ousted by a Muslim — to sex and alcohol.

    “Hijab, niqab, burqa — it saves you from a bad hair day,” she said to laughter from the crowd in the Indonesian capital, a typical gag that gently pokes fun at her own religious customs.

    Maruf jokes about how women were not allowed to attend public events in the small, conservative community on Java island where she grew up, and that she is seeking to be more progressive by trying “to have sex even though I am married”.

    For the slight, unassuming lady, comedy is a playful form of resistance to a creeping conservatism she believes is eroding the rights of women in her homeland.

    Indonesia has long been praised for its inclusive brand of Islam but this reputation has been tarnished by a rise in attacks on minorities and the growing influence of a vocal hardline fringe.

    The comedian sees an alarming trend of “more rigid and conservative practices of religion” which she believes tend to marginalise women, and is particularly concerned about issues including early marriage and domestic violence.

    For Maruf, humour is the perfect weapon to tackle such trends.

    “The message can be very aggressive but it can be delivered in a very subtle way,” she told AFP. “You speak to people’s hearts instead of only their minds.”

    ‘ARE YOU FOR REAL?’

    Maruf comes from a traditional family in the provincial Javanese town of Pekalongan, an unlikely background for a witty, worldy-wise stand-up.

    She became interested in comedy at an early age by watching US sitcoms such as Roseanne and Full House, a love that she carried with her to university, where she started performing stand-up in 2009.

    Depending on the audience she will either perform in English — which she studied at university — or the main Indonesian language of Bahasa.

    Sakdiyah Maruf still has a day job working as an interpreter at conferences, but regularly performs in comedy clubs and nights in Jakarta, where she lives.

    In the early days, the comic would lie to her parents when she performed at university or headed into Jakarta for shows, believing they would disapprove, but as she became successful it was far harder to conceal the truth.

    She says she has managed to reach a kind of uneasy truce with her family.

    “We have disagreements sometimes, but they are cool with it,” she explained.

    But the greatest resistance has come from conservatives who don’t think Muslim women should be comedians at all.

    “One woman came up to me after a show and said ‘are you for real, are you wearing this hijab for real?’,” she recalled.

    Still, Maruf has not been put off and her irreverent brand of humour has won her fans outside Indonesia.

    In 2015 she was awarded the Vaclav Havel International Prize for Creative Dissent established by the New York-based Human Rights Foundation and last year took part in a BBC-run global stand-up jam.

    Her humour seems more relevant than ever as concerns escalate about declining religious freedoms in Indonesia after the jailing this month of Jakarta’s Christian governor for blasphemy, a verdict that sparked criticism inside the country and abroad.

    But Maruf remains confident that Indonesia will remain a tolerant country — not least because a devout Muslim woman like herself can still get up on stage and crack jokes.

    She said: “If you can write ‘Indonesian conservative Muslim female stand-up’ in one sentence, why be so pessimistic?”

     

    Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

  • 3 Police Officers Killed In Suicide Bomb Attack In Jakarta

    3 Police Officers Killed In Suicide Bomb Attack In Jakarta

    Two suspected suicide bombers have blown themselves up at a busy bus terminal in Jakarta, killing themselves and three police officers.

    Five civilians and another five police officers were also injured in the attack, just after 9:00pm (local time) yesterday.

    National police spokesman Setyo Wasisto said the blasts took place minutes apart.

    “Tonight, to Indonesian citizens and all of us who are here at the scene, I express very deep concern,” he said.

    TV networks showed people helping a victim lying on the ground and three policemen carrying another victim away from the scene.

    Police may have been the target, with extra officers in the area to guard a torch rally to mark the beginning of the Islamic holy month Ramadan.

    Police did not immediately reveal a motive but likened the attack to the events in Manchester and said it was linked to global terror.

    “As you all know that there has been global incidents in Manchester during Ariana Grande’s show, there was an explosion there,” Mr Wasisto said.

    “Then we also heard that in our neighbouring country, the Philippines, there was an attack from ISIS in Malawi city.

    “Thus we’ve actually been prepared — but we didn’t know when and where it was going to happen.

    “In my opinion, this incident is related to global attacks and related to some groups that have attacked several places.”

    Authorities in the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country have been increasingly worried about a resurgence in radicalism, driven in part by a new generation of militants inspired by Islamic State.

    There has been a series of low-level attacks linked to Islamic State since January 2016, when four militants mounted a gun and bomb assault in the heart of Jakarta.

    Eight people were killed in that attack, including the militants.

    More recent attacks have also been linked to the group and targeted police officers, including in Solo in Java, but they have largely failed.

     

    Source: www.abc.net.au

  • World’s Largest Muslim Youth Wing Calls For Re-Examination Of Islamic Text

    World’s Largest Muslim Youth Wing Calls For Re-Examination Of Islamic Text

    JOMBANG, East Java, Indonesia: The world’s largest Muslim youth organisation Gerakan Pemuda Ansor (GP Ansor) – the youth wing of Indonesia’s largest Muslim organisation Nadlatul Ulama (NU) – on Monday (May 22) called for a re-examination of Islamic text to adapt it to modern civilisation.

    The call is a bold move from NU and comes three weeks after the jailing of Jakarta’s first ethnic Chinese Christian governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, also known as Ahok. His conviction has raised concerns that extremists are gaining an upper hand in a country long known as the face of moderate Islam.

    NU claims to have 50 million followers. Its youth wing GP Ansor warned that failure to re-examine the text will see continued bloodshed in Muslim countries, which could “threaten humanity”.

    “A wide discrepancy now exists between the structure of Islamic orthodoxy and the context of Muslims’ actual reality,” said Luthfi Thomafi, a member of GP Ansor’s board. “(This is) due to immense changes that have occurred since the teachings of orthodox Islam, which became largely ossified towards the end of the medieval era.”

    “Civil discord, acts of terrorism, rebellion and outright warfare – all pursued in the name of Islam – will continue to plague Muslims and threaten humanity at large, until these issues are openly acknowledged and resolved,” Thomafi added.

    Among the complex issues that lie at the heart of this discrepancy are practices governing relations between Muslims and non-Muslims, according to GP Ansor. These include the rights, responsibilities and role of non-Muslims who live in Muslim-majority societies and vice versa.

    The group on Monday issued a GP Ansor Declaration on Humanitarian Islam which provides a strategic road map for a coordinated, long-term effort to address issues in the Islamic world.

    Key elements in the strategy include:

    – New theological discourse (ijtihad) to recontextualise Islamic teachings for the modern era;

    – Development and adoption of new educational curriculum throughout the Islamic world; and

    – Grassroots movement(s) to build societal consensus and political will.

    “Our goal is to develop an international network leading to the emergence of a global movement which shall be dedicated to the well-being of humanity as a whole – and to the fostering of a truly global civilisation – inspired by ‘humanitarian Islam’, likened to Islam rahmatan li al-‘alamin, which serves as a blessing for all creation,” said Thomafi.

     

    Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

  • Robin Costume Among Those Confiscated During Raid Of Gay Party In Jakarta

    Robin Costume Among Those Confiscated During Raid Of Gay Party In Jakarta

    JAKARTA • Indonesian police have detained 141 men who were allegedly holding a gay party at a sauna, an official said yesterday, the latest sign of a backlash against homosexuals in the Muslim-majority country.

    Officers had on Sunday night raided a building in the capital Jakarta, called Atlantis, that houses a sauna and a gym, and halted an event they said was called “The Wild One”.

    “Our officers did an undercover investigation and raided the place on Sunday,” said senior detective Nasriadi, who goes by one name.

    Homosexuality and gay sex are legal everywhere in Indonesia except in conservative Aceh province, but Mr Nasriadi said that 10 of those arrested in the Jakarta raid could be charged under Indonesia’s tough anti-pornography laws.

    The 10 men include the alleged organisers of the event as well as those suspected of being prostitutes and striptease dancers. Those found guilty of breaking the laws face up to 10 years in jail.

    The others detained are still being questioned by police as potential witnesses in the case, the detective said.

     

    Source: www.straitstimes.com