[Kabar-indonesia] SCMP Terrorism Feature: Training Indonesia's Faithful

[Joyo at aol.com]

South China Morning Post
November 1, 2006

FEATURE

BEHIND THE NEWS: TERRORISM

Training Indonesia's Faithful

By Fabio Scarpello

caption: Co-founded by notorious radical cleric Abu Bakar
Bashir, the Ngruki pesantren, or Islamic boarding school,
outside Solo, Central Java, is being monitored by the
Indonesian security services.

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Gripped by a surge in terrorism, Indonesia has suffered the
deaths of about 250 people in blasts throughout the
archipelago since the 2002 Bali bombing.

While virtually all the terrorists involved in the attacks
had studied in pesantrens, or private Islamic boarding
schools, there is one centre of learning that appears to
have a sinister link to the trail of death – the Al-Mukmin,
a pesantren situated in the sleepy village of Ngruki on the
outskirts of Solo city.

The Ngruki, as the Central Java pesantren is referred to, is
a no-frills complex, where the spartan quarters evoke a
sense of rigid austerity.

Entering the complex, a rudimentary court and a mosque are
the most obvious features among the mostly white buildings
that house the dormitories, refectory, school and library
for about 1,800 santri, or students, aged between 10 and 16
years. For most of the year, the santri spend almost seven
days a week within the Ngruki’s walls.

Religious Arabic music, or nasyid, often blasts from
speakers in the complex. A board next to the main gate
displays the ominous maxim: “No prestige without jihad.”

One of the students, 12-year-old Omar, portrays an innocence
and honesty at odds with the pesantren’s reputation. “I have
many friends. We do many things together and we learn the
Koran,” he said with a broad smile. “Here, there is no one
who wants to be a terrorist,” Omar added, with an almost
jerk-like reaction in defence of the Ngruki’s reputation as
a breeding ground for radicals.

Yet the reputation has some solid foundations. On the same
bench where Omar now studies, a few years ago sat Ali
Gufron, better known as Mukhlas, the man who went on to
become the chief operative behind the October 12, 2002,
bombing that killed 202 people on the island resort of Bali.
Idris (Jhoni Hendrawan) and Mubarok (Hutomo Pamungkas) are
two other former students who helped in the same attack. The
same Ngruki also taught Asmar Latin Sani, the suicide bomber
who killed 12 people when he blew himself up outside the
Marriott Hotel in Jakarta on August 5, 2003.
A former santri and teacher at the pesantren was Fathur
Rahman al-Ghozi, who planned to destroy the Australian
embassy in Singapore and was shot dead by Filipino police in
2003. The example set by these terrorists has been followed
by many. In all, about 30 terrorists who were arrested or
killed in the past few years have been linked to the Ngruki.

Among them is also the notorious radical cleric Abu Bakar
Bashir, cofounder of the Ngruki pesantren, and the alleged
ideological leader of Jemaah Islamiah, the regional
terrorist organisation fighting to unite most of Southeast
Asia into a caliphate. The group is believed to be behind
most of the largescale attacks in Indonesia over the past
few years, the latest of which was a triple bombing that
killed 22 people in Bali on October 1 last year.

Bashir was sentenced to 30 months in prison for having
instigated the first Bali bloodshed. He has recently
returned to the Ngruki after serving 26 months of his
sentence. Ali Usman, chairman of Indonesia’s Ngruki alumni
association, stressed that the members of his union were
against terrorism, but ready to die in a holy war. “We are
against terrorism. But we are for jihad fisabilillah, which
means war, and we are ready to participate if called upon,”
he said.

Aleksius Jemadu, lecturer of international relations at
Parahyangan Catholic University in Bandung, and an expert in
religious conflict and intelligence, played down the hazard
posed by the Ngruki in the context of the growing terrorist
threat.

“I think the situation is quite different from the past.
Things are more difficult for them now. The security
services are monitoring them. They have learned from the
past’s errors,” he said. The 30 terrorists linked to the
pesantren are just a tiny percentage of the more than 15,000
students who have enrolled at the pesantren since it opened
its doors in 1972.

The crimes were also committed a few years after the
terrorists had left the school. In the time in between,
several external factors contributed in shaping their
conviction that jihad was to be carried out with bombs, and
not, as most Islamic teachers say, by struggling in an
inward battle to improve oneself. Among those factors,
experts have highlighted poverty, ignorance and most of all,
the various religious conflicts that bloodied Indonesia in
the early 1990s. Prior to that, the Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan presented an ideal training ground for the
rising wing of Southeast Asian radical Islam.

Local Muslims’ rage and the belief that they are at war has
been further fuelled by the global “war on terror” led by US
President George W. Bush, and the subsequent invasions of
Afghanistan and Iraq. Last in a long series of grievances is
the Israeli-Lebanon war, in which thousands of Muslim
civilians were killed.

Yet the mitigating factors can hardly hide the link between
the Ngruki and militant Islam, the seeds of radicalism
planted through the extremist and antagonistic version of
Islam taught to young boys.
At the Ngruki, Islam seems to have lost its spiritual
dimension and got stuck in an inflexible position that
reduces everything to black and white, and leaves no space
for dialogue. “Islam is the only true religion, and whoever
is not a Muslim is an infidel,” said the student Omar. These
kinds of certainties are fed to students – little by little,
day after day – by teachers who demand full obedience.

“At the Ngruki, there is only one truth,” said former
student Noor Huda Ismail, who attended the pesantren from
1985 to 1991 and is now studying for his doctorate on
international politics at St Andrews University in Scotland.
“Teachers read the Koran and interpret it in their own way.
You don’t even realise you’re forced into believing in
something. That’s the way it is, and that is all there is to
it; there are no alternatives. All discussions are centered
in this radical interpretation of Islam,” he said.

As Mr Noor recalled, the day starts early at the Ngruki –
the dormitories’ lights are switched on about 4.30am. Soon
after, students meet at the mosque for the Subuh, the first
of the five compulsory daily prayers. Breakfast at 6am is
followed by five hours of school, when subjects such as
Arabic, mathematics, science and English are taught.
Although the curriculum is mandated by the government,
pesantrens usually have some scope on what is taught within
their walls. At midday, it’s time for the Dhuhur, the second
daily prayer. Lunch is at one, followed by study, before
going back to the mosque for the Asar, the third daily
prayer.

The afternoon is busy with various informal activities
chosen by the students, which include calligraphy, martial
arts and speech practice. At six, it’s time for the Maghrib,
the fourth daily prayer, which is followed by a sermon
delivered by the ustadz, the religious teacher.

Dinner is served about seven, and the Isya, the last daily
prayer, is held soon after. In the dormitories, lights go
out at 10pm.

The same routine is repeated every day, except Friday, which
is considered the day of rest by Muslims. “The best time for
indoctrination is during the informal activities, when a
teacher or a senior student can approach a gullible student
and tell him what is right or wrong,” said Mr Noor, who was
once asked to join the hardline group Darul Islam by his
former martial arts teacher, Abdurrohim.

Darul Islam is a clandestine group that wants to establish
an Islamic state in Indonesia. Mr Noor declined. Abdurrohim,
who like many Indonesians is known by one name, is wanted by
the authorities.

Masdar Farid Mas’udi, director of Indonesian Society for
Pesantren Development, agreed with Mr Noor and called for
more attention on the Ngruki’s activities outside class.

“The religious and educational authority visited the Ngruki
in the past and they found no problems with its classroom
teachings. But I think there should be more attention paid
to the extra-curricula activities,” he said, pointing out
that the Ngruki is an exception to the rule.
“Pesantren are moderate institutions. They offer education
to millions of people at very affordable prices. Without
them, many Indonesians could not afford to send their
children to school.”

At the Ngruki, the slim-built and gentle-mannered Noor Hadi
does not look like a recruiter. He learnt Arabic in the
Middle East and now teaches it at the pesantren. “I hate
violence in any shape or form. My Islam is a religion of
peace,” the professor said.

However, his hatred for violence and love for peace is not
enough for him to condemn Mukhlas, Idris, Mubarok, Asmar,
Ghozi and the other former students who crossed the line to
terrorism, and whom he said he remembered “only vaguely”.

“I’m not sure why they did it. Maybe because there was no
other choice; maybe because they were grieving and they felt
threatened,” he said, aiming an accusing finger at western
nations.

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ISLAMIC SCHOOLS FILL EDUCATIONAL VOID

The Al-Mukmin is one among a few pesantrens that have been
linked to terrorism, but most pesantrens as well as
madrasahs – daily Islamic schools – are moderate Islamic
educational establishments and fill the void left by an
under-funded and relatively expensive national education
system.

caption: Recent Indonesian government estimates suggest that
as many as 20 per cent of Indonesia’s schoolaged children
are in Islamic schools, and enrolment rates are increasing
by about 7 per cent every year.

The government funds about 10 per cent of the madrasahs’
budget and a little more of the pesantrens’ costs. The rest
is paid by the local communities, and national and
international donors. Most madrasahs are owned by private
foundations drawn from the local Muslim community.

Government figures show that the 38,500 madrasahs
accommodate an estimated 5.7 million students, or 13 per
cent of all school-aged students. Just over half are girls,
and more than half are children of farmers and labourers.

More than two million children study in the country’s 11,000
pesantren. Having begun as religiononly schools, pesantrens
have devoloped and now often include a madrasah, a
university and other community-service facilities.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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