The events in Sydney last week have been rightly
condemned by not only western leaders, but also many leaders in countries where
Islam is the predominate religion.
Here in Australia, most people saw this shocking
siege by Man Haron Monis as the actions of a madman rather than a reflection of
Muslim values and beliefs. Muslim leaders are right to point out that in many recent
cases the religion of Islam has been ‘hijacked’ by despot groups and
individuals made up of disaffected people who have a twisted desire to inflict
terror and murder upon our world.
These are all positive signs, and comments from those
who have power and influence throughout the Islamic communities leave no doubt
that the majority of Muslims are appalled at the fanatical and hard-line developments
involving Islam; but is ‘being appalled’ enough to stop the advance of Islamic extremism
into our region?
To our north, Indonesia has worked closely with Australia
to prevent terrorist attacks, particularly in places such as Bali. The Indonesian
National Police (POLRI) has conducted hundreds of successful raids on terrorist
groups who were planning to launch attacks in their own country and the region.
Yet over this past year we have seen the number of
Indonesians joining ISIS in Iraq and
Syria increase from around 80 to at least 264, according to Saud Usman
Nasution, Indonesia’s counter-terrorism chief. The reality is that the number
is probably even higher at around 450.
This increase in Indonesians joining ISIS occurs despite Indonesia banning them
as an organisation, and leading Muslim groups denouncing any ISIS activities. These are positive
words but Indonesian laws still do not allow police to charge people who
head-off to the Middle East to join and fight for extremist groups.
In the past few years we have also seen increasing
examples of religious intolerance throughout Indonesia with Sunni Muslim groups
seeking-out confrontations with other religious minorities including Buddhist,
Catholic and also Shia Muslims. Mob violence, harassment and threats have
become more common, yet under the former presidency of the internationally
respected Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono , very little was done to stop these
activities and in some cases police were ‘happy’ to simply sit back and watch
places of worship (including Mosques) burn as minority groups were beaten and
occasionally murdered.
In the semi-autonomous Sumatran province of Aceh,
which was devastated in the tsunami of 2004, Sharia Law has recently been enforced, restricting the rights of all
other religions. ‘Qanun Jinayat’ or ‘Behaviour Governing by-laws’ as it is
known, also applies to all people including women, non-Muslims and tourists to
the popular region.
Aceh has a history of attracting Islamic
insurgencies and there remains the risk of this province (state) becoming a
regional hub for hard-line Islamic groups such as Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) and the
Islamic Defenders Front (FPI).
As the leading example of how a country with a
predominately Muslim population (about 180 million people) can function as a
pluralistic and civil democracy, Indonesia has a critical interest in insuring
religious intolerance and hard line Islam is not allowed to flourish, so the
challenges for the new president Joko Widodo to find ‘the balance’ will be
significant.
Disturbingly, to Indonesia’s north, and a favourite
holiday spot for Australians, lays Malaysia with its perception being that of
another good example of how a moderate form of Islam can coincide with a
vibrant democracy.
Yet over the past five years Malaysia has slipped
into a more hard line approach, with restrictions to political freedom of
speech and the rights of women. The ruling United Malay National Organisation
(UMNO) is pushing an agenda that is, according to many experts, ‘very hard line
in both political and religious life’ despite the rhetoric of the Prime
Minister Najib Rasak in seeking to present Malaysia as a moderate and open
society.
For many years there has been a standard joke in Malaysia
that UMNO actually stands for ‘U (sic) May Not Oppose’, yet today many people
feel that this is no longer simply a joke.
Conservative groups in Sabah and Sarawak – both
popular tourist locations – have recently been attempting to install strict Sharia Law into these provinces, further
adding to the difficulties facing Mr Rasak and his government as they strive to
curtail the activities of ISIS
followers whilst not alienating the 62% of the population who are Muslim; and who
mostly support the UMNO.
For Australia’s foreign policy makers and foreign
minister Julie Bishop, the increase in hard-line Islam and associated terrorist
activities in both Malaysia and Indonesia, combined with the rise-and-rise of
China as a political force in the region, presents many challenges for
Australia in the year ahead.
The good news is that in Indonesia in particular,
most people genuinely embrace the concept of a society that is open and
pluralistic, allowing harmony, freedom of speech and religion.
The murderous actions of Man Haron Monis last week
may have been those of a lone madman, but the rise of radical groups such as ISIS is real. The long-term stability of
our region therefore, will depend upon a lot more than just words and a benign
approach to hard-line Islam by our neighbours and
their Arab cousins in the Middle East.
Ross
Taylor is the president of the Perth-based Indonesia Institute (Inc)
December
2014
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