AL-ZAYTUN, NII ALLEGED LINKS SPARK CONTROVERSIES

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, May 16 (ANTARA) - The alleged links between the Indonesian Islamic State (NII) movement and the Al-Zaytun Islamic boarding school in Indramayu, West Java, has sparked controversies following terror acts that often threaten security in the country of late.          In the past several weeks, the public and media have cast spotlight over radicalism and extremism  amid terrors such as the bombing of a mosque in Cirebon and threats of package or parcel bombs sent to certain targets or planted in different locations in Jakarta and its surroundings.          With the ensuing developments, fingers were pointed to the NII, an outlawed organization founded by Sekarmadji Maridjan Kartosoewirjo which, in the 1950s, was fighting for the establishment of Islamic caliphate in Indonesia. S.M. Kartosoewirjo himself was executed by the government in September 1962.         Amid the discourse over the danger being posed by NII cadres, the public attention was ultimately shifted to Al-Zaytun, a modern Islamic boarding school which has frequently been visited by government officials but is later believed to be a center for fostering NII cadres.         This sparked controversies. Even, within the complex, there is the Al-Zaytun University inaugurated by former president Soeharto in 2005.          No wonder, if the Al-Zaytun is often visited by government officials. But former chief of the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) Hendropriyono denied if Al-Zaytun was built by the government.       "That's why in the past President Soeharto, President BJ Habibie and other government officials, including me once visited the place to neutralize the misconception. At that time there was no political ideology (in that boarding school) that ran counter to the state Pancasila philosophy," Hendroprijono was quoted by Tribune Jabar online media as saying.          Hendropriyono acknowledged that Al-Zaytun did use NII symbols but it used them only as a medium to attract students. "If there is opinion that Al-Zaytun has been designed by government officials, designed by Soeharto, and now is backed up by the government, this opinion is not true. What is true is that Al-Zaytun has used NII symbols to attract people and to win money for its development. It even benefits Muslims," said Hendropriyono.          However, many quarters believed that Al-Zaytun is linked with the NII. Thus, the statement of Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali in his recent visit to the Islamic boarding school that it had no links with NII has been responded to with criticism.          Suryadharman Ali said that the Al-Zaytun Islamic boarding school was not linked with the  NII  movement because the school teaches tolerance. "It is very difficult to link the Al Zaytun Islamic boarding school with the NII organization which is radical," he said at a press conference at the Al Zaytun last week.          He said generally radical Islamic ideologies are not tolerant very much and hate anything modern. The educational pattern used in Al Zaytun  is modern and adopts modern arts for teaching materials for its  students. Radical ideologies also have a special characteristic which is they always call those having ideologies different from theirs infidels.          "When we conducted afternoon prayers Syekh AS Panji Gumilang, the chief of the school even asked me to lead it, proving that there was no radicalism being developed in this school," he said.          On the occasion, Syekh AS Panji Gumilang  said that he had never entered into the NII organization like what several parties had accused him of.  "I am not connected with the NII history," he said. Based on history the NII thrived in Indonesia in 1949 and dissolved in 1962. "After that there is no more organization called NII," he said.          However, the minister's visit to the NII complex was described by others as a ridiculous visit.     "What for, the minister could not have found anything there," NII Crisis Center founder Ken Setiawan told a seminar on the prevention of NII ideology.          He said that Al-Zaytun had been conditioned in such a way to cover up its relations with NII because the NII teachings were not taught in the boarding school while its students were not members of the NII movement.          "The minister in his visit will at the most only find buildings, constructions and students. He would not find any NII activities there because the movement of NII is underground in nature, so that to reveal it, an intelligence technique is needed," he said.          He said that it could therefore be understood if the religious affairs minister concluded in his brief visit that Al-Zaytun had no relations with NII. The minister's conclusion was different from the results of a religious affairs ministry's research in 2002.          The religious affairs ministry and the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) carried out research on the matter in 2002 and concluded that Al-Zaytun and NII had links but the results of their research were not made public.          "If one is willing to find the relations between Al-Zaytun and NII, he or she should trace information from former victims of NII, people in its surroundings and parents whose children have become victims," Setiawan said.          Yet, Minister Suryadharma Ali challenged the public to prove it if Al-Zaytun had links with the NII.   "Those who said that Al-Zaytun is linked with NII had better prove it. We fear that allegations without proof would only turn into slander,"  Suryadharma Ali said in Bandung on Sunday evening.          The minister said that if there was proof of its link with NII, why police did not take legal steps to process it. "If there is proof why law enforcers did not take action and process it," he said.          "I come there to observe directly what they were doing. I did not merely make a conclusion. I did not see any links with NII," he said.          He even denied having difference of opinion with the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) regarding the NII, Al-Zaytun link issues.  "We have no difference of opinion. We differ only in research matters," the minister. The ministry of religious affairs focused its studies on the education aspect while MUI focused its studies on education and leadership.          The religious affairs minister said that his ministry and the MUI had the same opinion on the educational aspects in the Al Zaytun boarding school.  "Namely, Al Zaytun has no connection with the NII  in terms of education system," he said.***3*** (T.A014/A/H-NG/F001) 16-05-2011 11:46: