MUI warns mosque boards against terror infiltrators

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) reminded mosque board members here on Friday to increase caution to prevent possible penetration by terrorists, following the recent suicide bombings.

"We must step up scrutiny when inviting religious teachers (uztad). If the teachers we invite speak in that direction (calling on people to become terrorists) and justify jihad through terror actions it means they belong to the group (of terrorists)," MUI associate chairman KH Ma`ruf Amin, said.

The incident at the As Surrur mosque in Telaga Kahuripan, Bogor, West Java, could occur because the people were not alert so that Saefuddin Jaelani (SJ), the alleged recruiter of suicide bombers, succeeded in being accepted at the mosque as a teacher.

"In connection with it mosque board members must now really be very careful when selecting teachers to be used at their mosques," he said.

Board members must conduct continuous supervision so that they would not be caught off-guard. Mosques must also help straighten out people`s understanding that suicide bombings are wrong. "That is not jihad. It is terror action," he said.

Jaelani had recruited a high-school student, Dani Dwi Permana (18), to become "a bride" bringing a bomb and detonate it in the JW Marriott Hotel. Dani joined the terrorist network under the influence of Jaelani whom people in Telega Kahuripan viewed as a good and pious person.

Ma`ruf Amin said, generally the suicide bombers did not have profound religious knowledge so that they were trapped into holding short-sighted views that led them to committing terrorist acts.

"Islam does not condone violence. Islam is not like that. Terrorism is not jihad and jihad is not terrorism," he said.

Amin denied that many mosques and Islamic boarding schools in the country had become the habitat of terrorists, saying Islamic boarding schools in the country generallly were not radical.

Terror masterminds generally recruit people who have narrow religious views, he said.(*)

Source : www.antara.co.id