WHAT is the single greatest failing of Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono?
Ismail Yusanto, the public face of Islamist organisation Hizb-ut-Tahrir in Jakarta, tells me: “The government of Indonesia works on a secular system. In terms of politics, economics and society, a secular system will always produce many, many problems. We are not dissatisfied with the government because of its corruption and low performance but because of the secular system itself.
“The people and the government should implement sharia. It will bring our state to a much better condition.
“Look at what’s happening in Europe and other Western countries. We believe Indonesia will also face problems of economic turmoil because of the capitalist system. So we want sharia law to be the basis of economic and social life.
“The government of Indonesia is much too close to the United States. In his speech in America, SBY said he considers the US to be his second country. SBY and Obama are very close. We have information that the US still supports SBY very closely. And SBY still protects all US interests in Indonesia, all their businesses.”
I ask the HUT leader about the Ahmadiya case, which has polarised Indonesian opinion.
Ahmadiya is a minority faith, with perhaps 200,000 followers, which has been present in Indonesia since the 1920s. It calls itself Muslim but regards its founder as a prophet, whereas orthodox Islam regards Mohammed as the last prophet.
Categories: Indonesia
Hizb ut-Tahrir is an international Sunni pan-Islamic political organization whose goal is for all Muslim countries to unify as an Islamic state or caliphate ruled by Islamic law and with a caliph head of state elected by Muslims.
Unfortunately their goals and practices are so much in contradiction.