Thousands rally to push for
Islamic law
Thousands of Muslims turned out to
march toward a meeting of Indonesian parliamentarians to demand
they incorporate Islamic law into the constitution.
In one of Jakarta's largest
demonstrations in months, 4,000-5,000 men and women marched
peacefully through the city's banking district on Saturday toward
the legislature where the annual session of the People's
Consultative Assembly, the country's highest constitutional body,
was meeting.
"Save Indonesia with Islamic
Law," read their banners. Many were written in Arabic.
They shouted "God is
great" as they filled two lanes of the road, with men at the
front of the protest and women in traditional Muslim headcoverings
toward the rear.
The protesters said they were from
Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, or the Liberation Party.
"Islam has an ideology like
capitalism and communism, but Islam is better," said one
marcher, Hamzah Salahudin, 33. He said they were walking to the
assembly building.
"We will convey our
aspirations and demand Islamic law," he told AFP.
A statement issued by the
demonstrators said Indonesia's crisis of poverty and unemployment,
its high number of school dropouts, increasing crime and moral
decay have resulted from the absence of an Islamic system, as well
as from bureaucrats who fail to carry out their duties properly.
At the 10-day assembly session
which began Thursday, legislators are discussing proposed
constitutional amendments, one of which calls for the
implementation of Islamic law, or Sharia.
At its congress last month
Indonesia's largest Islamic organization, Nahdlatul Ulama, passed
a recommendation opposing efforts to make Islamic law compulsory
for Muslims.
The constitution's Chapter 29 says
the state guarantees every resident's freedom to adhere to their
respective religions and to perform their religious duties.
But the United Development Party,
the largest Islamic political party headed by Vice President
Hamzah Haz - and several smaller Islamic parties - are pushing for
the Sharia amendment.
More than 80 percent of Indonesians
are Muslim but other faiths are widely accepted.
Last month hundreds of people from
Hizbut Tahrir rallied outside the Philippine embassy in Jakarta to
shout their objections to the jailing by a Philippine court of an
Indonesian man on explosives charges.
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