Rally backs return to single Muslim rule

MORE than 70,000 members of a hardline group held a rally in Indonesia that heard calls for a caliphate — a single Muslim government across the Islamic world.

The supporters of the Hizbut Tahrir group filled most of an 80,000-seat sports stadium in the capital Jakarta, waving flags as they heard fiery speeches saying it was “time for the caliphate to reign”.

Hizbut Tahrir said the gathering was aimed at strengthening Muslims’ commitment to revive the caliphate, which had been in place until 1924, through peaceful means.

The crowd, divided into sections for women and men, roared in support for speeches urging this goal.

“We need to carry this message from every corner from the east to west, so that on judgment day we can be proud,” said Salim Frederick of Hizbut Tahrir’s English branch.

The freedom of expression that Muslims enjoy in Indonesia is a luxury compared to most other countries, said Hassan Ko Nakata of the Japanese Muslim Association.

High school teacher Erni Tri, 40, said she drove two hours with her husband and three children to attend the prayers, music and speeches in Jakarta.

Hizbut Tahrir “is firm and uncompromising toward un-Islamic cultures”, she said. “It is driven by love for Allah and has no hidden agenda to get votes or power.” The group has said it does not support violence to obtain its objective.

A spokesman for Hizbut Tahrir, Muhammad Ismail Yusanto, said the meeting was held as part of “civic education” for Indonesian Muslims.

“After the destruction of the caliphate, tragedy after tragedy has descended on the Muslim world,” Mr Yusanto told the rally. “Our nation has been divided into 50 and the infidel colonialists picked rulers in each of these countries.”

Hizbut Tahrir, founded in Jerusalem in 1953, is banned in several Arab and central Asian countries but its Indonesian branch has grown rapidly in recent years.

It has denied allegations of anti-Semitism and links to violent Islamic militants.

Supporters travelled in convoys of buses from other parts of Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country.

Local and foreign speakers were invited to give speeches. But Mr Yusanto said that two invitees, Imran Waheed from England and Syeik Ismail al-Wahwah from Australia, had been denied entry and deported.

The hardline cleric Abu Bakar Bashir declined to appear at the event without giving a reason.

But Mr Yusanto said that police had advised Mr Bashir and another hardline cleric, Habieb Rizieq, not to attend the conference.

Senior Muslim figure and chairman of Indonesia’s second-largest Islamic movement, the Muhammadiyah, Dien Syamsuddin was among the key speakers to address the crowd.

“Islam’s progress or regress depends entirely on Muslims themselves,” he told the crowd. He said that “the essence” of a caliphate was that Muslims be united.

But popular Muslim preacher Abdullah Gymanstiar said Muslims in Indonesia were still divided over Sharia law.

“Why do some Muslims not agree with the Islamic Sharia, even though it is for the own good of Muslims?” he said.