"Any plan or desire to form a state within the state is against the law. They may be Muslims, but they must be stopped because insurgent Islam must be dealt with resolutely," Said Aqil Siradj, chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama Executive Board (PBNU), said here Tuesday.
The government should adopt a firm stand on NII because although now they appear to be radical only in theological sense, they could easily become a radical terrotsit group, if they continue to be tolerated. "They could thus become a threat to the state in the long run," he aaid.
The government, according to Said, should not only take serious action when the police are victimized such as in the suicide bombing attack on a police mosque in Cirebon not long ago over which the police arrested 20 terror suspects.
Even so, the government had actually not taken serious action following terror bomb attacks in general, much less made anticipatory efforts in view of the possibility of theolgically radical groups turning into radical terrorists, Said said.
In a similar vein, the leadership of the NU School Students Association (PP IPNU) also urged the President and the National Police to seriously address the NII issue.
"Until now, the government has not taken any concrete action with reagrd to the NII movement. The National Education Ministry has only issued an appeal (to avoid NII influences) but this is not enough to resist NII indoctrination campaigns, IPNU chairman Ahmad Syauqi said.
The President needs to take comprehensive and coordinative steps to mobilize relevant government ministries and the National Police to investigate the existence and activities the NII movement and act against the people behind it, Ahmad said.
He said the government should not be fooled by Panji Gumilang, a key figure in the NII territorial unit KW-9, because the Al Zaytun boarding school in Indramwayu he was heading was indeed not indoctrinating students with NII ideology but it harbored a number of trained NII cadres.
"Based on the results of our research and analyzis, the school is a breeding ground of a new generation of terrorists and radicals, who will come especially from among its religious teachers," Ahmad said. (*)
Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
