Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesian religious leaders are divided in their views about US President Barrack Obama`s upcoming visit to Indonesia later this month as can be seen from their statements.

Din Sjamsuddin, the chief of Muhammadiyah, for example, said here on Wednesday that Obama`s visit to the country where he had ever lived for four years in the past was positive because he wanted to build better relations with Islam.

"We can hold a dialogue during the visit. I believe with a dialogue he could develop better relationship especially with the Islamic world," Din Sjamsuddin said.
In view of that, he said President Obama`s visit must not be made a problem nor rejected and the Islamic community in particular must welcome him as a guest.

"According to Islamic teachings welcoming a guest is a good deed. Therefore, Obama`s arrival must be welcomed and accepted like we do with the presidents of other countries," he said.

Din said he believed President Obama with the planned visit wished to meet part of his election campaign promises , namely to build better relationships with the Islamic world.
He deplored the stance of several Islamic organizations that reject Obama`s visit.

"I hope people will respect and accept the US President. Moreover, Obama also has emotional ties with Indonesia as he once attended an elementary school in Jakarta," he said.

While in Indonesia, President Obama is scheduled to also meet and hold discussions with leaders of Islamic groups including chief of the Al Mukmin boarding school in Sukoharjo, Abu Bakar Ba`asyir.

In the past few days, activists from Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia and Campus Propagation Institute in several regions in the country have held demonstrations to protest Obama`s visit.

They think Obama does not deserve a welcome because he leads a country that has so far oppressed Moslems in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan while his policies on Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan were also not different from that of former president George Bush.

Alkathat of Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, said the reason why his organization rejected Obama the fact that he had failed to build better relations between the West and Islam.

Whatever he had promised during his election campaign in the past was really different from reality. In fact a lasting solution in Palestine was still a dream, while the people there had been long suffering from hostility with Israel, he said.

Since, the tragedy at the World Trade Center on September 11, relations between the West and Islam have seen many ups and downs. Therefore, under the leadership of Barack Obama as the number one leader in the USA, he should come to realize what he ever said during his political campaign about better relationships between the West and Islam, especially the followers of Islam and Western communities, Alkathat said.

On the one hand, Obama had no the power to change his country`s double standard policy which tends to support Israel in international fora in addition to deployment of more additional troops to Iraq and Afghanistan which eventually inflicted more sufferings to the Muslim communities in those countries.

On the other hand, Obama`s pledge to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and Iraq during his campaign in the past ran counter to the real condition at present. In fact, the US even deployed more troops to Afghanistan to fight Muslim guerrillas there, he said.

That`s one of the reasons why Hizbut Tahrir preferred to reject Obama`s visit to Indonesia, as his coming would not bring any improvement to the relations between the US and Indonesia, Indonesian Muslims in particular, Alkathat said.

Compared to 2006 when thousands of people took to the streets to protest George W. Bush`s half-day visit to Bogor, now Indonesian Muslims` response to Obama`s planned visit is quite different, said Hasyim Muzadi, chairman of Indonesia`s largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU).

Even the notoriously anti-Western Islam Defenders Front (FPI) appears to be caught up in `Obamania,` with one senior member saying that they welcome any visitor as long as they are not here on a "neo-liberal mission."

"Obama`s visit will help improve relations between the US and the Islamic world and be good for Indonesia because Obama is offering to heal the rift between the US and the Muslim world after the tensions experienced during the George Bush era," Hasyim Muzadi said.

Hasyim who is also president of the World Conference on Religions for Peace said Indonesia as the world`s biggest Muslim country serves as an international "Islam shop window."

"So, Obama`s arrival here will be good although what Obama will do cannot be viewed optimally because although as US president he has great powers, he still has to take account of a legislative body that can limit the president`s actions.

But Hasyim also said Obama`s policies were encouraging, as he had helped reduce the tension that had happened between the Western and Islamic worlds.
"Whether Obama will be able to control Israel, we will see," he said.

"As president of the US, a democratic country, Obama plays a major but not encompassing role, as there is a legislative body limiting his steps," he said.

Embong Mustafa, a senior FPI member, said his organisation also welcomed Obama`s visit and he would even be willing to meet the US president if invited.

"We have no problem with Barack Obama`s visit. We`ve never rejected anybody planning to come here except those on a neoliberal mission," Embong said.

Commenting on Obama`s visit to Indonesia, Dr Sofyan Siregar, a roving lecturer of the Islamic Universtity of North Sumatra said the visit was an indication of the political goodwill of the United States under the leadership of President Obama.

However, he also called on many Muslims in the country to show respect to the US president who spent part of his childhood in Indonesia.

Sofyan admitted that the world feared Islam or was gripped by Islamophobia because it had misunderstood Islam.

"Many people think that Islam is not preaching justice and harmony," he said adding that therefore, Muslims in the country should deal with Islamophobia in a rational way by building good understanding, dialog and cooperation.

"Face what is unpleasant in a broad-minded way and try to show that Islam is a religion of peace which teaches love and harmony to its followers," Sofyan said.

According to Sofyan, Indonesian Muslims had to show to Obama that Indonesia is not a country where terrorists find shelter or are protected as many members of the international community may have been made to believe.(*)

Editor: Heru
COPYRIGHT © 2012

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