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ANALYSIS:
RAJIV CHANDRASEKARAN
THE WASHINGTON POST
TASIKMALAYA (Indonesia) - The
Taleban Brigade stormed into the hotel lounge shortly before
midnight, wielding rattan canes and screaming: ''God is great!''
As patrons cowered under the
rickety wooden tables, and the leather-clad singer bolted off the
stage, witnesses said three dozen young men in flowing white robes
swung their sticks at beer mugs and highball glasses.
Then, they charged into the kitchen
to seize the hotel's liquor supply, carting off several cases of
beer and two bottles of whisky.
''This is a Muslim country,'' the
leader of the mob shouted as his minions smashed everything in
sight, according to a hotel employee. ''We forbid you to drink
alcohol.''
The Taleban Brigade, whose
connection with Afghanistan's erstwhile rulers is in ideology
only, regards itself as a vanquisher of vice in this small city
near the southern coast of Java.
Members raid nightclubs and cafes
to stamp out drinking and gambling. They ransack shops suspected
of selling pornographic video discs. And they sweep through
hotels, rounding up prostitutes and shaving their heads.
The Taleban Brigade is part of a
growing network of groups seeking to turn socially moderate
Indonesia, a South-east Asian archipelago that is home to more
Muslims than any other country, into a strict Islamic nation.
Its members comprise students and
teachers from Islamic boarding schools who want to abolish the
country's secular legal system and replace it with a version of
syariah, the Islamic law that would ban the sale of alcohol,
require women to wear headscarves and permit courts to order the
amputation of thieves' hands.
Although efforts to enact syariah
nationwide remain the subject of much dispute and little progress,
its advocates have become some of the most vocal players in
Indonesia's nascent democracy.
They have also employed stealth.
Using a new law that gives localities more autonomy, they have
quietly enacted parts of their agenda in cities and jurisdictions
similar to counties without approval from the central government.
In Tasikmalaya, about 240 km
south-east of Jakarta, the Taleban Brigade and a coalition of
conservative Muslim organisations have persuaded the district
governor to issue a host of edicts, from barring vehicular traffic
near the main mosque during midday prayers on Friday to requiring
that elementary and high school students, no matter what religion,
receive a certificate of proficiency in Islamic studies.
The governor has also urged women
to cover their hair, and he has called for public swimming pools
to be segregated by gender.
The brigade, whose weekly raids are
condoned by the police, has also imposed and enforced local
syariah regulations, declaring a zero-tolerance policy towards
alcohol, gambling, pornography and prostitution.
''If we see it, we will destroy it
or we will confiscate it,'' insisted Mr Mohammed Zainal Mutaqqien
Aziz, a religious teacher who heads the Taleban Brigade, which was
formed in 1998 and takes its name from the Arabic word for
student.
''These sorts of sinful things are
not fit for Tasikmalaya.''
Unlike in much of the Muslim world,
the growth of religious extremism in Indonesia has largely been an
indigenous phenomenon, owing more to the country's helter-skelter
transition to democracy than to funding from outside groups.
With rising poverty and
lawlessness, fuelled by economic stagnation and political
infighting, an increasing slice of the population has started to
view radical Islam as a panacea.
Conservative Muslim leaders said
they have been aided by the United States campaign against
terrorism, which is seen by many in Indonesia as a fight against
Islam. Membership in their groups has swelled in recent months,
they said.
The rise of conservative Islam
seems a clear trend in a country that has long prided itself in
having the world's most liberal Muslims.
In Jakarta, where billboards tout
Bintang beer and feature scantily-clad models, more young women
are opting to wear headscarves, more men show up at mosques for
Friday prayers and more families are fasting during Ramadan,
according to Muslim leaders.
In a recent survey conducted by the
State University of Islamic Studies, 58 per cent of respondents
across the country said they supported the idea of transforming
Indonesia into an Islamic state run by Muslim clerics.
More than 60 per cent said the
government should implement some form of syariah.
But the survey also found that a
sizeable majority are opposed to other changes sought by such
groups as the Taleban Brigade, including arresting Muslims who do
not fast during Ramadan and having police ensure that Muslims pray
five times a day.
Although President Megawati
Sukarnoputri and most of Parliament remain opposed to imposing
syariah nationwide, the government has permitted local officials
in Aceh, a province on the northern tip of Sumatra, to adopt a
limited form of syariah in an effort to wrest popular support from
separatist rebels.
As a first step, they ordered
residents last month to follow a new dress code whereby women have
to cover all parts of their body except their face, hands and the
soles of their feet.
The officials said they were
forming a religious police force to enforce the rules.
The question of how much syariah is
enough, and how much is too much, is emerging as one of the most
contentious issues in this young democracy of more than 220
million people.
''This is the most important test
for the future of this country,'' said Mr Abshar-Abdullah of the
Islam Network.
'It's a test of whether moderate or
conservative Islam will prevail.''
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