17 - 23 January 2002
Issue No.569
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 17 - 23 January 2002 Issue No.569 |
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The proving ground
Will charities in Southeast Asia feel the heat of the "war on terror"? Nyier Abdou looks at the role played by religious organisations in the world's most populous Islamic region
The United States is many things to many people, but it cannot be said that it is passive. In the four months since the 11 September terrorist attacks, the wounded superpower has waged a crippling war on Afghanistan; installed a new, Western-friendly leadership; cobbled together a massive, if uneasy, coalition of international powers; and spooked Arab and Muslim nations into toeing the Pentagon line.
One of the murkiest issues that has been dredged up in the aftermath of 11 September is identifying terrorist groups and institutions. Before any warplanes headed for Kabul, the first targets of the "war on terrorism" were religious charity organisations accused of funding international terrorist organisations. As international focus shifts to Muslim populations in Southeast Asia, where the role of charities and non-profit religious organisations is deeply woven into the social fabric, the question of how to tackle terrorism is a delicate one.
Southeast Asia, which subsumes Indochina, the Malay peninsula and the Malay archipelago, holds at least a fifth of the world's Muslim population, and in many poor areas, people have more faith in the Islamic system of charity (zakat than in government services. A complex mix of religious and secular authority in Southeast Asian countries like Indonesia and Malaysia makes for a quagmire of political affiliations that may be impenetrable to Western leaderships. Suspicion thrown on religious organisations could touch a nerve in frustrated Muslim populations wary of US hegemony.
It has been widely noted that Islamic charities and aid agencies make ideal covers for terrorist organisations: many are small, unmonitored and focused on local needs. In many cases they are not required to file reports of their financial dealings. But in Southeast Asia, as in the Arab world, many of these local organisations are not only legitimate, but they also provide a service that neither the government nor international institutions can come close to. Many crucial humanitarian and charity organisations could be crushed in the drive to eradicate terrorism.
In Indonesia especially, the lembaga swadaya masyarakat ("people's self- help organisations") are a powerful social force. Colin Barlow, an expert on socio-economic issues in Southeast Asia at the Australian National University's Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, notes that most Indonesian and Malaysian NGOs have a specific "technical" purpose. Barlow, who recently returned from six months of field work in Malaysia and Indonesia and has been involved in development in the region for over 30 years, heads an Australian- Indonesian NGO concentrating on social and agricultural development. "The sort of middle-class and farming people who staff [such institutions] are very, very unlikely to be infiltrated by terrorist organisations," Barlow told Al-Ahram Weekly.
Many regional experts insist that because charities are so integral to places like Indonesia and the Philippines, it is unfathomable that the US-led war could dislodge their culture of influence. Both the Indonesian and Malaysian governments keep pretty close tabs on NGO activity, says Barlow, and in Malaysia, "those who enter overt politics are likely to be arrested." Citing the arrest in Malaysia last year of some NGO activists, Barlow insists that it was "entirely in connection with domestic politics."
In many cases, Islamist organisations also provide considerable social services, including education and refugee relief. Indonesia's Laskar Jihad is one such group, and so is the Saudi-based charity the International Islamic Relief Organisation (IIRO), which has been linked to Al- Qa'eda and is heavily involved in the Philippines. Some reports indicate that the IIRO has provided funds to the rebel group Abu Sayyaf in the southern Philippines, but according to Ron May, a specialist on political upheavals in the region and a senior fellow at the Australian National University, the institution is an important source of welfare funding. "If draconian measures are taken to cut off funds from any even slightly suspect source, this will almost certainly impact on organisations like IIRO," May told the Weekly. "If this happens, resentment towards both national governments and the US will escalate."
It is difficult to argue that any group shown to be supporting terrorism should be spared on the basis of its services for the poor and marginalised. What is even more difficult, however, is proving a meaningful link to terrorist activities -- and, indeed, identifying what counts as "terrorism." This is an issue significant in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and it is obviously relevant in restive Indonesian provinces like Aceh and Iran Jaya. "In Indonesia especially, there are some Islamic NGOs which could conceivably be infiltrated [by extremist elements]," says regional expert Barlow, who cites the secessionist movement in Aceh and the troubled region of Maluku as places that could serve as incubators of Islamist extremism. But Barlow stresses that the rise of militancy in these areas is probably not connected with Al-Qa'eda. "My own suspicion is that there is little link with international terrorism networks, despite current allegations," he said.
Aside from the suspicion now thrown on charities and aid agencies, there is also increased scorn thrown on madrasas (religious schools), which are blamed in places like Pakistan for fomenting extremism and violence. Often funded by charities and limited in their scope of education, such religious schools are anathema to the West. But as with all charitable organisations in the developing world, madrasas are significantly varied, both within countries and across the region. Some, like Malaysia's Al-Mashour, even teach about other religions. Now known to most people in the West as the birthplace of the taliban (students), there is a temptation to identify religious education with fundamentalism.
Patricia Martinez, a senior research fellow for culture and religion at the University of Malaya's Asia-Europe Institute in Kuala Lampur, admits that many madrasas do contribute to fundamentalism because of their narrow syllabus and methodology, which can depend heavily on rote learning. "The fact that Islam is completely politicised in Malaysia is key to understanding the polemical way in which students are taught in some madrasas," says Martinez. Reflection, argument and debate are neither encouraged nor favoured, Martinez explains. "The whole scholarly tradition of ikhtilaf [difference] does not exist here."
In some cases, Southeast Asian governments have had uncomfortable relationships with NGOs. Asked if he thought 11 September would be used as an excuse to grind down on these organisations, Barlow suggests that there could be other factors at play, such as regional disapproval of the US-led war in Afghanistan. "Both the Malaysian and Indonesian governments are much more concerned with their own 'terrorist' movements, and that is the area where you can expect them to take most action," says Barlow. "There is basically little sympathy -- and indeed a lot of antipathy -- for the actions of the United States in Afghanistan and elsewhere," he adds, noting that this sentiment is shared by most of the local populations. "While certain lip-service can be expected to the superpower's initiatives, that's about as far as I would expect it to go."
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