Din Syamsuddin: Be Ansar For Rohingya Refugees

Forced transfer of Rohingya in Aceh/(ANTARA PHOTO/Ampelsa/Spt.)

JAKARTA - Former Chairman of PP Muhammadiyah Din Syamsuddin advised the people of Aceh to become Ansar people or helpers for Rohingya refugees.

"Be the Ansars who welcomed and accepted the Muhajirins when they moved to Medina first," he said in a written statement reported by ANTARA, Saturday, December 30.

Din assessed that the Rohingya refugees were the perpetrators, because they were expelled from their hometowns by the Myanmar Military Regime.

"They were persecuted and had to suffer through a vast ocean to seek protection and safety," he added.

According to Din, helping Rohingya refugees is a religious obligation for the people of Indonesia, especially the people of Aceh.

Aceh, he said, is Darussalam or the Land of Peace which is destined by Allah SWT as the goal of Rohingya refugees. "This is a test as well as a chance to do charity for the people of Aceh," he said.

Din quoted the message of the Prophet Muhammad as saying that the parables of the faithful are like one body, if one member of the body feels sick, then all the other members feel sick too.

It is known that on Wednesday (27/12) hundreds of students from various campuses in Aceh took action against the Rohingya ethnicity in Tanah Rencong, and took them to the office yard of the Aceh Ministry of Law and Human Rights (Kemenkumham).