Seeing The Government's Reasons For Calling Terrorism Unrelated To Religion

Fully armed police officers stand guard after the suicide bombing at the Cathedral Church, Makassar City, South Sulawesi, (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Several officials, including President Joko Widodo (Jokowi), immediately conveyed the narrative that the suicide bombing at the Makassar Cathedral Church on Sunday, March 28 was not religious. This narrative then led to criticism from various parties, especially netizens who discussed the two bombing perpetrators.

Several hours after the bombing took place, President Jokowi immediately responded by saying the terror incident that occurred at the church had nothing to do with religion.

"Terrorism is a crime against humanity and has nothing to do with any religion. All religious teachings reject terrorism for whatever reason", said President Jokowi at the time.

He strongly condemned the incident and ordered law enforcement officials to trace the perpetrator's network to its roots. Not only that, he said, the entire state apparatus would not tolerate acts of terrorism like the one that occurred in the church.

The former governor of DKI Jakarta asked the public to remain calm in carrying out worship because the state guarantees the safety of religious people to worship without fear. "I invite all members of society to jointly fight terrorism, radicalism that is against religious values, our noble values as a nation that upholds divine values and diversity", he stressed.

Not only Jokowi, but the Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI) also stated a similar narrative. MUI Deputy Chairman Anwar Abbas asked that the bomb explosion at the Makassar Cathedral Church was not linked to a particular religion or ethnicity.

"MUI asks that this problem is not linked to certain religions and/or ethnicities in this country, because doing so will make things more complicated and confuse the atmosphere", said Anwar.

It was not only Jokowi and MUI who delivered a similar narrative. Most recently, Vice President Ma'ruf Amin also stated the same thing and said that no religion would tolerate this heinous act.

“Especially to the point of killing other people or even killing yourself. There is no religion (to tolerate it, ed)", he said on Tuesday, March 30.

Citizens and society at large may criticize this narrative. However, an observer of terrorism from the University of Indonesia, Ridwan Habib, assessed that this kind of narrative needs to be carried out even though it is cliché and trite.

“Why is denial terrorism not related to religion so important even though it seems cliché and trite? (Because, red) the risk of the Syrian scenario could occur”, Ridwan said in his written statement to VOI.

In carrying out their work, he continued, the terrorist group has a rule called Miftahul Siro'. "Miftah is the key or the opener. The Siro' is conflict. So they only succeed when a country quarrels, "he explained.

The scenario of creating a war waged by terrorists has succeeded in Iraq, Syria, and Marawi. These previously beautiful cities, said Ridwan, are now ravaged by conflict until they are controlled by terrorists because they are instigated by religious issues whose truth is unclear.

So, the narrative of terrorism not related to religion is important for this state official to convey so that other people are not justified. "The majority of Muslims clearly reject terror, attacks under the pretext of jihad, and so on. So, this small group must be removed from the population, acknowledged", he said.

This is because if religion is clearly recognized by the government as the background for acts of terrorism, the narrative that this group wants to achieve will be realized. Furthermore, this certainly creates a chaotic atmosphere in the country.

"People debate, politics is turbulent. Chaotic", he said.

Even though this narrative is correct, however, there are still things that have not received serious attention from the government or certain religious groups. One of them is to heal the perpetrators and prisoners of terrorism cases who must feel the coldness of the iron bars.

"It is very rare for the majority of the Islamic right groups to carry out therapeutic efforts on terrorists in prisons. In fact, many are trapped in the terrorist narrative as fabrication and this is a serious problem," he said.

He considered, if there were only the same narrative without the government's role in carrying out radicalism, it would be natural for many people to feel bored and indifferent. Moreover, certain religious groups also responded to this kind of terror.

“It's okay to denial but 'treat' those who are exposed. Touch his heart to the right path", he concluded.