DEWAN DAKWAH ISLAM INDONESIA AND

DEWAN DAKWAH ISLAM INDONESIA AND

THE CAMPUS MOVEMENT

Dewan Dakwah Islam Indonesia -- DDII (The

Islamic Propagation Council of Indonesia) -- founded

in 1967 became a vehicle for the spread of salafism,

although it now is sharply criticised by purists as too

conciliatory to "innovators" and those of an ikhwani

persuasion.22

DDII's influence initially came through the

international contacts of its founder, Mohamed Natsir,

who had been active in Persis as a young man, was a

leading figure in the Indonesian independence

movement, a former prime minister, and former head

of the Masjumi party.23 He had been instrumental in

the effort, ultimately unsuccessful, to insert into

Indonesia's constitution the so-called Jakarta Charter

requiring all Muslims to obey Islamic law. Once

Masjumi was banned, Natsir turned to finding ways

to promote Islam through non-party mechanisms, and

DDII was the perfect instrument. (He reportedly said,

"Before we used politics as a way to preach, now we

use preaching as a way to engage in politics".)24 He

became vice president of the Karachi-based World

Muslim Congress (Mutamar al-Alam al-Islami) in

1967 and a member of the Jiddah-based World Muslim

League (Rabithah al-Alam al-Islami) in 1969.

DDII became the main channel in Indonesia for

distributing scholarships from the Saudi-funded

22 It is also criticised by the purists for supporting the concepts

of democracy and elections. But some Indonesian salafi

leaders like Yazid Jawwas and Abu Nida', who themselves are

castigated by the purists for being ikhwani or sururi, remain

close to DDII, in part because they owe their religious

education to its assistance. ICG interview, July 2004. As of

2004, Jawwas remained on the list of DDII proselytisers (da'i).

23 Masjumi, Indonesia's largest Muslim political party, was

banned by Sukarno in 1960.

24 "Dulu berdakwah lewat jalur politik, sekarang berpolitik

lewat jalur dakwah", quoted in Lukman Hakiem and Tansil

Linrung, "Menunaikan Panggilan Risalah: Dokumentasi

Perjalan 30 Tahun DDII", Jakarta 1997.

Indonesia Backgrounder: Why Salafism and Terrorism Mostly Don't Mix

ICG Asia Report N°83, 13 September 2004 Page 7

Rabithah to study in the Middle East.25 In the early

1970s, it opened an office in Riyadh to facilitate links

with Saudi Arabia. The head of the office was Ustadz

Abdul Wahid, an alumnus of the Persis pesantren in

Bangil. The DDII-Rabithah link was also instrumental

in providing funding for Indonesians who wanted to

fight as mujahidin in Afghanistan.

DDII was also responsible indirectly for encouraging

the translation of works by major salafi thinkers into

Indonesian. Natsir saw three major targets of Islamic

outreach (dakwah) activities: pesantrens, mosques,

and university campuses. In 1968 he conceived of a

training program aimed at university instructors who

themselves were graduates of Muslim student

organisations. The program began with 40 instructors

from universities in the Bandung area who assembled

at a dormitory for Muslim pilgrims in Kwitang, outside

Jakarta. In 1974, DDII began a more systematic

campus-based initiative called Bina Masjid Kampus.26

Some of Indonesia's best-known Muslim scholars and

activists took part, most of whom were not salafis but

Muslim intellectuals, interested in international

developments, like Amien Rais, later chair of

Muhammadiyah and speaker of the People's

Consultative Assembly.

Bina Masjid Kampus became particularly influential

in 1978, when the Soeharto government in effect

closed down university political life, and campus

mosques became a refuge for would-be activists. The

Iranian revolution intensified an already strong interest

among the alumni of DDII programs in political

thought from around Muslim world. Over the next

decade, DDII helped distribute Indonesian translations

of books by such writers as Hasan al-Banna and Yusuf

al-Qardawi of the Muslim Brotherhood; Sayyid Qutb,

one of the main ideologues of Islamic radicalism; and

A'la Maududi of Pakistan. The intellectual ferment of

the late 1970s and early 1980s on university campuses,

together with newly available scholarships to study in

the Middle East, helped lay the groundwork for salafi

recruitment in Indonesia throughout the 1980s.27

25 According to a brochure DDII published in 2004, it has

sent 500 students to study abroad since 1967. Almost all

would have gone to the Middle East or Pakistan.

26 The most important product of this program was called

Latihan Mujahid Dakwah (Training for Islamic Propagation

Warriors) based at the Salman Mosque of the Bandung

Institute of Technology.

27 ICG interview, May 2004. See also A.M. Lutfi, "Gerakan

Dakwah di Indonesia", in Bang Imad, Pemikiran Dan

Gerakan Dakwahnya (Jakarta, 2002) and Lukman Hakiem

The conflict in Afghanistan also helped. From the

Soviet Union's invasion in 1979 through its retreat in

1989, the struggle of the mujahidin inspired Muslims

across Asia. Men who later became JI leaders trained

in camps run by Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, the mujahidin

commander with the closest ties to Saudi Arabia and

consequently, the most funding. Sayyaf and the men

around him, like Khalid Sheikh Mohamed, inspired

the trainees to become salafi jihadis.28

Many Indonesians who went to Afghanistan, including

Ja'far Umar Thalib, trained under another Saudi-funded

mujahidin commander, Jamil ur-Rahman. These men

tended to become salafis but not jihadis, and few of

them joined JI.29