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Islamic
Movements Want Brothel-free Indonesia for Ramadan
By
Kazi Mahmood, IOL South East Asia correspondent
KUALA
LUMPUR, October 6 (IslamOnline) - The two largest Islamic movements in
Indonesia has called on the authorities to ensure a brothel free month
of Ramadan in order to prevent attacks by Muslim fundamentalists
against such enterprises, news reports said Sunday, October 6.
Nahdlatul
Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah have voiced support for calls to close
“immoral” entertainment centers and brothels during the upcoming
Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, a joint communiqué from the
organizations said.
The
two organizations said the month of Ramadan must be respected and
their move shows a growing trend to ban “illicit” activities in
the country as a whole.
East
Java’s capital city Surabaya is home to Indonesia’s biggest
brothel complex, including the infamous Dolly prostitution center. The
city has many other red-light areas, where prostitutes are
comparatively cheap, a local news website the Laksmana.net said.
During
Ramadan, which this year starts early November, Muslims are required
to abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and sexual intercourse every
day from dawn until sunset.
NU
executive Abdus Salam Nawawi and Muhammadiyah executive Nadjib Hamid
on Friday told state news agency Antara that all immoral entertainment
venues should in principle be permanently closed, not only during
Ramadan.
Nawawi
said the whole community’s support is required if vice dens are to
be shut down.
He
expressed concern that some Muslims might get the wrong idea that
“sinful dens of iniquity” are morally sound for 11 months of the
year if they are only required to close during Ramadan.
Hamid
said sleazy entertainment venues are partly to blame for increasing
moral decay in urban areas of East Java.
He
said moral decline cannot be resolved through temporary measures, but
should instead be overcome through comprehensive conceptual actions.
“That’s
why these immoral entertainment centers should be closed for ever and
ever,” he asserted.
On
the other hand, several Front for the Defense of Islam (FPI) members
were arrested on Saturday after their involvement in the attacks
against night clubs and bars in Central Jakarta on Friday October 4.
Police
have arrested at least eight members of the Islamic Defense Front
(FPI), while another two members of the radical group have reportedly
been “kidnapped” by plainclothes officers.
The
apprehensions come after about 600 FPI members attacked and trashed a
pool hall and a nightclub in Jakarta’s Chinatown area in the early
hours of Friday. Plainclothes officers reportedly seized FPI
operations chief Abdul Kohar and FPI special forces chief Alawy Usman
in separate locations.
FPI
chairman Habib Rizieq, speaking from Kalimantan, said he heard the men
had been abducted by Central Jakarta Police.
“They
say they’re being held at Central Jakarta Police precinct. But we
haven’t met with them yet. It’s not yet clear whether they’re
still there or whether they’ve already been killed and thrown into
the streets,” he was quoted as saying by Detikcom online news
agency.
Rizieq
said police were using the tactics of former president Suharto’s
regime by arresting people without warrants.
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