ABIM President (center) with an Iraqi child

By Kazi Mahmood, IOL Southeast Asia Correspondent

JAKARTA, September 7 (IslamOnline.net) - The largest Malay Islamic Youth Movement in Malaysia (ABIM) said Saturday, September 6, that tarnishing Islam with “the terror label” was an evil scheme and accused the West of using “the war against terror” to further its imperialistic hegemony on the world.

ABIM President, Ahmad Azam Abdul Rahman said the 9/11/2001 attacks in the U.S. had sent the world in transition and had become a terrible challenge to the efforts for Islamic da’wah (Call) by movements like the ABIM.

“Tarnishing the name of Islamic movements by labeling them as terrorist is one of the evil schemes to foil the Islamic struggle,” charged Ahmad Azam.

Expressing his fears about the future of Islamic movements, Ahmad Azam said the international effort to fight terror gave the West the right to eliminate Islamic movements by suppressing Islamic organizations, freezing their funds, confiscating their financial resources and arresting their key leaders.

“Islamic groups are branded as militants, radical and fundamentalist and they are accused of being masterminds behind all terrorist acts. Even some Muslims themselves have this popular perception towards Islamic groups,” said the ABIM leader.

“To equate terrorism to the Islamic movements is slander. There is no evidence at all to support this accusation,” retorted Ahmad Azam.

“The whole of the Muslim world is under scrutiny. By fighting terrorism with violence and oppression, and by labeling certain Muslim countries, Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, al-Qaeda, Jemaah Islamiyah, and others as international terrorist, the United States had ensnared the world into a cultural conflict,” said Ahmad Azam.

He also labeled the war against terrorism as “a fanatical attitude of the enemy of Islam to fight against the Muslim struggle for justice.

Positioning Islamic movements as a catalyst in the revival of Islam, he pointed out that although many such movements faced serious pressures from governments, their works in welfare and education have won the support from the masses.

He said like the Front Islamic du Salut (FIS) of Algeria was an example of the successful involvement of Islamic movements in politics and the thwarting of the FIS from taking power despite winning the elections in 1992 was another example on the treatment meted to Muslims.

“After September 11, Islamic movements face greater pressures. Any struggle to help the oppressed victims is seen as an involvement in the al-Qaeda network. ABIM faces similar problems,” he said.

The ABIM movement, once headed by jailed opposition leader and former deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said it was tied to an alleged “terror” organization in a book by Singaporean Rohan Gunaratna, who also suggested in his book that the Malaysian ruling coalition party the National Front (NF) too had links with the al-Qaeda.

Leaders of the ABIM said Muslims in Malaysia were deeply concerned with the across-the-board accusation of Muslims under the terror tag, most of the time without any supportive proof and lack of evidence.

ABIM campaign against War in Iraq

Ahmad Azam accused the west and its allies of promoting another version of Islam in a bid to distort the true Islam and weaken Islamic movements around the globe. “Islam is being interpreted and appropriated in alignment with the western liberal thinking and the idea of (unlimited) freedom,” said the young movement leader.

“New groups are emerging, advocating liberal approaches in interpreting Islamic issues. The interest is on issues such as polygamy, aurat and jilbab, religious freedom, the status of the text (translation) in Qur’an,

“Liberal Islam is not a new idea. It was started by some of the early thinkers from the Middle East,” he added.

The ABIM is a movement aiming at propagating Islam and doing da’wah within the Islamic community’s world wide, not only in Malaysia where it is based.

Ahmad Azam said that in an effort to deal with the challenging transition era, Muslims had to dig up al the treasures of prophetic wisdom. He said the da’wah strategy must be re-evaluated.

“We need a peaceful environment for da’wah efforts to thrive. The present volatile situation in the world should be used to make plans to build new da’I with new skills and abilities. New da’I’s (callers) must be able to think strategically, must be multilingual and has good knowledge of comparative religion,” insisted Ahmad Azam.

Organizing its 32nd Annual conference Saturday, the ABIM invited several Islamic leaders from Thailand, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Pakistan to debate on the future of Islam in a world which is increasingly in opposition to the faith of more than a billion Muslims.

It is the largest and most popular youth movement in Malaysia and is campaigning for the establishment of Islamic laws in the everyday life of Muslims in Malaysia. It is currently pursuing its da’wah efforts and is urging the authorities in Malaysia to expand the Sharia to cover not only the banking and financial sectors but also the legal and educational dimensions too.