Indonesia reaffirms non-connection between extremist, Islamic boarding school

Indonesian Minister for Religion Surya Dharma Ali on Monday reaffirmed that there is no connection between extremist movement of Indonesia Islamic State (NII) with an Islamic boarding school named Al Zaytun in Indramayu region of West Java province, saying that the rumor could disgrace alumnus and students of the school.

"The Ministry for Religion didn't find any connection between NII and Al Zaytun when I visited the Islamic boarding school couple of days ago," stated Ali.

He said that a lot of people have said that he was too rush in offering the judgment as he was only a number of hours in the boarding school.

"But, if there is certainly a powerful indication of the connection, law enforcers ought to have taken actions," said Ali.

And, he said, if the school apparently is involved with the movement, police must take actions.

"The Ministry for Religion has no authority to interrogate or to confront what I've asked," he stated.

Ali stressed that he has posed "sharp questions" to the leader of Al Zaytun named Panji Gumilang.

"I asked him regardless of whether there's any connection between Al Zaytun with NII, regardless of whether Al Zaytun has the exact same way in collecting fund with NII and regardless of whether Panji Gumilang will be the leader of the Ninth Area Commander of NII for Jakarta. Principally, he said no," he said.

Based on Ali, he didn't need to take the issue too lengthy.

"If Al Zaytun is wrong, name its errors and we can fix them. If not, state that it's not wrong, so there is a certainty," he stated.

He said that all parties ought to pay attention of 7,000 graduates of Al Zaytun and students.

"We don't want them to have blur future if they're referred to as as radicalized cadres, including students there and also their parents," he stated.

He said that when he met leaders of Indonesia's National Agency for Terrorism Prevention, it has emerged a discourse of "a cat that is regarded as a tiger" in the case.

The concern of NII has been becoming headlines as Indonesia was rocked by numerous modest bombing circumstances in recent months.

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