SURABAYA, 10 March 2003 — Up to 800,000 people gathered in Indonesia’s second-largest city of Surabaya yesterday to pray for peace in the biggest anti-Iraq war event yet in the world’s most populous Muslim nation.
Officials with the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia’s leading Islamic group and organizer of the prayer rally, estimated 700,000 to 800,000 people poured into a military parade ground in Surabaya for the event, which broke up peacefully at midday.
“We are not defending Saddam Hussein but we are simply defending humanity, justice and world order,” Fachruddin Masturoh, NU’s deputy head, told the crowd.
Elsewhere in Asia, tens of thousands of supporters of Pakistani Islamic parties rallied yesterday in the northern city of Rawalpindi to denounce the US plans, and thousands turned out in anti-war protests in Japan on Saturday.
Indonesian politicians and religious leaders fear a US attack on Iraq could spark a severe backlash in the strongly Muslim county, where moderates as well as militants have been highly critical of US policy in the Middle East.
“Radicalism will get its momentum, because they could say America has conducted violence ... We won’t be listened to anymore,” Hasyim Muzadi, chief of the 40-million strong NU told Reuters ahead of yesterday’s rally.
A similar peaceful event took place in Jakarta where around 5,000 Muslims gathered at the National Monument in front of the heavily guarded US Embassy, after attending a regular weekly religious gathering at the capital’s grand mosque.
The protesters carried banners that read, “No war, no blood, no killings,” and “Stop killing people.”
Influential Muslim preacher Abdullah Gymnastiar, who led the rally, submitted an open letter for President George W. Bush to an official at the embassy demanding that the United States not attack Iraq.
Muhammad Rizieq, chief of Indonesia’s militant Islamic Defenders’ Front, underscored that warning.
“If the war starts tomorrow, the next day we will have thousands of new Osama Bin Ladens who will be ready to destroy US facilities anywhere on earth,” he told Reuters.
Officials have said such threats should not be taken as a measure of what would happen, but have acknowledged there will be massive protests in the event of war.
Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda told the gathering he hoped they would set a peaceful example for other anti-war actions and help change US President George W. Bush’s policies. “Hopefully, he can open his ears and listen and open his heart too,” he said.
Many of the men, wearing white or traditional Batik shirts, colorful sarongs and Muslim caps, and women with long colorful dresses and veils, walked to the site. Thousands of buses, trucks and vans brought others from elsewhere in East Java province.
“I left at one in the morning with my mosque congregation from Magetan and reached here around four,” said 35-year-old Munawir, squatting behind a loudspeaker near the main stage.
Munawir insisted he had no ill feeling toward the United States but said: “I hope they can wipe their desire for war from their hearts.”
Asked after the prayers whether opposition could be as peaceful if Iraq is attacked, NU chief Muzadi said: “I can’t say that now, because we need to discuss this with other groups. But Indonesia should not be torn apart because of that war.”
