Indonesians rally around Gaza cause

By Lucy Williamson
BBC News, Jakarta

Hendro Kurniawan is preparing for his first ever trip overseas. His destination: Gaza.

Hendro Kurniawan is ready to fight for his Palestinian "brothers and sisters"

It is the only destination on offer at the makeshift recruitment centre he has come to. After weeks of watching the Israeli attacks on Gaza on the nightly news, Hendro is signing up for Holy War.

"It's a calling for Muslims to help their Muslim brothers and sisters," he told me, "so if we're called to war, we must go immediately."

The recruitment post is run by an Indonesian militant group called the Islamic Defenders Front. One of their members carefully takes down Hendro's details. To wage jihad these days, you need to fill out a form, supply two passport photos, and get permission from your mum and dad.

"I wanted to sign up before, during the Afghanistan and Lebanon wars," said Hendro, "but my parents and my wife wouldn't give me permission. This time I really insisted. Palestine is the land of our prophets - all our major prophets including Muhammad - so I think we have to defend it."

The Islamic Defenders Front, known by its Indonesian initials FPI, says it has already signed up 5,000 people. That is hard to verify; it seems even more unlikely that many of them will actually reach Gaza. But that is only half the story here.

Muslim connection

Talk to Indonesians crowded around the lunchtime food stalls here, or whiling away a quiet day's business in the market, and many of them say they agree with groups like the FPI sending fighters to Gaza.

Only one destination available at the recruitment post

The government does not. Local papers have carried almost daily warnings from ministers and other state officials highlighting the dangers, the pointlessness and the consequences of military jihad.

But then many Indonesians see the conflict in Gaza in very different terms to their government.

Indonesia has never been comfortable with an "Islamic" foreign policy. Support for the Palestinians, it says, is about protecting human rights, about rejecting occupation - not simply about support for fellow Muslims. But for many of the voters here, it is that simple.

Yuni is a hairdresser in one of Jakarta's labyrinthine markets. "The majority of Indonesians are Muslim," she said "and I heard that the majority of people there are Muslims too, and they're suffering, so we need to help them."

Other nearby stallholders agreed.

Brand power

The government's actions - sending medical aid and calling on the UN to act - have gone down well with many people here, but that does not rule out their approval of other measures, and other groups, too.

Analysts like Luthfi Assyaukanie, head of the Liberal Islam Network, believe issues like this highlight the way Islam's power as a brand, as an identity here, is growing.

"If you ask whether Indonesian people would choose an Islamic system for the country or a more pluralistic one, most would choose pluralism, but if you break it down to issues like whether they support alcohol being available, or pornography, or mixed-religion marriages, most would say no."

When it comes to politics, Indonesians tend to vote for secular, nationalist parties far more than Islamic ones, and if the current polls are to be believed, that does not show much sign of changing.

But that does not mean politicians here are not tapping the new power of the Islamic brand.

Policy challenge

Protests about the Gaza assault have drawn wide support

Thousands of people marched through the streets of Jakarta earlier this month to demand an end to the Israeli attacks. The protest was organised by the Prosperous Justice Party, arguably Indonesia's most vibrant Muslim opposition.

It was a slick move - parading their Islamic identity just months before election season here.

And analysts like Luthfi Assyaukanie believe it is also the reason why some of those secular nationalist politicians have been spotted supporting Islamically flavoured laws.

But Gaza is a tricky one. Allowing local bans on alcohol or new curbs on public sensuality is one thing, foreign policy quite another.

Indonesia is not an Islamic state, and the country is mostly proud of its pluralist constitution. But it is also home to the world's largest population of Muslims, and in negotiating issues like the attacks on Gaza, balancing the two is a fine line to tread.