Islam Forbids Robbery for Whatever Reason

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Muslim leader Hasyim Muzadi has denied that in Islam it is alright to commit robberies as long as the victims are kafir or infidels.

Such a a belief is allegedly held by terror suspects who recently committed the crime in West and North Sumatra.

"Whatever the reason or motive, robbing people is haram (forbidden in Islam). What Islam does allow is dividing the spoils of war but a war can only be declared by the state, not by groups of people or individuals," Hasyim Muzadi, former chairman of Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia’s largest Muslim organization, said here Monday.

"So, no robbery may be committed in the name of religion," he said. Hasyim was commenting on National Police Chief Gen Bambdang Hendarso Danuri’s recent expose of recent robberies committed by terror suspects, including on the CIMB Niaga Bank in Medan, North Sumatra.

Bambang said captured terror suspects had justified their actions by citing an alleged Islamic teaching that allows robberies of people who were kafir (infidels), They also did it because they did not recognize the state that adhered to a concept different from  their own.

"If these people (terror suspects) have declared a war on their own, they must be crushed," Hasyim said.

On the other hand,  Hasyim criticized the way in which the police were conducting their anti-terror campaign because it tended to emulate the tactics used by the United States during the George W Bush administration , namely attacking those suspected as being terrorists or conducting preemptive strikes.

Those tactics , according Hasyim, had proven ineffective and had even put the US in a difficult position so that since President Barack Obama took over they were abandoned and replaced with West-Islam reconciliation.

"Strangely, in Indonesia where the other day terrorists were put on trial and sentenced to death, this outdated preemptive strike method has won international acclaim," he said. 

If these tactics continued to be implemented without coordination with other armed force branches, and without the support of Indonesia’s Muslim community, the Indonesian police will in the end exhaust themselves while the terror groups will increase in militancy, he said.

The more so, Hasyim said, the police’s image was at present such that it was not enjoying the public’s optimal trust and charges of terrorism always still needed to be proven through the transparency of the courts.

"The police chief’s references to  Al Qaidah, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan in his expose also needs to be proven because these countries are actually not quite in accord with one another," he said.