Islam, Nationalism and Democracy: A Political Biography of Mohammad Natsir

Chapter 9. The Closing Years

The Closing Years 181 9 The Closing Years Activities in the International Arena After the advent of the New Order regime, while Natsir was largely excluded from the domestic political scene in Indonesia he devoted increasing attention to developments in the international arena, and, through the Dewan Da’wah Islamiyah Indonesia (DDII), forged ties between the Islamic community in Indonesia and Muslim movements in the Middle East. He was held in high esteem abroad, and leaders in other Islamic countries, especially Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Malaysia, welcomed his perspective and insights. In 1967, shortly after his release from detention, he visited Jordan and other Middle Eastern countries. Together with religious leaders from Pakistan, Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia and Kuwait, he was invited to view the impact of the Six-Day War and the occupation of Palestine. His visits to the Palestinian refugee camps made a deep impression on him. On his return home he told his countrymen “how ashamed he had felt at seeing relief coming from India and many other countries but not from Indonesia.”1 At a meeting in Amman during that same trip Natsir was appointed to head a delegation to discuss the Palestinian problem with the leaders of other Muslim countries in the Middle 1 Martin van Bruinessen, “Modernism and Anti-Modernism in Indonesian Muslim Response to Globalisation.” Paper presented at the Workshop “Islam and Development in Southeast Asia: Southeast Asian Muslim Responses to Globalization,” organized by JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) Research Institute, Singapore, November 21‒22, 2009, p. 2. Appearing on Dr. van Bruinessen’s website. 181 182 Islam, Nationalism and Democracy East.2 He was also chosen as vice-president of the Karachi-based World Muslim Congress (Mutamar al-Alam al-Islami), a position he held for most of the rest of his life. The ties he established during this visit both with King Faisal of Saudi Arabia and with the World Muslim Congress were to have a strong influence over his activities and over the relationship between Indonesian Muslims and those in the Middle East during the next twenty years. His close friendship with the Saudi king was influential on the development of the DDII; in addition, the king’s open expressions of respect for Natsir undoubtedly protected him against serious reprisals from the Suharto government when he was too outspoken in his criticism of its actions. His receipt of the “Faisal Award” for his services to Islam in 1980 provided an added protection. * * * Natsir’s initial visit to Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia after his release from detention occurred at a time of Islamic resurgence in the Middle East in the aftermath of the defeat of Arab armies in the 1967 war against Israel, which had done much to discredit the nationalist regimes of the region. The resurgence drew on ideas first promulgated by Hassan al-Banna and the Muslim Brotherhood, the organization he had established in Egypt in 1928, Natsir with King Faisal on his visit to Indonesia in 1972. 2 These included Sudan, Lebanon, Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The Closing Years 183 “with the express goal of counteracting Western influences” in the region.3 The ideas of the Brotherhood stressed the equality of all Muslims in their need to seek God’s guidance through the Qu’ran and the example of the Prophet, as well as Islam’s ability to provide the moral precepts for a just social order. By 1948 the organization “constituted a strong force in Egyptian politics,”4 and numbered among its adherents Sayyid Qutb, “one of the original theorists of modern Islamism.”5 During the inter-war years a modus vivendi had existed between the Brotherhood and Egypt’s secular nationalists because of the conviction of both groups that their first task was to move toward political independence and bring an end to European dominance. Their cooperation came to an end, however, after the assassination of al-Banna in 1949 and Nasser’s seizure of power in Egypt in 1952.6 At first Nasser tried to co-opt the Brotherhood, but his ideas and those of other nationalists conflicted with the Muslim group’s vision of the post-independence state. After an assassination attempt against him in 1954, which he blamed on the Brotherhood, Nasser banned the movement and over the subsequent decade tried to annihilate its members, jailing or exiling them and executing their leaders.7 Many left the country. On August...