REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Indonesian Muslim Preachers Forum (FUUI) Chairman KH Athian Ali said Muslims, especially women with niqab to be patient with slanders and negative image against them following a number of terror attacks in Indonesia. He asserted that Islam and niqab are not related to terrorism.
According to Kiai Athian, Islam does not forbid niqab, but also not require Muslim women to wear it. Muslim women have the right to decide whether they wanted to wear niqab or not.
Kiai Athian said, Muslim women's right to wear niqab has to be protected. "Be patient with the slander related to niqab and let's unite with government to combat terrorism," said Athian on Friday (May 25).
Athian said terrorism issue is not just a slander for Muslims who wear niqab or bearded man. However, it is also a tremendous slander for Islam.
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He believed terrorism issue is deliberately made by the mastermind of crime, in order to destroy Islam image. Athian said all the terror perpetrators did not reflect Islamic teachings.
Athian appreciated government's statement that said terrorists not linked with Islam. Government believed terrorists are part of Islamic State (ISIS). He argued the terror group is created by Jewish and the United States.
Last week, a Muslim preacher Ahmad Zaki Ali held social experiment titled "Ada Apa dengan Cadar" (What's wrong with niqab). The video that he shared on Facebook has gone viral.
In the video, two Muslim women with niqab and a bearded man with ankle pants hold a poster saying "hug me if you feel safe with my existence". They got many hugs from pedestrians. People lauded and touched with the social experiment.
Ali made the social experiment because the series of suicide bombs attacks in Surabaya, East Java and Pekanbaru, Riau province have triggered Islamophobia among the society. "People are afraid especially to those with niqab and man with bearded and ankle pants," Ali explained.
Ali said niqab users and bearded men or men with ankle pants felt uncomfortable with the negative images attached to them. Inspired by the similar social experiment in France and Britain, Ali conducted it in Jakarta with hope that it will reduce the stigma.
Earlier, Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Saifuddin called on the people not to discriminate and to respect women with niqab. He acknowledged stigma attached to women who cover their face except the eyes following terror attacks.
"We must respect those who wear niqab as well as others who wear religious attributes," he said in Jakarta on Friday (May 18).
On the other hand, the minister asked women with niqab to blend in the society. He believed prejudice will subside if Muslim women who wear niqab did not live exclusively.
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