Laskar Jihad was burning down churches. “The hadiths clearly say that Prophet Muhammad condemned such actions and it made me think that what I was doing was wrong,” said Jumu Tuani.
“It has been narrated by ‘Umar b. al-Khattib that he heard the Messenger of Allah say: I will expel the Jews and Christians from the Arabian Peninsula and will not leave any but Muslim.” (Sahih Muslim 4366)
On the basis of that hadith, the Saudi Grand Mufti has called for the destruction of all the churches on the Arabian Peninsula.
And there are others:
“Narrated `Aisha: Um Habiba and Um Salama mentioned a church they had seen in Ethiopia and in the church there were pictures. When they told the Prophet of this, he said, ‘Those people are such that if a pious man amongst them died, they build a place of worship over his grave and paint these pictures in it. Those people will be Allah’s worst creatures on the Day of Resurrection.'” (Sahih Bukhari 5.58.213)
Allah’s worst creatures! It isn’t difficult to imagine Muslims destroying such places of worship, and thinking themselves righteous in doing so.
“It was narrated that Talq bin ‘Ali said: ‘We went out as a delegation to the Prophet; we gave him our oath of allegiance and prayed with him. We told him that in our land there was a church that belonged to us. We asked him to give us the leftovers of his purification (Wudu’ water). So he called for water, performed Wudu’ and rinsed out his mouth, then he poured it into a vessel and said to us: “Leave, and when you return to your land, demolish your church, and sprinkle this water on that place, and take it as a Masjid.” We said: “Our land is far away and it is very hot; the water is far away and it is very hot; the water will dry up.” He said: “Add more water to it, for that will only make it better.” So we left and when we came to our land we demolished our church, then we sprinkled the water on that place and took it as a Masjid, and we called the Adhan in it. The monk was a man from Tayy’, and when he heard the Adhan, he said: “It is a true call.” Then he headed toward one of the hills and we never saw him again.'” (Sunan an-Nasa’i 1.8.702)
If Muhammad instructs new believers to demolish their church and build a mosque in its place, Muslims in Indonesia may believe they’re performing a righteous act by demolishing churches in which Muhammad is not acknowledged as a prophet.
“Narrated Abdullah ibn Abbas: The Messenger of Allah concluded peace with the people of Najran on condition that they would pay to Muslims two thousand suits of garments, half of Safar, and the rest in Rajab, and they would lend (Muslims) thirty coats of mail, thirty horses, thirty camels, and thirty weapons of each type used in battle. Muslims will stand surely for them until they return them in case there is any plot or treachery in the Yemen. No church of theirs will be demolished and no clergyman of theirs will be turned out. There will be no interruption in their religion until they bring something new or take usury. Isma’il said: They took usury. Abu Dawud said: If they violate any provision of the treaty, they will be deemed as bringing something new.” (Sunan Abu Dawud 3035)
That is, their churches will not be demolished as long as they obey the Muslim dictates. But if they violate them, their churches will be demolished.
So it is good that Jumu Tuani has mended his ways, but he will not be able to sway other jihadis to lay down their arms if they are aware of these ahadith and others like them.
“Terror convicts call for better grasp of Islam,” by Fedina S. Sundaryani, The Jakarta Post, September 16 2015:
Several terrorism convicts have spoken out against radicalism and urged young Muslims to gain a better understanding of Islamic teachings so as to not go astray in learning the religion.
Forty five-year-old Jumu Tuani, one of the former commanders of the Laskar Jihad paramilitary group in Ambon, Maluku, said on Tuesday that one of the main reasons many young Indonesians fell prey to militant groups was because of their misinterpretation of Islamic texts such as the Koran and hadith, a compilation of the sayings and deeds of Prophet Muhammad.
“You have to remember that some of [the Koran and hadith] are textual while others are contextual. We cannot interpret it as we wish,” he said during an anti-radicalism seminar in Padang, West Sumatra.
Laskar Jihad was founded in 2000 by Jafar Umar Thalib, an Indonesian who had fought in Afghanistan during the 1980s, and was largely created following the outbreak of sectarian violence between Muslim and Christian groups in Maluku and North Maluku. Thousands were thought to have been killed in the conflict and many said they witnessed forced conversions.
Jumu, who has yet to complete two of the six years of his term at a prison in Cianjur, West Java, said that he had first realized the error of his ways when Laskar Jihad started to burn down churches and justified their actions using the Koran.
“The hadiths clearly say that Prophet Muhammad condemned such actions and it made me think that what I was doing was wrong. However, at the time I was fueled by anger from the conflict,” he said.
“I was honestly grateful when Densus 88 [the National Police’s counterterrorism unit] caught me in 2002 because I had been thinking about giving myself up.”
Jumu said that he now spent most of his time having discussions with his fellow terrorist inmates and trying to convince them to repent. He added that peaceful teachings should be taught more at Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) and that students should be taught to read and interpret religious texts more carefully.
“When I reviewed my own religion, I realized that what I had done was wrong, so it all comes back to knowledge. Jihad, at its very core, is based on knowledge and understanding,” he said.
Yudi Zulfahri, who bad been involved in militant groups in Aceh, emphasized that many terrorist group members joined because they had an inert desire to help their fellow Muslims in need.
“This enthusiasm that they have can be a good thing, we just have to encourage them to channel it in different ways, such as by compiling charity money for Muslims who are suffering abroad,” he said.
However, he made an exception with the Islamic State (IS) movement, which he claimed was a “deviant sect that misunderstood Islam and used the religion to justify the killing of fellow Muslims”….