ULEMA FORUM WANTS ROTARY, LION'S CLUB ACTIVITIES BANNED

Bandung, West Java, Jan 31 (ANTARA) - The Forum of the Indonesian Community's Ulema (FUUI) wants the government to ban Rotary Club and Lion's Club activities in the country because they endanger the people's religious life, an FUUI spokesman said.
FUUI was demanding that the government revoke Presidential Decree No 69/2000 which allows the two organisations' existence, and reenact Presidential Decree No 264/1962 which had banned them, FUUI chairman KH Atian Ali Muhammad Da'i said here Saturday.
"We are making this demand because, acccording to facts and data we have collected, the existence of Freemason organizations such as Rotary Club and Lion's Club in Indonesia can threaten the established religious faiths in the country," Da'i said.
He said ever since former President Abdurrahman Wahid annulled Presidential Decree No 264/1962 and issued Presidential Decree No 69/2000, the activities of the two Freemason organizations in Indonesia had increased.
Yet, all religions in the world had prohibited their adherents to take part in Freemason activities or become a member of Freemason organizations because it would endanger their religious life. In fact, Da'i said, even the Vatican had also issued such a ban in 1950.
He noted that members of Rotary Club or Lion's Club were not ordinary people. They were experts in many sectors and had control over massive numbers of people. If such organizations were allowed to continue to operate in Indonesia, the very existence of religious communities in the country would be threatened, he said.
All this time, Da'i said, the general public only knew the two organizations by their humanitarian activities and considered them harmless to the people's life.
"Rotary Club and Lion's Club are not humanitarian organizations. They are linked to the Freemason movement established by Israel's Zionists," Da'i said.
He also urged all Moslems who had joined either of the two clubs to immediately terminate their membership.
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