NU TO DISCUSS TERRORISM AT 32ND CONGRESS IN JANUARY

Jakarta, Aug 19 (ANTARA) - Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), one of Indonesia's major Muslim mass oragnizations, is to discuss terrorism and the need to fight it at its 32nd congress in Makassar, South Sulawesi, in January, 2010, a spokesman said.

"One of the main topics on the congress's agenda will be terrorism because NU intends to play a role in figthing it nationally and internationally," NU Chairman KH Hasyim Muzadi said here Wednesday.

He said major Muslim organizations like NU and Muhammadiyah as well as other religion-based groups needed to play a role in the war on terror. "Unfortunately, the government seems not interested in involving moral movements in the fight," said Muzadi who is also president of the World Council on Religions for Peace (WCRP).

"Terrorism is not only the government's business. It is also the responsibility of society and religious organizations," he said.
According Muzadi, terrorism could not be effectively eradicated through a security or miltary approach alone, it also had to be countered through moral and ideological means.

A security approach alone, the more so where force or violence was used, could even breed more terrorism, he said. ***4***