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Universities bow to religious hard-liners

Jakarta Post - January 22, 2016

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Bambang Muryanto, Yogyakarta – Academic freedom and freedom of expression are under threat in Yogyakarta as several universities have reportedly bowed to pressure from hard-line Islamic organizations.

The State Islamic University (UIN) Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta has canceled a lecture by scholar Muhsin Labib of the Shia-oriented Sadra Islamic Study College of Jakarta due to pressure from the Islamic Peoples Forum (FUI).

On its website, the university announced that the cancelation of the lecture, which had been scheduled for Thursday, was part of an agreement made in a meeting with the FUI last week.

UIN Sunan Kalijaga deputy rector Ruhaini said the university had accepted the FUI's objections to the planned lecture, because according to the FUI, Labib tended to be provocative. She said UIN was not a place of contest between Sunni and Shia teachings.

"We refused to ban Shia studies, which have been conducted at the university since the 1960s," she said.

Separately, the chairman of the RausyanFikr Foundation, which is widely reported as a Shia study group, AM Safwan, said that for those opposed to Shia beliefs, Muhsin was indeed seen as provocative.

It is not the first time campus activities have been canceled due to pressure from hard-line groups. On Jan. 8, 2015, the Yogyakarta Muhammadiyah University's (UMY) School of Engineering failed to hold a planned screening of Joshua Oppenheimer's Senyap (the Look of Silence).

Taufiq Akbar of the organizing committee said the school had banned the screening of the film as it was seen to be defending the victims of the 1965 communist purge.

UMY's spokesperson Frizki Yulianti said the dean office of the school did not want students to be victims of Senyap, which still caused controversy in the community.

On Dec. 12, the director of a performing art piece entitled Cintaku di Kampus Biru (My Love on the Blue Campus) by Teater Gadjah Mada (TGM), Irfanuddin Ghozali, said he had been required to apologize and hand over the script of the play prior to the performance, following the distribution of the play's poster depicting two girls who were about to kiss each other.

"I felt oppressed, being required to hand over the script prior to the performance. This is reminiscent of what happened in the past," Irfanuddin said.

On Dec. 4, Gadjah Mada University's center of cultural studies moved a transgender art performance to an off-campus venue because the university reportedly refused to grant permission for the performance.

The director of the center, Aprinus Salam, denied the allegations, saying no such pressure had been exerted by the university. "We had received text messages threatening to obstruct the event. We just did not feel comfortable," he said.

UGM's spokesperson Iva Ariani said the university fully protected academic freedom and freedom of expression as long as they complied with the values of the campus, ethics and politeness.

UGM lecturer and activist Arie Sujito said the power of universities had been continuously decreasing and had been undermined by a group of people. He expressed hope the government take guarantee and protect academic freedom. "The universities should be united in fighting against this," he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/22/universities-bow-religious-hard-liners.html.