HTI Spokesman: No Need to Fear Pew Survey that Seven Out of Ten Indonesian Want Sharia Law

The results of the Pew survey which said that seven out of ten Indonesian Muslims want sharia as a legal code, according to Ismail Yusanto should not be feared. “Don’t be afraid, but it should be followed up because it is the aspiration of the countrymen!” , said the Spokesman of Hizb ut-Tahrir Indonesia to mediaumat.com, Saturday (4/5).

Previously, Jakarta Post released response of a leading secular figure related to the survey result of US-based Pew Research Center on 30 April.

Adjie Alfaraby, for example, a researcher from Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI), said that this finding should be taken seriously.

While Azyumardi Azra, Director of Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University, questioned the extent to which the results of the survey reflected the truth. “72 percent of the figure doesn’t make any sense,” he told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday (2/5).

He argued that the majority of Indonesian Muslims join major organizations such as Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah who “support” the state ideology of Pancasila and promote moderation in the application of Islamic teachings.

In response to the statement, Ismail said that it is the result of the survey. As long as the method is valid, then the result should also be considered valid. The survey results also confirm the previous results which produce more or less the same number. “The bottom line is quite a lot, there are more than two-thirds of Indonesian Muslims who do want sharia law,” he explained.

Ismail also said: “The survey is a personal statement which has nothing to do with the organization.”

The 226-page of  Pew report on public opinion was survey carried out from 2008 to 2012 in 39 countries and territories in Africa, Asia and Europe, involving 38,000 respondents.

In Indonesia alone, the research center conducts face-to-face interviews with 1,880 Indonesian Muslims in 19 provinces from 28 October to 19 November 2011. This study has a margin of error of 3.4 percent.

The study says that 72 percent of Indonesian Muslims support Islamic law as a legal code, as compared to 86 percent in Malaysia and 77 percent in Thailand. [] Joko Prasetyo