A

man dressed in Muslim garb handed out flyers to people passing the Muhammad Ramadhan Mosque in Pekayon, Bekasi, West Java, on Wednesday night.

The flyer was an invitation for local Muslims to wholeheartedly reject the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) during a halal bihalal (post-Idul Fitri gathering) at the mosque. Hundreds of local people attended the event, which consisted of prayers and speeches on the evils of ISIL.

Photos of people declaring their support for ISIL on Feb. 15 were also shown on the flyer, including Syamsudin Uba, Bahrum Syah and Said Sungkar, who were said to have once been in Afghanistan as jihadists.

'€œI don'€™t want this mosque to be tainted by teachings that encourage the use of violence, slander and open hatred against other religions and Muslims. These must be false teachings. This is Indonesia, we are not in conflict like Iraq or Syria,'€ Kyai Abdul Hadi, a Muslim cleric from South Bekasi, told The Jakarta Post.

The two-story mosque nestled between shop-houses and an office building is where Indonesian ISIL supporters were sworn in as members of the militant group at the beginning of August. Although the local residents detected the group'€™s presence in January, they did not really understand the violent spirit behind ISIL'€™s ideology.

'€œWe only realized [about the ideology] after ISIL'€™s brutal actions were revealed. It went right over us,'€ Abdul said. He added that residents started to worry about the presence of ISIL supporters due to their tendency to give lectures inciting hatred among local Muslims and against other religions.

'€œIn the end, local authorities took over the mosque'€™s management from the ISIL supporters after receiving recommendations from community leaders and Muslim scholars. The situation in the district is now under control,'€ he said.

Hafiz Nurhadi, one of the mosque'€™s teen organizers, concurred and said that the mosque was taken over from ISIL supporters in April with the help of local youths because their presence and activities had caused unease among local people.

'€œ[ISIL supporters] once attacked the South Bekasi Police station, next to the mosque, and demanded the release of an arrested colleague. They cursed at police officers and administration officers. I saw them bar a pregnant woman from entering the mosque. Incidents like these sparked anger among the local Muslim community,'€ he said.

Hafiz added that several youth groups had suggested using force to eject ISIL supporters, most of them from other province, from the regency, but informal and formal Muslim leadership advised them against it.

Bekasi Police intelligence head Comr. Maryono said ISIL supporters were an extremely exclusive group that did not want to be led in prayer or listen to lectures by people outside of their organization. '€œThey treat people outside their group as the enemy, as infidels,'€ he said.

Maryono said the police were monitoring 60 to 70 members of the management board of six other mosques who were believed to have adopted ISIL ideology.

'€œThirty to 40 people from outside Bekasi have been identified and detected to have propagandized ISIL ideology. The police have gathered all information on their personnel and activities and Densus 88 [antiterror squad] recently arrested one of their members in Jatiasih [Bekasi],'€ Maryono said.

On Wednesday midnight, the event'€™s organizing committee asked all Muslims waiting outside the mosque to enter and later Hafiz read out the mosque'€™s official rejection of ISIL teachings and activities.

'€œWe wholeheartedly reject ISIL doctrine, ideology and its supporters, who could undermine NKRI [unitary state of Indonesia],'€ he said. (fss)