Militant Islamic Congress Is Sparsely Attended in Indonesia

SOLO, Indonesia, Aug. 10 — Menacing looking young men with their heads wrapped in Arabic scarves guarded the foot of an outdoor stage and others guided guests to their seats for the opening of a militant Islamic congress here in central Java today.

The meeting of a group founded by the country’s best-known Islamic militant, Abu Bakar Bashir, was supposed to show that the radical Islamic movement was very much alive despite the fact that Mr. Bashir is now on trial on treason charges. Mainstream politicians, including Vice President Hamza Haz, have embraced Mr. Bashir in the past.

But only a relatively small crowd of several thousand turned up, leading the organizers to hold the ceremony under tarpaulins outside the walls of the city stadium, instead of inside the arena.

Furthermore, none of the invited mainstream politicians showed up.

Most notably, Mr. Haz, who was listed on the program, did not come. Nor did Din Syamsuddin, a top official of Muhammadiyah, one of the nation’s largest Muslim organizations. Hidayat Murwahid, the leader of the Justice Party, an increasingly popular group that wants to impose Islamic Shariah law on Indonesia, was also absent.

Today’s sparsely attended event comes five days after the bombing of the J. W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta, which killed 10 people and wounded more than 150. The Indonesian police have said the Marriott attack was almost certainly the work of Jemaah Islamiyah, a militant Islamic group founded by Mr. Bashir in the mid-1990’s and closely linked by Western officials to Al Qaeda.

Operatives of the group, which has been declared a terrorist organization by the Indonesian government, have also been declared responsible for the bombings in Bali last October that killed more than 200 people. Some leading Jemaah Islamiyah members are graduates of Mr. Bashir’s religious boarding school, a run-down complex of buildings on the outskirts of this city.

The group that met today, Majelis Mujahedeen, was founded by Mr. Bashir in 2000. In contrast to the underground Jemaah Islamiyah, it operates openly, intent on making secular Indonesia into an Islamic state.

The lack of big names may have deprived the event of the legitimacy it sought.