56 islam, politics and change
and was in consultation with the supreme leader of the Egyptian Muslim
Brotherhood, especially in matters regarding organisational procedures
and political strategies. However, he was not under the direction of the
foreign authority. There are coordinative forums for regional as well as
international Muslim Brotherhood networks. The networks also use
the hajj pilgrimage to coordinate with each other and consult with the
Egyptian headquarters.⁶¹
Under this centralistic leadership, the jt organises recruitments and
indoctrination training through cell-like networks of activists, known
asusrohgroups, which consist of five to 12 participants supervised by a
mentor. In many cases, members of a cell do not reveal to members of
other cells who their mentor is. On their part, the mentors form further
cells, etc. There are regular activities conducted by the groups; the first
is a weekly meeting (liqo), in which members of cells meet with their
mentor to learn and discuss religious subjects, mostly theology and
prophetic history. The second is a monthly gathering (mabit) in which
cell members spend a night in a mosque, to offer night prayers and hold
in-depth discussions on certain topics with their mentors. The third is a
gathering (daurah) in which larger numbers of participants gather and
invite potential recruits, usually under cover of student events in schools
and campuses. The fourth is travelling (rihlah) in which a large number
of jt activists, accompanied by their families, travel to tourism sites to
socialise with each other in a more informal way. The fifth is outbound
(mukhayam), during which a group of jt members spends several days
out of town for physical exercise and to learn survival skills.⁶²
Among jt members there are formal as well as informal structures.
Formal structures regulate how members interact with each other, based
on seniority in joining the organisation as well as their position in the
organisation. As the organisation is composed of ramifiedusrohcells,
networks of mentors and students, on paper each member will have
certain relations with other members in terms of seniority. Informal
structures, meanwhile, deal with non-structural factors that affect the
way members interact or behave towards certain members. Commonly,
they differentiate between people who are trained in Islamic studies
and those who have a secular educational background. Among those
who hold degrees in Islamic studies, the highest and most respected are
those scholars of Islamic law (Sharia), followed by theological studies
(usul al-din), and other Islamic studies (education, history, Arabic etc).
Meanwhile, there are also degrees of seniority among those with secular
Interview with Yusuf Supendi, Jakarta.
Permata, ‘Islamist Party and Democratic Participation’, 99.