AT THE height of the Israeli military offensive in Gaza, Indonesia's second largest Muslim organisation, Muhammadiyah, was put in a spot when the internet was abuzz for several weeks about its supposed ties with Israel.
Websites like hidayatullah.com, arrahmah.com, and Eramuslim.com, said that Muhammadiyah signed an agreement with Israel's state-run emergency medical service Magen David Adom (MDA) in Tel Aviv in October last year.
It involved cooperation in emergency medical service signed by a senior member of Muhammadiyah's management board, Dr Sudibyo Markus, who was on an official visit to Israel.
But Muhammadiyah chairman Din Syamsuddin flatly denies it.
"That's not true," said Mr Din Syamsuddin in a statement posted at the organisation's website.
In a statement to The Straits Times, the Muhammadiyah said that the agreement was between an Indonesian ambulance service foundation (Yayasan Ambulance Gawat Darurat 118) and the MDA.
"There was no memorandum of understanding signed between Muhammadiyah and the MDA," it said.
As to the presence of the Muhammadiyah official at the ceremony, it said: "Dr Sudibyo Markus was only a witness."
But the denial came too late for the websites as they had already been swarmed with postings, lambasting Muhammadiyah. Indonesian newspapers did not even carry it.
Indonesian legislator Sutan Batugana told Hidayatullah-online: "Neither the government nor any local organisations should open any kind of cooperation with Israel, until they return the Palestinian land back to its people."
Ironically the organisation which signed the agreement with Israel was spared the venomous attack.
Nevertheless, Yayasan's head of operations, Dr Suhartono defended the cooperation. He told The Straits Times: "We forge ties with the Israeli organisation because we can learn a lot from its experience and expertise in emergency and rescue service."
The foundation was set up in 1971 to run an ambulance service for government clinics and hospitals mainly in Jakarta. It now focuses mainly on the training of emergency medical personnel across the country while farming out its ambulance service to various government hospitals.
Nevertheless, this is really bad timing for a Muslim group to be seen as collaborating with an Israeli organisation at a time when there's so much world wide anger over the offensive in Gaza.