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REUTERS, Tuesday September 25 5:03 AM ET
Indonesians Sign Up for Holy War in Afghanistan
JAKARTA (Reuters) - A hardline Muslim youth group in Indonesia said on Tuesday more than 200 of its members had signed up to participate in a possible holy war against the United States in Afghanistan (news - web sites).
The Islamic Youth Movement (GPI), which claims to have several thousand members, said it had links with Afghanistan's ruling Taliban but did not give further details or say how it was funded.
``We officially opened the registration on Sunday and up until now we have 225 people signed up to join a holy war in Afghanistan,'' GPI commander Hardiansyah told Reuters.
Hardiansyah, in his late twenties, said the GPI also backed moves by other radical Muslim groups in Indonesia to round up American citizens for expulsion.
The anti-American push has been growing in the world's largest Muslim country but there have been no reports of violence against U.S. citizens.
In Indonesia's second largest city of Surabaya on Tuesday, around 200 people rallied outside the American consulate, burned a U.S. flag and chanted ``God is great'' and ``America is an enemy of Islam.''
The United States has accused Afghanistan of protecting Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), the prime suspect over the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington in which nearly 7,000 people are believed to have died.
Protesters in the East Java capital, some 420 miles east of Jakarta, also called on President Megawati Sukarnoputri not to back Washington if it attacks Afghanistan.
Megawati, currently in the United States, has not yet declared her stand on possible U.S. retaliation.
Another rally was staged outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta on Tuesday where protesters demanded the government cut ties with Canberra following the burning of a mosque in the northern state of Queensland last week.
``We condemn that barbaric attack and ask the Australian government to harshly punish those responsible for the torching of the mosque,'' Mohammad Isnaeni, chairman of the Sabab Hidayatullah Muslim group said.
Peaceful rallies were also staged. About 100 Muslim students gathered outside the U.S. embassy in Jakarta amid tight security, shouting ``peace for all.''
Vice-President Hamzah Haz tried to calm rising anti-U.S. tensions among Indonesia' Muslims by cautioning the United States against waging a war against Islam.
But the leading Muslim politician also condemned the anti-U.S. mood, including a raid on international hotels in central Java on Sunday by scores of Muslim men who warned U.S. citizens to leave.
``We disagree with this sweeping,'' Haz told reporters.
About 90 percent of Indonesia's 210 million people are Islam.
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