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San Francisco Chronicle, Tuesday, October 23, 2001
Jihad recruiters find willing volunteers in Indonesia Hundreds sign up to help Afghans fight against U.S.
Jakarta -- Aisyah, a housewife with two teenage sons, longs to become a martyr fighting U.S. ground troops in Afghanistan.
The 38-year-old, heavyset woman says she has already informed her sons that if "I die over there, you must follow."
Aisyah is one of hundreds of Indonesians who recently enlisted to wage jihad against the United States in a recruitment drive organized by the 10,000- member Islamic Youth Movement. In 10 days, the group signed up 776 volunteers, including 18 women to join units of mujahedeen, or "holy warriors" in Afghanistan.
"We want to show the Islamic world an example of Islamic solidarity," said Iqbal Siregar, the group's 34-year-old director, as he waited for two young men to fill out applications.
Despite Aisyah's determination, she and most other volunteers are unlikely to train with real weapons or receive funds to travel to Afghanistan. In fact, even if she did go, the ultra-religious Taliban would never allow a woman to fight on the battlefield.
And in a page out of a bad comic opera, the recruiters say they are looking for a location in tropical Indonesia that resembles the mountains of the Hindu Kush to acclimate the volunteers to the "extraordinarily cold nights over there," said Siregar.
But few are laughing at the rising anti-U.S sentiment these volunteers represent, which could radicalize this nation of 210 million people, nearly 90 percent of whom are Muslim.
Handriansyah, the tough-talking commander of the Islamic Youth Movement "jihad brigade," vows to expel all Americans from Indonesia, destroy the U.S. embassy and kill U.S. Ambassador Robert Gelbard if Afghan civilians die at the hands of American forces. The heavily guarded U.S. embassy has been the target of daily protests by Islamic groups opposed to the war.
The nation's most prominent Islamic body, the Indonesian Ulemas Council, has asked President Megawati Sukarnoputri to break diplomatic relations with the United States over the bombings. Analysts say the government is worried that radicals could become more politically powerful if the U.S. offensive escalates.
"Indonesia insists the (military) operations stay limited," Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said recently in a prepared statement.
To be sure, most Indonesians are moderates. The numbers who make up hard- line Islamic groups remain low, and most Muslims do not share the violent aims of such groups as the Islamic Defenders Front, which wants to "sweep out" Americans, or Laskar Jihad, which has waged a bloody war in the Maluku islands against Christians.
Some Islamic leaders have asked their followers not to seek reprisals against U.S. citizens. Mainstream Islamic organizations have criticized jihad recruitment, arguing that funds used to organize such initiatives would be better spent on millions of poor Afghans in need of humanitarian aid.
Azyumardi Azra, rector of Jakarta's State Institute of Islamic Studies, the nation's largest Islamic college, said he believes many would-be jihadists are just looking for something to do. About 40 million people -- more than 37 percent of Indonesia's workforce -- are unemployed, according to the national news service, Antara.
Azra says Islamic extremists have been trying to woo moderate Muslims into participating in their anti-American/Jihad movement, but "so far, have failed."
The Islamic Youth Movement's Siregar says most threats made against Americans -- including those by the group's "jihad brigade commander" -- shouldn't be taken literally. He says the recruitment program is as much an emotional outlet as an attempt to send a genuine fighting force to Afghanistan.
"We don't hate the American people. We hate imperialism, vanity and arrogance," he said, while sitting under a poster of Osama bin Laden.
But such soothing words have not convinced Gelbard, who recently closed down the embassy for a week, citing security concerns.
He also won few friends in Jakarta by publicly declaring that he doubted the Indonesian police could protect Americans. U.S. intelligence sources believe bin Laden's al Qaeda network has established small terrorist cells in Indonesia that could bomb U.S. interests or assassinate U.S. diplomats.
Government officials, however, say Gelbard overreacted. They accuse him of scaring foreign investors and repeat the refrain that there is no evidence that al Qaeda has arrived in Indonesia.
"The network does not exist here," legislator Ahmad Soemargono told reporters. "There has to be proof. If the U.S. has discovered links to the network, the government can take action."
Meanwhile, young men like Agus Kartono continue to sign up to go to Afghanistan at the Islamic Youth Movement office.
Kartono, a 23-year-old cafe janitor, said that he would have fought Christians in the Maluku islands three years ago if his parents hadn't stopped him. At the time, they told him that he must help pay for his younger brother's education.
Now, he finally has his family's permission. "Engaging in a holy war is an obligation of Islam," he said.
Kartono then filled out information about his education, work experience, health, religious books that he had read, and his motivation for joining the jihad.
Nearby, Aisyah, the would-be jihadist housewife, said that she would serve wherever needed. Her commitment, however, did not match her knowledge of Afghan politics.
"What are they called? Oh, Taliban," she said, after a visitor reminded her of the name of Afghanistan's embattled ruling militia.
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