The Jakarta Post, 11/26/2003 1:37:12 PM
Australian politician warns of aggressive Islamic threat in
Indonesia
SYDNEY (AFP) : Australia's most powerful Labor Party leader and the premier of its
largest state has warned the country to prepare for the threat of an aggressive Islamic
government in Indonesia.
New South Wales state Premier Bob Carr, also widely touted as a possible
successor to embattled federal Labor opposition leader Simon Crean, said in a
speech late Tuesday that Australia increasingly had to think about threats to its
security in the region.
"We must think about the possibility of an Islamist Indonesia," he told an audience of
business leaders and foreign policy specialists.
"It was only 10 years ago that we were being reassured that an aggressive Islamism
would be inconceivable in Indonesia. Now, Islamic schools across Java are full of
Arabic language materialfocused on the Middle East and well disposed to Osama bin
Laden."
Carr delivered his warning as the Indonesian Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir was
reported here to have sought to fire up fellow Muslim prisoners with a speech branding
the U.S., Christians and Jews a "Satanic group."
Ba'asyir, alleged spiritual leader the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terror network who was
jailed for four years for treason in September, also blamed Australia for a ban on him
delivering his jail cell tirade accusing the U.S., Christians and Jews of tryingto destroy
Islam.
Ba'asyir, had planned to tell his fellow Muslim inmates in Jakarta's Salemba prison
they should fight against what he called "a Satanic group" which said was led by the
U.S. government and which included Zionist Jews and extremist Christians.
The Australian newspaper said in a report from Jakarta that after prison authorities
withdrew permission for him to deliver the speech personally it was printed in booklet
form and distributed to prisoners and journalists.
Ba'asyir reportedly said the U.S. government "and its lackeys" had "resurrected their
desire for war against Muslims, they have already beaten the drums of war against
Islam and its followers." The "cursed ones' crusade has flared again."
Australian officials later scoffed at the suggestion they were responsible for Ba'asyir's
speech being banned.
All contents copyright © of The Jakarta Post.
|
