The Star [Malaysia], Tuesday, December 9, 2003
Cleric undeterred by prison
BY AMY CHEW
[Photo: Abubakar: Continues to draw people to him from behind prison bars.]
JAKARTA: Inside a jail here, hundreds of people dressed in Muslim garb gathered
round a mosque and listened intently to the words of a bespectacled, elderly man.
"Live an honourable life. Fight until this country is governed by Syariah law," said
Abubakar Ba'asyir to shouts of "Allahu Akhbar" during a breaking of the fast in the
holy month of Ramadan in October.
Abubakar, 65, the Indonesian Muslim cleric accused by foreign governments of being
the spiritual leader of regional terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah (JI), continues to draw
people to him from behind bars.
Out of the large crowd, about 500 of them were fellow inmates. Abubakar has only
been at the Salemba prison for five months.
Previously, he was held at the national police headquarters where he complained the
presence of women and separatist Maluku leaders within his vicinity "disturbed" his
worship to God.
Dressed in his usual sarong, white shirt and skullcap, Abubakar was in good spirits -
he kept smiling and appeared to be pleased to receive so many visitors.
"Thanks be to God, I am well-treated here both by Muslims and non-Muslims," he
said.
In September, a district court sentenced him to four years' jail for plotting to overthrow
the government, forging documents and immigration violations.
Prosecutors had sought 15 years for the treason charges.
Abubakar was cleared of primary charges of involvement in terrorism and of leading JI
which is said to be linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network.
JI is accused of funding, planning and executing last year's Bali bombings which killed
202 and the Jakarta Marriott Hotel bombing last August in which 12 people died.
On Dec 1, an appeal court cut Abubakar's sentence by one year to three years and
overturned the treason conviction against him.
Since entering prison, Abubakar has been teaching his fellow prisoners how to read
the Quran at the penitentiary's mosque.
Within a short time, he managed to draw around 400 to 500 prisoners, out of a total
population of 2,700, to his classes.
"He teaches the prisoners how to read the Quran. There is nothing radical in his
teachings," said prison official Arif Gunawan.
But Gunawan admitted that Abubakar has been able to draw many people compared
with other clerics who have taught in the prison.
"I guess that's because he is charismatic and well known," said Gunawan.
Abubakar's prison audience appears to hold him with the same reverence as his
students from the Al Mukmin religious boarding school at Nguruki, in Central Java.
The leading figures in the Bali bombings were all graduates of Abubakar's school.
However, Abubakar rejected the notion that his former students were terrorists.
"Maybe the steps taken by them (bombings) were not exactly right, but they are not
terrorists. They are mujahids (warriors of God). They were attacking American
interests, defending themselves and defending Islam," he said.
He said the United States was an enemy as it sided with Israel to oppress Palestine
as well as for having attacked Afghanistan and Iraq.
"For me, fighting America is the ultimate law, compulsory in Indonesia but my
concept (of fighting America) is to break off diplomatic ties with America. Even though
this may not change its foreign policies but it will give it less room to bully Indonesia,"
he said.
Abubakar said what he called "the imperialistic" foreign policy of the United States
would end up destroying it.
"This is already in the Quran and I have once written to Bush warning him not to kill
Muslims. He (Bush) may be able to kill the followers of Islam but he can never kill
Islam.
"My message to America is - the country must repent, stop being enemies with
Islam. It is much better to make peace."
Abubakar may be deprived of his freedom but his message continues to be heard loud
and clear from behind the high walls of prison.
Prison has not dented his anger towards the United States and Jews.
Last week, on the first day of Aidilfitri, he was supposed to deliver a sermon entitled
"Noble Living or Holy Death: A struggle against Jewish Zionism".
The local daily Jakarta Post reported the sermon was cancelled at the last minute by
prison authorities who claimed that Abubakar was suffering from a sore throat.
The sermon was printed into booklets and distributed among the inmates gathered
there.
In the sermon, he reportedly called on his followers to stand against the enemies of
Allah, like the US administration and its allies.
A policeman who investigated Abubakar's case said the cleric needed to be
re-educated.
"But re-educating a cleric like Abubakar is not easy - it requires time, strategy and a
very clever religious person," the officer said. The officer, however, was not too
concerned with Abubakar's drawing power in prison.
"In prison, people are probably drawn to him because they share the same fate - that
of a prison inmate. They are just killing time. I am very sure that when the inmates are
released, they will return to their respective paths in life. Only one or two may
embrace his ideology," the officer added.
Abubakar's jailing drew protests from hardline Muslims in the country who view his
imprisonment as undermining Muslims. His lawyers are appealing for his entire
conviction to be overturned, saying his imprisonment was due to pressure from the US
government and its lackeys.
"Now that the treason charges have been dropped and he (Abubakar) is convicted
only for forgery, it is obvious that the three-year jail term is unreasonable - it is just an
attempt to keep him in jail at any cost," Abubakar's lawyer, Mahendradatta, told The
Star.
The police officer said Abubakar 's light jail sentence reflected the difficulty in
unravelling JI's network.
Some of the most incriminating evidence against Abubakar came from JI suspects
detained in Singapore who testified through video conferencing via a satellite link-up.
"But because the witnesses were not present in court and testified via video
conferencing, the evidence does not have a strong legal basis under the law here. If
they were present in court, the outcome of Abubakar's trial would have been very
different," said the officer.
Copyright © 1995-2003 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd (Co No 10894-D)
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