The Washington Times, November 17, 2003
Cleric warns Muslims linked to U.S.
By Sharon Behn, THE WASHINGTON TIMES
JAKARTA, Indonesia — The imprisoned Islamic cleric thought to be a guiding force
behind the Indonesian terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah warned that all Muslim
countries with close ties to the United States were targets for attack.
"As long as Muslim countries have close ties or support the U.S. government or U.S.
policy, [they] will be threatened by a Muslim militant attack," said Abu Bakar Bashir,
as he sat on the rough floor of the Salemba Prison, the Jakarta prison where he has
been held for the past year.
"Indonesia, Egypt, Afghan-istan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and some Mideast
countries," were all potential targets, the 66-year-old, white-bearded cleric told The
Washington Times.
Bashir was convicted last year on charges of treason. But prosecutors at the time
tried and failed to convince the court that the preacher was a leader of the militant
Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) network responsible for a string of bombings and attacks
across Southeast Asia, capped by the horrific October 2002 explosions that killed
202 persons, including many Australian and Western tourists, in the Indonesian
beach resort of Bali.
The cleric and his lawyer, Mahendradata, have rejected all charges against him,
including the one which landed him four years in prison. The Bush administration saw
the short sentence as a slap on the wrist for the JI, which reportedly has links to
Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network.
Bashir rejected Afghan President Hamid Karzai as "an American doll," and dismissed
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in the war against terrorism, as
an American lackey. He accused Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri of
neither understanding nor caring about Islam. Indonesia is 87 percent Muslim and is
the world's most populous Islamic country.
Leaders of the small Islamic states around the Persian Gulf "are too soft against
America. They are under America's influence," he continued, speaking under the gaze
of four prison guards.
"As long as they are still under U.S. control like Megawati, we cannot call them as
Muslim leaders. The Muslim leader should be free from American influence and
should have power to rule the country. A Muslim leader should control the country,
and non-Muslims in the country should obey."
According to a report on JI by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group in
August, Bashir was one of group's top leaders from late 1999 until his arrest in 2002.
He also was the founder of a Muslim "pesantren," or boarding school, committed to
the principles of Islamic holy war, or jihad. A number of the graduates of the Pondok
Ngruki school have been linked to JI attacks.
"I called on the students — the young Muslims for jihad — to help and protect Muslim
people in Afghanistan and Bosnia who suffered and were killed by non-Muslims as
their obligation, if they had enough capability and money," Bashir said.
"Some of them were then recruited and trained by many militant Muslim groups such
as al Qaeda, the [Moro Islamic Liberation Front] or Abu Sayyaf," he said, referring to
two Islamic separatist groups fighting in the Philippines. "Others only live normally."
"But, then some of them who were trained by militant Muslim groups in the
Philippines or Afghanistan committed bombings. I cannot control one by one my
students after they leave my pesantren," he said.
Like many Muslims in the region, Bashir denied the existence of Jemaah Islamiyah,
which translates roughly as "Islamic Community." Instead, he blamed al Qaeda for
last year's Bali bombing and the Aug. 5 Marriott hotel bombing in Jakarta that left 12
dead.
"If we look at the concept [the bombers] used, it was clear that they used the concept
of al Qaeda. I can say that al Qaeda was behind the attacks," he said.
Families of fellow prisoners visited during the interview, but stayed a respectful
distance away. Dressed in the traditional Muslim white cap, white tunic and sarong,
Bashir is a short, slight man, and peers through thick glasses.
But he is still a powerful figure among certain Indonesians, and he has about 400
followers in this jail, set amid a riddle of crowded city streets. Saremba holds a little
more than 2,600 prisoners, most of them sentenced for drug trafficking.
Of the roughly 14,000 pesantren schools in this largely moderate Islamic country,
only a few are under extremist militant influence. Some leaders of the new generation
of Islamic activists here have broken with Bashir's former school and set up their own
pesantrens, arguing that the aging cleric was too moderate.
"Even though they hate the Bush administration, he does not agree with the way of
these groups involved in Bali bombing and in Marriott bombing," said Mr.
Mahendradata, the lawyer, speaking later outside the prison's gray steel gates and
walls topped with razor wire. Many Indonesians go by a single name.
Inside the prison, Bashir, who later led the evening's Ramadan prayers from within an
open-air caged-in courtyard, praised bin Laden, whom the United States thinks is the
mastermind behind the September 11 attacks.
"He is the big hero, the big martyr who sacrificed his time, his wealth and his life to
defend Muslim people all over the world even though I, myself, don't agree with his
way of struggle," the cleric said.
"But I believe he is God's army. He is the army of God who has mandate to fight
against the enemies of Allah, of Islam."
Those caught in the cross fire, Mr. Bashir added in the interview held through a local
translator, were collateral damage.
"Civilians killed in the attack are a consequence of the war, the effect of unannounced
attacks. Actually, the rule of war says it is normal, and Islamic teachings say it is the
destiny of human beings to die in many ways, so if a non-Muslim died in a bomb
attack that was his or her destiny."
"That's why I don't agree with the way of al Qaeda's struggle, because its effect will hit
and kill innocent people."
The cleric blamed the increasing militancy of extremist Islamic groups on the United
States, arguing that President Bush's pro-Israel stance and his policies in Iraq and
Afghanistan threatened the existence of Islam.
"If the U.S. can change, not to be driven by Israel as the enemy of Islam, the world
will be peaceful, because Islam loves peace. But if the enemy disturbs Islam and kills
Muslim people such as in Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, Chechnya and other
places, we, as Muslim people, are obliged to protect and defend our brother
Muslims."
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