The Sydney Morning Herald, Tuesday, January 16, 2002
Jihad cleric laughs off link to al-Qaeda
By Richard Paddock in Solo, Indonesia
With his white beard and bare feet, Abu Bakar Bashir hardly looks the part of a
wanted international terrorist.
As students trailed behind on Monday, the 63-year-old Indonesian cleric ambled
across the grounds of the Islamic school he founded 30 years ago. He laughed when
he was shown a photo of himself in a Malaysian newspaper under the headline "ON
THE RUN".
Officials in Singapore and Malaysia are not amused. They say Bashir is the top leader
of a terrorist network that plotted to kill United States military personnel and attack
other American targets in Singapore. They also charge that the group is linked to
Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organisation.
In recent weeks, Singapore has arrested 13 alleged members of the South-East Asian
group, which is known as Jemaah Islamiah. Malaysia has arrested 40 alleged
members since May.
Singapore alleged last week that the group had been amassing ammonium nitrate to
make truck bombs and was targeting the US embassy in Singapore, among other
locations. A videotape and notes about potential targets were found in the ruins of an
al-Qaeda leader's house in Afghanistan in December.
Singapore released an organisational chart of Jemaah Islamiah that listed Bashir as
the top leader of the group, with cells operating in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.
The chart identified an Indonesian cleric using the name of Hambali as a regional
leader of the organisation. His whereabouts are unknown.
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, has been reluctant to act against
Islamic extremists, although two men allegedly linked to the network were arrested
last year after one blew off his leg while attempting to plant a bomb in Jakarta.
An Indonesian police spokesman, Brigadier General Saleh Saaf, said on Monday that
his department was investigating whether Bashir and Hambali were linked to
al-Qaeda.
During a nearly two-hour interview, Bashir did not openly espouse terrorism, but laid
out a philosophy that tolerates violence if Muslims believe they are acting in defence
of Islam.
He denied he was associated with Jemaah Islamiah. "The organisation does not exist.
It is only a Koran reading group."
He says he has been singled out by authorities because his specialty is teaching
young people about jihad, the sometimes violent struggle to defend Islam.
Bashir is on the steering committee of the Indonesian Mujahideen Council, an Islamic
group that espouses the establishment of Sharia law in Indonesia, even though most
Muslims in Indonesia are moderate.
The council favours the creation of an Islamic state linking Indonesia, Malaysia,
Singapore and the southern Philippines. Even so, he said, the organisation was not
connected to any group outside Indonesia.
This is not the first time Bashir has been in trouble because of his beliefs. In 1985, he
went into hiding and fled to Malaysia to escape Indonesian president Soeharto. He did
not return until 1999.
Los Angeles Times
SMH. Copyright © 2001. All rights reserved.
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