TERROR HITS HOME

Don Greenlees, Jakarta correspondent October 17, 2002

THE Muslim cleric branded the godfather of regional terrorism, and accused of being behind the Bali attack, wants "Islam to regulate the world's people".

Dressed in his trademark white cap, robe and scarf, Abu Bakar Bashir, who denies being the leader of extremist group Jemaah Islamiah, says: "I believe that Muslims and non-Muslims will only feel safe under Islamic law."

With his silvery beard and owl-like glasses, his manner gentle and friendly, the 64-year-old Bashir does a good impression of an innocuous, occasionally befuddled, scholar.

But Western and Asian intelligence officials have named him as the godfather of regional terrorism. According to a Singaporean intelligence report, Bashir is "the amir", or overall leader, of the Jemaah Islamiah organisation.

Testimony gleaned from interrogation of detained Jemaah Islamiah members in Singapore and Malaysia place this old man at the apex of the organisation. The assessment is backed by a US CIA report alleging that Bashir orchestrated a number of terrorist attacks within Indonesia and southeast Asia.

An al-Qa'ida operative working in Indonesia, Omar al-Faruq, told CIA interrogators Bashir had authorised Jemaah Islamiah members to co-operate in a "large-scale operation" to bomb Western embassies in the region.

A series of church bombings in Indonesia around Christmas 2000 were planned with the "complete knowledge, approval, logistical and financial support of Bashir", according to al-Faruq. The goal was to help incite a religious civil war and eventually create a "pure Islamic state under Islamic law".

For months now, Bashir has offered well-practised denials of links to terrorism. The Indonesian authorities have tended to support him, refusing to make an arrest because of insufficient evidence. He was questioned again yesterday by Indonesian authorities.

But Bashir walks a fine line. He has been a bellicose critic of the US, sometimes espousing the acceptability of violence.

"After the fall of communism, they believe their main cultural enemy is Islam," he says in an interview.

"If they attack Islam with arguments, we will fight back with arguments. But if they fight with weapons, we will fight back with weapons – that is the teaching of Islam." The US, he says, is always the first to resort to violence.

His anti-US, anti-Jewish rhetoric has appealed to Indonesian Muslims.

President Megawati Sukarnoputri's administration, conscious of alienating even moderate Muslims suspicious of the US, has been confused over how best to deal with Bashir, and those like him.

The weakness has been exploited by Muslim hardliners, some of whom have resorted to coercion to make their point. Police have been lenient on violent raids on nightclubs and bars by radicals, even in downtown Jakarta.

Bashir has consistently maintained that such proselytising – or as he puts it, "to be a good Muslim, to join jihad (holy war)" – is always falsely portrayed in the West as terrorism.

He says the US is the real terrorist, and he blames the Bali bombing on Americans and Jews.

"I offer my condolences," he says. "I condemn the attack because it is not according to the teachings of Islam. Especially to the Australians, who suffered the most victims, I offer my condolences."

But the evidence of Bashir's links to terrorism – possibly even the Bali bombing – have steadily built in recent months. Testimony gathered from terrorist operatives arrested throughout southeast Asia has built a detailed and compelling picture of Bashir's role in masterminding terrorism.

Neighbouring countries and the West would view his arrest as a sign that Indonesia is finally taking their concerns about terrorism seriously.

-- Anonymous, October 17, 2002

Answers

Neighbouring countries and the West would view his arrest as a sign that Indonesia is finally taking their concerns about terrorism seriously.

The article doesn't say he was arrested. Just questioned again and again.

-- Anonymous, October 17, 2002