Radicals gain steadily in Muslim Indonesia

In a country such as Indonesia where Muslims account for 90 per cent of the total population of around 200 million people, it is not surprising to have several Islamic organisations that embrace different views and policies.

Indonesia's modern history tells us that upon gaining independence in 1949 there were Islamic groups advocating the return of the Caliphate rule and creation of an Islamic state. However, the prevalence of the nationalistic and secular trends at that time and domination of the image of the charismatic independence leader Ahmed Sukarno sought to eradicate such aspirations and marginalise the power of their advocates.

During Suharto's era, the atrocious security force of the ruling government was sufficient to crush these groups as well as pro-democracy and human rights advocates.

However, it should be noted here that both the Sukarno and Suharto regimes have not sought to use violence and official bans against the moderate Islamic groups that avoided the use of violence to achieve their ambitions such as Nahdatul Ulama led by the former President Abdul Rahman Wahid and Muhammadiyah group led by the current president of People's Consultative Assembly Amin Rais.

This is proven by the fact that these two groups have been able to engage in various activities through the structures and followers estimated at millions of people.

Furthermore, Suharto's regime sought at a certain time, as a kind of fake democracy, to allow the creation of an Islamic political party as one of three legitimate parties in the country, and that was the United Development Party whose leader, Ham-zah Haz, is now the Vice Pre-sident of the Republic.

Beginning of problem

Thus, it can be said that the problem in Indonesia started on a limited scale in the 1970s and 1980s through the emergence of certain Islamic organisations from their slumber motivated by the fame gained by their counterparts in Middle Eastern communities on the back of the Jihad war in Afghanistan and triumph of the Islamic Republic in Iran.

The problem got worse in the 1990s and early part of the third millennium as a result of Suharto's weakness, his fall, and Indonesia's entry in the era of democracy (with the subsequent security chaos and emergence of separatist movements and armed conflicts between Indonesia's Muslims and Christians).

On the other hand, spread of the phenomenon of international Jihad against the "infidels" and overthrow of regimes in the Islamic world with the use of armed force starting with Afghanistan according to the views of Al Qaida and its supporters, have given a boost to the dreams of some hardline Indonesians and contributed to their emergence in public through armed militias, links with Al Qaida and schemes that do not only target Indonesia but also the whole Southeast Asian region.

Some of them such as the "Laskar Jihad" group sought to disguise behind the aim of defending Indonesian Muslims against the acts of Christians in Maluku and Irian Jaya.

The above lines are necessary as we focus on the so called Jeemah Islamiyah and its leader Abu Bakr Bashir who has become very famous after having been hardly known outside Indonesia and its immediate neighbours.

All this is because of the Bali massacre (resulting in the death of 181 people of various European nationalities and left hundreds of injured and handicapped people) in the middle of October and what has been said about the involvement of his group.

Of course, Bashir, born in 1938 and of Yemeni descent like bin Laden, denies the accusations made against him and insists upon saying that he has become too old and is no longer capable of playing any role except that of a religious preacher and advocate to apply the mandatory rules of Shari'ah.

He even goes as far as to deny the existence of an organisation called Jeemah Islamiyah in the same way that he previously denied any involvement in planning acts of explosion and sabotage in neighbouring Singapore earlier this year.

He filed a legal action against the latter's government for publishing information and accusations that would misrepresent his image.

According to Bashir, the Bali massacre has been committed by the Americans and their supporters with the aim of finding a justification for Washington to expand its war against terrorism into the Indonesian territories, hence control the resources of this Muslim country.

Such saying, which is classified under the conspiracy theory, is similar to that uttered by some people in the wake of the events of September 11, accusing Washington of attacking itself in a plan designed to unilaterally dominate the world.

This theory was widely accepted amongst the general public and some intellectuals in the Islamic world as proven by their warm appreciation of the book written by the French author Thiery Missan.

It is true that so far there is no tangible criminal evidence about the involvement of Bashir in the Bali massacre, but suspicions centre around him until the opposite is proved according to the rule of "I convict you from what your mouth says".

Since his emergence on the Indonesian political scene, Bashir has never spared an effort to use his speeches and sermons to call for fighting the "infidels" wherever they existed, saying that this was his religious duty.

No hesitation

In addition, he has not hesitated to declare his full support for Bin Laden's terrorist operations. Furthermore, he declared at the beginning of this month that the United States was Indonesia's number one enemy.

He even said: "Now the Indonesian government, army and people must choose between defending Islam or defending the United States".

Accordingly, Bashir has put himself under suspicions in the same manner that bin Laden did with regard to the events of September 11, before he appeared on Al Jazeera TV to admit his organisation's responsibility for the events.

If Bashir's statements are not sufficient to bring charges against him, what strengthens the position of those who suspect him are the confessions of the Kuwaiti national Omar Al Farouk who was recently arrested by Jakarta and extradited to Washington.

Al Farouk told the Americans that he, in his position as representative of Al Qaida in Southeast Asia, paid huge sums of money to Bashir's group for financing explosion operations in Indonesia and that the latter used such funds to buy three tons of explosives from agents or sympathisers within the Indonesian army.

Upon investigating Bashir's biography, we find that he was a key element in the revival of the Muslim nationalist movement that emerged in the 1940s with the aim of liberating the country from the western colonialists and setting up an Islamic regime.

As discussed earlier, the movement was marginalised in the 1950s and faded away in the 1960s.

In the 1970s Bashir and another Muslim cleric called Abdullah Sungkar rose to lead the Islamic Youth Movement. Together they began to proselytize in the main island of Java, setting up a radio station for the purpose and also to promote the ideas of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood Movement.

Within four years the two men