Islamists:"Indonesian Islam too Soft due to Hindu Influences"

[Guest guest]

Indonesian terror groups want to establish Islamic Caliphate in South

East Asia

 

"-- seek to achieve an Islamic Caliphate in South Asia and look upon

Hinduism as a corrupting influence on Islam not only in Pakistan, but

also in Indonesia. They blame Hinduism for making Islam soft in

Indonesia."

 

A massive explosion from a car bomb destroyed a night club at the

Kuta beach resort on the tourist island of Bali in Indonesia on

October 12, sparking a devastating fire that killed at least 187

people and wounded more than 300 -- many of them foreigners, mainly

Australians, Germans, Canadians, Britons and Swedes. Indonesian

police chief General Da'i Bachtiar told the media that the explosion

came from a Kijang, a jeep-like vehicle, and called it the worst act

of terrorism in Indonesia's history. According to local officials, a

second bomb exploded near the island's US consular office, but there

were no casualties.

All indicators received till now point to its being a terrorist

strike, most probably connected to the first anniversary of the

beginning of the US air strikes in Afghanistan on October 7 and the

preparations for a possible US-UK intervention in Iraq to have

President Saddam Hussein overthrown. There have been two terrorist

strikes almost coinciding with the first anniversary. The first was

the ramming by a boat filled with explosives against a French super

tanker off Yemen on October 6 and the second the explosions in Bali,

which have come five days after the anniversary. A terrorist

organisation in Aden is reported to have claimed responsibility for

the strike against the tanker, but its claim is yet to be verified.

 

While the Yemen incident was apparently a suicide attack, it is not

clear if the Bali explosions were also suicide attacks. For many

months now, Indonesia has been developing as a major hub of South

East Asia-based Islamic terrorist groups with two different

motivations -- a pan-Islamic one aiming to achieve a Caliphate in the

region covering southern Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia,

southern Philippines and Brunei; an anti-Christian one targeting the

Christian community, many of whose members happen to be ethnic

Chinese.

 

The developments in Indonesia have an interesting parallel in the pan-

Islamic and anti-Christian motivations operating in tandem in

Pakistan and the pan-Islamic and anti-Hindu motivations similarly

operating in tandem in India.

 

The pan-Islamic organisations of Pakistan, members of Osama bin

Laden's International Islamic Front For Jehad Against the US and

Israel -- the Harkat-ul Mujahideen, the Harkat-ul Jehad-al-Islami,

the Jaish-e-Mohammad and the Lashkar-e-Tayiba -- seek to achieve an

Islamic Caliphate in South Asia and look upon Hinduism as a

corrupting influence on Islam not only in Pakistan, but also in

Indonesia. They blame Hinduism for making Islam soft in Indonesia.

 

Against this background, the selection of Bali, with its

predominantly Hindu population, for this most devastating terrorist

strike is disquieting. It also needs to be noted that President

Megawati Sukarnoputri's mother was a Muslim of Balinese Hindu origin

and before her election as president, some Islamic extremists in

Indonesia had referred to this while expressing reservations about

her becoming the country's leader.

 

However, there is so far no evidence to show that the explosions had

anything to do with the predominantly Hindu nature of the Island or

Megawati's family background. Bali seems to have been chosen for the

terrorist strike mainly because security precautions there were very

relaxed since it was not considered by Indonesian intelligence and

security agencies as a likely trouble spot. In an assessment prepared

in April, they had identified six security 'trouble spots' in

Indonesia from the point of view of the fight against Islamic

terrorism -- Aceh, Maluku, Papua, Sampit in Central Kalimantan, Poso

in Central Sulawesi and West Timor. According to Indonesian

intelligence officials, foreign terrorist groups had used Poso as a

training ground in recent years. The attraction of Bali to the

terrorists also arises from the fact that it gets a large number of

Australian and Western tourists.

 

Amongst the foreign nationals who fought in the International Islamic

Front as members of its Pakistani components were American Muslims

(mostly African-American), nationals/residents of West European

countries, Thais, Malaysians, Singaporeans, who projected themselves

as Malays from Malaysia and Indonesians. Their total number was

estimated to be about 200. Practically all of them had been recruited

by the Harkats and Lashkar teams, which went to these countries

posing as preachers of the Tablighi Jamaat, brought to Pakistan and

trained in various madrasas with funds provided by the TJ and then

taken to Afghanistan to get a jehad inoculation.

 

In addition to those mentioned above, there were about 400 foreign

students recruited by the Harkats and Lashkar from Malaysia,

Indonesia and Thailand, who were studying at the various madrasas in

Pakistan before their being inducted into jehad. Of these, 190 were

being trained in jehad at the madrasas of Sindh, 151 in the madrasas

of Punjab and 59 in those of the North-West Frontier Province.

 

Of the 190 being trained in Sindh, 86 were from Malaysia, 82 from

Thailand and 22 from Indonesia. Of the 151 being trained in the

Punjab, 61 were from Malaysia, 49 from Thailand and 41 from

Indonesia. Of the 59 being trained in the NWFP, 21 were from

Indonesia, 20 from Malaysia and 18 from Thailand. Thus, there were

167 Malaysians, 149 Thais and 84 Indonesians being trained in various

madrasas in Pakistan.

 

Reports of the fighting earlier this year by the dregs of the

Taliban, Al Qaeda and other components of the International Islamic

Front against the US troops (Operation Anaconda) brought to light

the participation of trained Indonesian jehadis in the fight against

US troops. It is learnt that these jehadis were trained in the

Lashkar training camp in Muridke in Punjab from where they were sent

to eastern Afghanistan to participate in the fighting against US

troops. According to The News of Islamabad (March 15, 2002) one of

the dead bodies recovered by pro-US Afghan troops after fighting in

the Shahi Kot area had an Indonesian identity card.

 

Evidence available so far indicates that while the terrorists from

Malaysia and possibly Singapore were trained in the Jaish

headquarters at the Binori madrasa complex in Karachi, those from

Indonesia were trained at the Lashkar's Muridke complex near Lahore.

The Harkat Mujahideen has always been training recruits from southern

Philippines and Myanmar, in addition to those from Xinjiang,

Chechnya, Dagestan and the Central Asian Republics. The Hakrat Jehad

trains those from Bangladesh. Before October 7, 2001, the Harkats

training camps were located in eastern Afghanistan. It is not known

where they have been shifted since then. However, it is known that in

the past they had used the infrastructure of the Tablighi Jamaat in

Raiwind in Punjab for training purposes.

 

Since July, unconfirmed rumours have been circulating in Karachi and

elsewhere about a large number of members of Al Qaeda, including some

leaders such as Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama's No 2, having escaped to

Bangladesh, with the help of the Harkat Jehad, which has an active

branch in Bangladesh assisted by the Bangladeshi military-

intelligence establishment. What seems to have happened and is still

happening is that many Bangladeshis, Arakanese, Malays from Singapore

and Malaysia, Indonesians and Filipinos, who had fought as members of

the Hakats and Lashkar against the Northern Alliance and subsequently

against the US in Afghanistan, have been finding their way, with the

help of the Hakrat Jehad and the Jamaat-e-Islami of Bangladesh, a

member of the ruling coalition in Dhaka, into Bangladesh.

 

Unconfirmed reports mention the presence in Bangladesh of Riduan

Isamuddin of Indonesia, better known as Hambali, the 36-year-old

cleric wanted by the US and four South-East Asian countries as the

terrorist mastermind of Al Qaeda's Asian operations and the guiding

force of South East Asian terrorism. It is likely that some of these

terrorist dregs have since sneaked back to their countries of origin.

 

The Bali explosions probably mark the return to Indonesia of some of

the dregs from Afghanistan and Pakistan. The talk in Pakistani

madrasas has been that from now onwards members of the International

Islamic Front would conduct a well-orchestrated series of terrorist

attacks against Western nationals and interests in different parts of

the world as warning signals to pre-empt US-UK military strikes

against Iraq. The attacks on the French tanker off Yemen and in Bali

were apparently part of this planned series and more are likely as

the US and the UK go ahead with their preparations for an attack on

Iraq for the overthrow of President Saddam Hussein.

 

 

B Raman