George Bush and Colin Powell hope to win Muslim hearts and minds with tsunami aid, and so do these folks. From AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia -- An Islamic group with suspected links to al-Qaida is on a dual mission across this devastated corner of Indonesia: collecting the dead and seeking new followers among the survivors.The two-tier outreach of the Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia, or Indonesia Holy Warrior Assembly, is an example of how the relief response to the tsunami tragedy can serve as an opportunity to widen support in a country under international pressure to closely watch radical Islamic activities.
As the region slowly claws back from epic destruction, the Mujahidin has also started to blur the lines between offering assistance and polishing its image. Collecting bodies is a pressing service here, as thousands of corpses rot in the tropical heat.
"It would be a lie to say that we are not trying to win over people's hearts to our side," said Jamal Aldin, a volunteer from Jakarta who led one of the body-collection brigades Tuesday. "The survivors will see the work we are doing and maybe they will follow us."
The group -- whose leaders wear black vests with "Mujahidin" written on the back -- has distributed Qurans and information about its views on correct Islamic principles, such as head scarves and avoidance of Western culture. It also keeps a detailed log of local volunteers to call on later.
Another radical group, the Islamic Defenders Front, has set up a camp for survivors in a cemetery in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital. But its agenda is mostly confined to opposing perceived un-Islamic activities such as bars and nightclubs. The Mujahidin's background is considered more worrisome.
The group takes its cues from Abu Bakar Bashir, the cleric now on trial as the alleged leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, the al-Qaida-linked terror cell accused in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people and the 2003 attack on the J.W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta that claimed 12 lives.
Mujahidin members also took part in Christian-Muslim fighting in eastern Indonesia in recent years that claimed thousands of lives. Many of the anti-Christian fighters were members of violent Majelis Mujahidin subgroups, including Laskar Mujahidin, which has also set up a tsunami relief operation in Aceh.
"There's certainly been some overlap between Jemaah Islamiyah and the (Mujahidin)," said Sydney Jones, an expert on Indonesia's Islamic radical organizations for the International Crisis Group.
I wonder how warmly they will be welcomed if the survivors are aware that the Islamists are proclaiming that the suffering they have endured is the consequence of their failure to be Islamic enough. (I'd be insulted if I was told anything to that effect, but then I'm not a Muslim.)
The group takes its cues from Abu Bakar Bashir, the cleric now on trial as the alleged leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, the al-Qaida-linked terror cell accused in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people and the 2003 attack on the J.W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta that claimed 12 lives.
Mujahidin members also took part in Christian-Muslim fighting in eastern Indonesia in recent years that claimed thousands of lives
SO IT IS ABOUT PEICE AND NOT PEACE??
YES WE ARE TELLING YOU YOU HAD BETTER COVER YOURSELF OR WE WILL BE BACK LIKE IN KASMIAR AND THROW ACID ON YOU??
WHAT IS WRONG WITH HAVEING SOME FUN DRINK A LITTLE WINE NOTHING IT IS IN THE BOOK TO HAVE FUN AND DRINK WINE??
GUESS THEY LEGT THAT OUT BUT HOW COULD THEY IT WAS IN THE BOOK FROM THE PEOPLE OF THE BOOK??
SO THEY SHOULD HAVE LEARNED TO READ!!
Part of the American Tribe
Squirrel Hunter
Spider Killer
God Bless the USA and her Fighting Forces and ALL who Fight with her give them Strength, Wisdom, Sight, and Courage to stay the course to Victory[FREEDOM] to Destroy ALL Islamic Terrorist and ALL who Support them Open the Worlds Eyes to their Evil Amen
PS
Did any one hear how much money the stars brought in with their concert on T.V.?? Haven't heard a thing so that tells me not to much?? Guess the Guys in ubl[] Tshirts turned Americans off!! No sience in feeding the MONSTER who wants to kill your Family??
Slightly OT, but I would be interested to hear what others think about this story from todays Sydney Daily Telegraph (not online).
Saved from a pile of muddy, broken bodies
Banda Aceh
When Didi Agustinus (an Indonesian Red cross member) first saw the body of a little girl lying among 100 others in the mud, she was still and silent. He thought she was dead.
Thinking of his own daughter, and hoping another man would do the same for her, he picked her up, he decided to pluck the body to ensure the family would get it back.
It was only after he had picked her up and put her across his shoulder and the 'lifeless' body moved slightly, that he realised she was miraculously alive.
She began pleading for a drink and he asked her,
"Who is your god?"
"Allah", she replied softly.
Does anyone else have problems with this? Is it normal to ask a badly injured, almost dead child, what GOD she worships? Its close to the last thing I would think of asking unless the person was in extremis.
What would have happened if she had replied 'Jesus Christ'?
Would he have thrown her back on the pile of dead?
ATTENTION, ATTENTION: Whatever became of Central Java's Great Hindu-Buddhist Kingdoms (the Srivijaya, Boddhavistas, and Sailendras, et al)?
IS there anyone out there who knows how the East Indies became Islamic?
Does anyone out there believe that Indonesians really Islamicized of their own accord as many historians assert?? Most so-called historians put forth the idea that Javanese and Sumatran people adopted Islam of their own volition. Little evidence exists, true, to support anything else, but...
There is NO evidence to show what DID happen to Central Java. No account of Indonesians' islamicization is supported by historical facts because there are very few. So it cannot be ruled out that Central Java's great civilization was extingushed by the Middle East or the Mongols, who had been Islamicized, at that time. In fact, we are fairly certain that the most likely explanation is that the peoples of the East Indies were coerced into Islamizing by invading jihadist armies and NOT through blithe acceptance by the Javanese.
The great Hindu-Buddhist empires of Central Java fell for reasons not indicated to us in the region's historical record. Historians have referred to Central Java's "mysterious depopulation" during the late 900's. A cataclysmic volcanic eruption did occur in approximately the year 1006 AD--but the loss of Java's great kingdoms (rivalling those of China and India)occurred at least one or two generations prior to the eruption of the Merapi volcano. This we can be sure of as the Javanese were extremely prolific temple builders. But few if any temples exist in Central Java exist after 966 AD. So we know that it could not have been Merapi, the collapse happened earlier. If the cause wasn't Merapi, what was it? A jihad would have caused such a depopulation of the region. A major volcanic eruption would explain the absence of physical evidence that might otherwise accompany such a historical calamity.
In Eastern Java the Mojopahit Empire rose in the early 1300s and there were Arabs known to be a part of it. But curiously, Java's and what is today's Indonesia's Islamicization is believed to have begun around 1375 AD. So, where then did these Arabs come from? Might they have been in Java as a result of a Holy War fought against Java's Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms in the 10th century? it is also revealed in historical accounts that Javanese kings, once Islamicized, conducted jihad wars against non-Muslim communities on the island if Java hadn't been subjected to jihadist warfare where did the kings of Java learn to enact this procedure and do it with the end result of Islamicizing millions of persons? Something seems wrong if one clings to the view that Javanese people freely adopted Islam and practiced a tolerant view of it, as it is clear this is NOT the case at all...the Javanese kings were not very tolerant of even their own peoples' indigenous religious beliefs. If these kings learned by example, it may well have been through jihads carried out in Java earlier in their island's history. Thus we actually do have evidence showing an entirely different interpretation of Java's Islamicization is possible and even likely.
If only the peoples of Indonesia could see what Islam has done to them and their land over the centuries. What a terrible and tragic chapter to such a wonderful land and people...
Indonesia deserved a better fate than this.
ATTENTION, ATTENTION: Whatever became of Central Java's Great Hindu-Buddhist Kingdoms (the Srivijaya, Boddhavistas, and Sailendras, et al)?
IS there anyone out there who knows how the East Indies became Islamic?
Does anyone out there believe that Indonesians really Islamicized of their own accord as many historians assert?? Most so-called historians put forth the idea that Javanese and Sumatran people adopted Islam of their own volition. Little evidence exists, true, to support anything else, but...
There is NO evidence to show what DID happen to Central Java. No account of Indonesians' islamicization is supported by historical facts because there are very few. So it cannot be ruled out that Central Java's great civilization was extingushed by the Middle East or the Mongols, who had been Islamicized, at that time. In fact, we are fairly certain that the most likely explanation is that the peoples of the East Indies were coerced into Islamizing by invading jihadist armies and NOT through blithe acceptance by the Javanese.
The great Hindu-Buddhist empires of Central Java fell for reasons not indicated to us in the region's historical record. Historians have referred to Central Java's "mysterious depopulation" during the late 900's. A cataclysmic volcanic eruption did occur in approximately the year 1006 AD--but the loss of Java's great kingdoms (rivalling those of China and India)occurred at least one or two generations prior to the eruption of the Merapi volcano. This we can be sure of as the Javanese were extremely prolific temple builders. But few if any temples exist in Central Java exist after 966 AD. So we know that it could not have been Merapi, the collapse happened earlier. If the cause wasn't Merapi, what was it? A jihad would have caused such a depopulation of the region. A major volcanic eruption would explain the absence of physical evidence that might otherwise accompany such a historical calamity.
In Eastern Java the Mojopahit Empire rose in the early 1300s and there were Arabs known to be a part of it. But curiously, Java's and what is today's Indonesia's Islamicization is believed to have begun around 1375 AD. So, where then did these Arabs come from? Might they have been in Java as a result of a Holy War fought against Java's Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms in the 10th century? it is also revealed in historical accounts that Javanese kings, once Islamicized, conducted jihad wars against non-Muslim communities on the island if Java hadn't been subjected to jihadist warfare where did the kings of Java learn to enact this procedure and do it with the end result of Islamicizing millions of persons? Something seems wrong if one clings to the view that Javanese people freely adopted Islam and practiced a tolerant view of it, as it is clear this is NOT the case at all...the Javanese kings were not very tolerant of even their own peoples' indigenous religious beliefs. If these kings learned by example, it may well have been through jihads carried out in Java earlier in their island's history. Thus we actually do have evidence showing an entirely different interpretation of Java's Islamicization is possible and even likely.
If only the peoples of Indonesia could see what Islam has done to them and their land over the centuries. What a terrible and tragic chapter to such a wonderful land and people...
Indonesia deserved a better fate than this.