Local Al-Qaeda Leader Mulls Run For Indonesian Presidency

Tiny Minority of Extremists Update: will 240 million Indonesians go the route of Sharia? "Indonesia: Radical Muslim Cleric May Run For President In 2009," from AKI:

Jakarta, 30 May (AKI) - Abu Bakar Bashir, the radical Muslim cleric who is spiritual leader of the al-Qaeda-linked militant group, Jemaah Islamiyah, is considering running for president in the 2009 elections. Fauzan Al Anshori, the spokesperson for Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia (MMI), an organisation made up of groups fighting for Islamic law or Sharia in Indonesia, told Adnkronos International (AKI), that "Bashir is considering the possibility." "He said that he wants to see what the people say first," Al Anshori told AKI.
Bashir, who is in his late 60s, was released from prison in 2006 after serving less than 26 months in Jakarta's Cipinang penitentiary for conspiracy in the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed 202 people and thrust Indonesia onto the front lines of the war on terror. Bashir has consistently denied any connection to that or other attacks blamed on the Southeast Asian militant group, Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) whose objective is the creation of an Islamic 'caliphate' in the region.

The MMI spokesperson said that Bashir first had the idea of running in the 2009 presidential election after the scandal involving illegal funds in the 2004 electoral campaign first emerged. The scandal, which was made public a few weeks ago, appears to involve all the candidates in the election, including Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

"There is so much corruption everywhere and we need clean people to lead the country," said Al Anshori.

Al Anshori said that through the election, Bashir could transform Indonesia from a secular state into an Islamic one. "The law we have was inherited from the Dutch (Indonesia's former colonial power) and is not suited to Muslims," said the MMI spokesperson.

What a guy!! He would run on an anti-corruption platform and then…..look out.

Indonesians must understand that voting for such a candidate would ensure they never vote again. The sad irony is that Basher would destroy the very same democratic system which affords him the opportunity to run for office.

Sharia here we come.

Crossposted from The American Israeli Patriot.

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10 Comments

Miss_Anthrope | June 1, 2007 10:01 AM

Since Indonesia's about 80%+ muzlim, I imagine this guy has a good 'shot' at getting elected.

Again I say, Oy vey.

Hugh | June 1, 2007 10:02 AM

But didn't all that tsunami aid change forever the dynamics of Aceh, the center of Muslim "extremism"? Didn't those American planes, full of goods of all kinds, and those tireless American medics and aid workers, just as in Pakistan, helping the locals -- didn't that undo whatever it is -- and what is it, exactly? --- that Muslims may learn in Qur'an and Hadith and sira that so annoyingly, so peskily, keeps getting in the way of understanding and friendship -- change Indonesia forever?

Or could it be that the very best way to "change Indonesia forever" is to broadcast, round the clock, programs on the theme of Islam as the "vehicle for Arab supremacism, Islam as the Arab national religion, Islam as imposing on richer, more artistic, more sophisticated civilizations, the dour limits of primitve desert Arabs?

What about trying that? What about explaining the true Indonesian heritage -- Hindu and Buddhist? What about explaining how those Hadramaut traders first arrived, bringing Islam, and then managed to convert the rulers of Java and Sumatra who, in turn, instantly converted all those they ruled. What about filling in the blanks in history, and in ideology, for the people of Indonesia?

What about explaining that the inshallah-fatalism of Islam is indeed fatal to economic prosperity, and that if you are not endowed with oil, as the primitives of the Gulf are, and as Indoenesia, now running quickly out of oil, is not, then you have no business subscribing to a cult that encourages such inshallah-fatalism?

What about all this, and much more?

Or shall we stick with the naive ideas of such "tough-minded geostrategists" as Kilcullen (see Diana West's column in the Washington Times), or for that matter the man who learned everything he knew about Islam from his stint as the American ambassador in Jakarta, and from his Arab "reform-minded" girlfriend, Shaha Riza.

R_not | June 1, 2007 10:43 AM

... and the people will vote them in with a majority vote, and when they get what they voted for - death, our left wing loons will post a bunch of pics showing us more murdered, the masses of muslims in other areas will just go about business as usual with no outcry, no one from their groups helping the muslims being murdered, our left wing loons will want us to go in and help kill off the rest of the Christians, blah blah blah. And what will we hear from the muslims? nothing - the murdered will go to allah and probably deserved their plight (according to them - isn't that what Saudi ARabians said about the tsunami victims?!).

I am sick of islam and muslims.

Miss_Anthrope | June 1, 2007 11:37 AM

yes yes, hugh, i'm all for throwing money at the problem.

because doesn't that solve everything?

Morgane | June 1, 2007 11:49 AM

Gawd! This would be worst nightmare imaginable in
this part of the world-Australia & New Zealand.
240 Million rabid Muslims led by smirking
shark fanged Sheik Abu Bakar Bashir - 'spiritual'
advisor of those who carried out Bali atrocities.
Just have to hope Abu's teenage wife kills him off with her 'wifely duties' - dirty old sod following the lustful example of Mohammed, no doubt.

ZenaWarriorPrincess | June 1, 2007 12:24 PM

Morgane that might be more advanteous as it would unmask the real Indonesian intentions of taking over the entire area. this way the rest of SW Asia can be on the allert and begin deislamization of their own countrys.

pythagoras | June 1, 2007 1:37 PM

True, Indonesia is a Muslim country. But it is unusually free for such an entity.

Several things to keep in mind:

Bashir himself is an ARAB. He is NOT ethnically Indonesian although he was born there (he is of Yemeni ancestry). The Middle East is generally unpopular with Indonesians; I have been told that Indonesians actually dislike being called Islamic to their faces (even when they ARE Islamic).

The fact that this terrorist-thug-Killer Zombie can run for office actually testifies to Indonesia's liberalness as a democracy. Which would indicate that this b*st*rd hasn't much chance at all. Indonesians have traditionally been resistant to the introduction of shariat anyway and there is no reason to believe they will change now. Indonesians I might add went to a good deal of trouble to set up the democratic system they now use quite fervently, I doubt they will throw it away for this scumbag/mass murderer.

Much of Indonesia's so-called 'corruption' is actually BECAUSE of Islam and jihad warfare strategies: government funds are looted by Muslim officials (though not always) and there can be little doubt some of the booty goes to jihadist operations in Indonesia and around the world. Indonesian people are generally not corrupt and quite honest (I found) although they are naturally attracted to money. Illegal logging operations (a truly tragic problem in this lovely-but-ecologically ravaged corner of the world) are conducted by Indonesian businessmen with business ties to Saudi Arabia ( a back door to al-Qaeda and related terrorism groups, quite probably). Many Indonesians recognize this connection between corruption and Islam incidentally. Thus Bashir probably will NOT succeed in pulling the wool over their eyes with his anti-corruption blather.

In recent polls, pro-Americanism has been rising across Indonesia dramatically and I have read in Foreign Affairs journals that this is NOT entirely because of the tsunami aid Indonesia received from America. Many communities in Indonesia have received help from America in removing the Jemaah Islamiyah threat and are actually grateful that their communities are no longer necessarily destined to become Islamic jihad killing fields.

Anyway, we'll see.

Worried as I am about golbal jihad, this particular story is NOT really bothering me. I think Indonesia has been around long enough (about 4000 years, longer than the west has been around) to see through Bashir.

My money says that Bashir will be embarrassed that he tried this.

PMK | June 1, 2007 2:09 PM

"What about explaining the true Indonesian heritage -- Hindu and Buddhist?
...
What about filling in the blanks in history, and in ideology, for the people of Indonesia?"
from a post by Hugh

Who is going to do the explaining? Westerners? What credibility do we have? Wouldn't they just throw Suharto in our face?

Who in Indonesia wants to listen? Wouldn't the only audience be the non-Muslim choir?

What Muslim is going to see Islam as the tool of Arab supremacy? Don't they see it as a gift from Allah? The colonial history of every Western power is denounced but Arab imperialism is at least rationalized, if not admired, by non-Arab Muslims.

To heck with history and the facts of what Arab invaders have done to countless Eurasian cultures. It's Islam-uber-alles.

Until Indonesians have their road-to-Damascus moment, anyone who tries to fill in their history books is just an interloper determined to destroy their culture. You can't save people who don't want to be saved.

PMK | June 1, 2007 2:19 PM

Pythagoras,
I hope you're right.

You say that many communities are grateful to the US for helping them get rid of JI, but what are they doing to help the US? Are these Muslim or non-Muslim communities?
If they're non-Muslim, American help will only go so far. We can't protect them from their countrymen. If they're Muslims then what are they doing in return? Do they continue donating money to Islamic "charities" that goes to help build suicide bombs?
Tell me if I'm wrong, but what I've seen in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and, now, Indonesia has led me to one conclusion: Muslims are against those who terrorize THEM. If the very same people being fought in Fallujah or Indonesia had attacked the US and Europe, the communities that are against them now would instead have been cheering them on.

pythagoras | June 1, 2007 2:32 PM

PMK: There is one critical difference between Indoinesia and the Middle eastern lands you have mentioned: Islam grew out of te human sacrifice sects that were once prevalent in the Middle East. Islam has alot in common with other parts of hte middle east.

Indonesia on the other hand had a major civilization going strong at the time Islam invaded it.

Although you will argue so did Persia, Persia at the time Islam invaded it had been fatally weakened by centuries of warfare.

I am not sure that Indonesia ever really fully islamified. Maybe. Maybe not.

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