A former terrorist leader leader named Nasir Abas is now 'reformed' and attempting to talk people out of joining the violent jihad via his own comic book. But rather than coming out with a frank and honest assessment of how violent Islam is, how deeply rooted Islamic supremacism and violence against non Muslims (and less devout Muslims) are in the Quran and other Islamic source documents, what we get with Nasir Abas' book is the usual Islamic whitewash and the usual misleading assertions ('jihad is a peaceful struggle', et al.) that have little to no basis in Islamic scripture. So while the former Malaysian terrorist Nasir Abas may mean well, in the end his whitewash of Islam only serves the interests of Muslim supremacists in Indonesia and elsewhere. "Fighting extremism via comics", by Amy Chew, [1] The Star, 2 October 2011

Nasir Abas, a former Jemaah Islamiah leader, is now waging a private jihad to stop teenagers from being recruited for suicide bombings and other terror activities.

Malaysian-born Nasir Abas is an unlikely comic book hero he is a former al-Qaeda-linked militant, leader of Jemaah Islamiah (JI) and a weapons expert who fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan.

His journey from an idealistic student to a militant and later an ally to the police in their counter-terrorism efforts has been turned into a 137-page comic book titled I Found the Meaning of Jihad.

The book comes as Indonesia suffered another bomb blast last Sunday when a suicide bomber detonated explosives in a packed church in Solo, Central Java, killing the bomber and injuring 27 people.

Launched on Sept 8 in Jakarta when the movie Captain America was playing in the local cinemas, it inspired the Associated Press to nickname Nasir “Captain Jihad”.

“Since then, I have received phone calls from people looking for Captain Jihad',” says Nasir in a telephone interview from Jakarta where he resides.

Nasir, 42, is a well-known figure in Indonesia for his regular appearances on TV and seminars where he speaks out against extremism and the twisted intrepretation of “jihad” as espoused by the late Osama bin Laden and slain Malaysian terrorist, Noordin Top.

Bin Laden and his ilk have repeatedly cited numerous verses from the Quran to justify their actions. Exactly how is this a 'twisted interpretation'?

Noordin is blamed for a string of bomb attacks in Indonesia, including the devastating first Bali bombings of 2002 which killed 202 people.

“The ultimate jihad is to struggle for peace for the people and nation, not just for Muslims but non-Muslims as well. It defends human rights,” says Nasir.

“Jihad such as suicide bombing, which kills innocent lives, is not true jihad,” he adds.

How do Muslims define 'peace' and 'human rights'? And exactly who is considered 'innocent' by Islam? Can a non Muslim ever be considered as 'innocent'? Don't look for answers for these pressing questions from 'Captain Jihad' or in his comic book.