“Moderate” Indonesia sends in the jihadists to help clean up after the tsunami “” and make sure the locals are behaving in a sufficiently Islamic manner. From “Radicals pitch in to clean up and keep Islamic law” in the Sydney Morning Herald, with thanks to tinplug:
Radical Islamic groups best known for smashing bars and violent support of the jailed cleric Abu Bakar Bashir have sent large contingents of their members to Aceh with funding provided by the Indonesian Government.
At Banda Aceh’s airport, trucks with supplies to be ferried to disaster-struck areas by US Navy helicopters have been unloaded by members of Bashir’s group, the MMI, including one man proudly wearing an Osama bin Laden T-shirt.
Members of the FPI (Islamic Defenders Front), famous for its attacks on nightspots in Jakarta, are now living in Banda Aceh in tents provided by the army and the Ministry of Social Affairs.
The head of the FPI contingent, Hilmy Bakar Almascaty, said about 250 members had come to Aceh with tickets provided by the Government; 800 more on board an Indonesian warship would help clean up the devastated province.
“FPI is not only an organisation that destroys bars and discos, it has a humanitarian side as well that the media is not happy to expose,” Dr Almascaty said.
That makes me feel so much better about them! You may recall that the Nazis did the same thing: sent out pictures of Hitler petting his dog, and laughing with his aides “” with the underlying message: what a great guy! If only the international media weren’t so unfair!
But FPI hasn’t entirely traded in jihad for charity:
Early yesterday 50 of his troops wearing FPI shirts went through a series of military drills before heading off to the city to help collect corpses still not recovered from the millions of tonnes of rubble.