But this is the same guy whose father said had called him an “infidel.” So take this with a grain of salt or two. “Suspected Bomber ‘Not a Devout Muslim,’ Wife Says,” by Farouk Arnaz for the Jakarta Globe, April 18 (thanks to Twostellas):
For Sri Maliha, the questions surrounding her husband’s alleged transformation into a suicide bomber and the consequences of his deadly actions hang as heavy as the soon-to-be-born child in her belly.
Speaking on Sunday, Maliha said it was difficult to accept that her husband had blown himself up in a packed Cirebon mosque last week.
“I hope it is not him. Somehow I believe that he will come home as he had promised me,” she said while fighting back tears.
Police announced on Sunday that DNA testing had confirmed that her husband, 31-year-old Muchamad Syarif, was the bomber and sole fatality in the suicide blast that injured scores.
Maliha, 26, recounted the last time she saw her husband.
“On that day, April 3, before he left, he only said to me, “˜I will go for a while, but I will be by your side and pick you up when you are giving birth,– she said….
“He was a good husband who sometimes led the prayer as an imam. But he was not a devout Muslim, I guess. He never conducted sunnah fasting or sunnah prayers,” Maliha said, referring to optional fasting and praying.
“He did not graduate from an Islamic boarding school or have a jihad [holy war] book collection. He was just like an ordinary man that socialized with people.”…