| June 17, 2011
Under the scorching sun, members of Jamaah Anshorut Tauhid struggled to stay awake on Thursday as judges at the South Jakarta District Court read out the lengthy verdict against their revered leader, Abu Bakar Bashir.
Some of the cleric’s 500 supporters who showed up on Thursday had traveled almost 1,000 kilometers from their hometown of Ngruki, Central Java, where Bashir co-founded the Al Mukmin Islamic boarding school in the 1970s.
But most had to watch from the court parking lot, where officials had set up two flat-screen TVs and a sound system just for the occasion, as many of the limited seats in the courtroom were reserved for journalists.
As the judges were about to conclude reading out the ruling, the crowd spontaneously rose from their seats, anxiously hoping that their leader would be acquitted of terrorism charges linked to last year’s discovery of a paramilitary camp in Aceh.
A collective gasp went out when they heard presiding judge Herri Swantoro utter the word “guilty.”
But the worst shock came when the judge announced that Bashir was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.
“Infidels!” one women screamed. “How could you give 15 years to an old man? God will avenge this injustice. God will cast his wrath upon this forsaken country.”
The men jabbed their fists in the air, crying out to Allah. JAT members began chanting insults directed at the police, who had deployed some 3,000 officers over worries of rioting.
“Densus [88], God’s wrath be upon you,” the men shouted in reference to the National Police’s elite counterterrorism unit, who are viewed by hard-liners as murderers of Islam’s holy warriors.
“Although Ustadz Abu is behind bars now, wronged by the hypocrites, we must continue his struggle. We must continue to wage jihad,” Muhammad Sholeh Ibrahim, leader of the Solo chapter of JAT, told Bashir’s supporters.
It is followers like these that have terrorism experts worried about the implications of Bashir’s conviction.
Terrorism expert and author Ken Conboy said Muslim youths were becoming increasingly ingrained with Bashir’s strain of radical philosophy, and that they were likely to retaliate over what they see as a horrific injustice.
“There is a heightened sense of alert among authorities now that Bashir is convicted,” he said. “In the last six months that Bashir was on trial there was a large number of small groups with little connection to known terrorism cells that were plotting and executing acts of terrorism on their own.”
In March, book bombs were sent to perceived enemies of radicalism like Liberal Islamic Network founder Ulil Abshar Abdalla and Comr. Gen. Gories Mere, a former officer of Densus 88.
Police apprehended the alleged mastermind, Pepi Fernando, a former journalist in his early 30s. He has no known connection to Bashir, but analysts believe the cleric’s influence was key. A month before the bombing campaign, Bashir mentioned Gories by name during preliminary hearings in his trial. Two years prior, Bashir issued a fatwa, or edict, saying Ulil should be killed.
Also in March, Muhammad Syarif, 32, blew himself up during Friday prayers at a police mosque in Cirebon, killing himself and injuring about 30 worshipers, all but two of them policemen. Syarif was known to attend Bashir’s sermons whenever the cleric visited the city.
Last month, two police officers in Palu, Central Sulawesi, were shot dead by people with alleged ties to the Bashir-linked Aceh training camp.
Taufik Andrie, a terrorism expert from the Institute for International Peace Building, said that after the conviction, police officers would likely remain the target of retaliation.
“With so many terrorism suspects dead at the hands of police officers there is an unappeasable resentment toward the force, especially on Internet forums, where verses of the Koran are being distorted and taken out of context to justify the killing of law enforcement officers and innocent civilians,” Taufik said.
He also expressed concern over the relative ease with which a prospective terrorist could find detailed instructions on bomb-making online.
Experts have pleaded for more censorship of jihadi materials circulating online and in other media but the government has deemed it too difficult to stop the barrage of information.
Prison walls are not likely to stop Bashir’s radical ideology from spreading, Conboy said.
“There is too much access given to high-profile terrorism convicts. They are free to conduct numerous sermons in prison and meet people. Prisons have become the center for recruitment and radicalization,” he said.
(x the JG)
do 16 jun 2011 - 23:00