http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/declarations-of-faith/story-e6frg6z6-1226059475417
Declarations of faith Greg Sheridan, Foreign editor From: The Australian May 21, 2011 12:00AM Convicted Bali bombers, from far left, Imam Samudra, Mukhlas and his brother Amrozi pray with a guard at Batu Prison in Central Java in October 2008. The three were executed the following month. Picture: Bintoro S Lukman Source: The Australian "Eventually I became used to that kind of situation and soon I fell in love with jihad, both its joys and its sorrows." So says convicted terrorist Fatur Datu Armen, serving a life sentence for a bomb attack in Ambon, in an interview at Porong Prison, Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia, July 5 last year. "Remember, it's not an ordinary criminal case but an ideology. When dialogue gets connected with de-radicalisation, the dialogue itself breaks because they want to change our ideology, which is an impossible thing to do. It's like pouring salt in the sea, hopeless." That's the view of convicted terrorist Suhaib, alias Adi, serving a 15-year sentence for killing a Christian priest and attacking a passenger boat, in an interview at Polda Metro Jakarta Prison, on September 18 last year. "You can never eliminate jihad. Jihad is Islam. So long as there are Muslims, jihad will stay alive. It's not possible for us to go against the [Indonesian] government, since a lot of the ulama [Muslim community] think they are Muslims. The ideal one would be going against the USA and Israel. Ambon is different. We were being hated, so it was a war between the Christians and the Muslims. The one in Bali is because we wanted to attack the Americans. Just fight them [the Americans]. Wherever we meet them, fight them as hard as we can. If you can bomb them, do it, so long as it's against the USA. When it comes to the Jews and Israel, everyone hates Israel. Take whatever means necessary to fight the USA. All Muslims should do this. Those who don't should be questioned about his faith." They're the words of convicted terrorist Ustadz Qital, serving 3 1/2 years for running bomb-making classes, in an interview at Surabaya, East Java, on July 4 last year. WHAT drives a young man to a life of organised, disciplined, savage violence, of relentless murder and conflict, of the wilful killing of innocent people, designated as victims often by their race or religion? In the case of Islamist terrorists in Indonesia, the answer is profoundly shocking. The key driver to a life of violent jihad is religious conviction. The Australian Strategic Policy Institute has published a powerful and important report, written by Carl Ungerer, titled Jihadists in Jail, Radicalisation and the Indonesian Prison Experience. It is a valuable report in every way, but what distinguishes it in a field crowded with commentary and analysis is its mother lode of primary source data. ASPI sponsored the lengthy, structured, sometimes repeated, interviewing of 33 convicted terrorists in Indonesian jails (one or two had just been released on parole). I have had access to about half of those interview transcripts. They offer a unique insight into the mind of the contemporary Indonesian terrorist. Wading through them in several long sittings produced contradictory reactions. At one level I felt something akin to nausea, reading again and again the same distorted paranoia, the same celebration of supposed global Muslim victimhood, with one jihadist even claiming, preposterously, that he only wanted Muslims in Indonesia to be treated as well as adherents of other religions. Sickening, too, was the calm insouciance about the consequences of murder. The taking of innocent life was regretted only if that innocent life was Muslim. A bombing aimed at the Australian embassy was regretted because, after all, "there was only one white man present". All of this brought waves of revulsion. Yet at the same time I felt a certain, wholly reluctant, almost bizarre sense of respect for the depth of the religious convictions, the almost lyrical spirituality, that drives the terrorists. It is true, as the vast majority of Muslims would argue, that the terrorists believe and preach a distorted version of Islam. But there is no doubt their motivation is religious, that they see violent jihad against the infidels, and against all the perceived enemies of Islam, as the religious duty of all Muslims. Within prison, they preach and collaborate, study and recite the Koran, intimidate fellow inmates and guards, organise activities on the outside, harden themselves for future battle, run businesses and use contraband laptops and mobile phones almost at will. But most of all they spend their time praying and reflecting. There is nothing phony about the religious devotion of the terrorists. And these transcripts, poorly translated, often rambling and difficult to follow, nonetheless have the ring of terrible truth and authenticity about them. The terrorists approach their conclusions from different starting points: some have renounced violent struggle for the moment, or renounced it within Indonesia, but almost all end up committing themselves to a life of jihad, violent jihad in principle, a life they see primarily in spiritual terms. The transcripts are overwhelming and shocking, but let's focus on just a few cases. FAJAR Taslim, the only Singaporean in an Indonesian prison on terrorism charges, was sentenced to 18 years for murdering a Christian schoolteacher and plotting to blow up a cafe in West Sumatra. He belonged to the Singaporean branch of Jemaah Islamiah and was inspired, like most JI recruits, by Abu Bakar Bashir. Like many jihadis, he was drawn into intense religious feeling by encounters with a Muslim cleric who taught classes at his home. He was outraged that in Singapore he was not allowed to grow a beard or wear long pants during military service. He then studied Arabic, the language of the prophet, under a cleric who was part of JI. Only towards the end of his studies was violent jihad mentioned. Like many jihadis, he was outraged by the persecution of Muslims in Bosnia. Jihad gave him a life rich in travel and adventure. He went to southern India for further study, undertook clandestine military training in Malaysia, then was offered an all-expenses-paid trip to Afghanistan for training. There he met Osama bin Laden. He ended up in Ambon, after many years of training and activism, where he was able to convert non-violent anti-Christian Muslims into violent jihadists. He was also involved in more exotic plans to hijack aeroplanes. He has found Indonesian prison much better, from his point of view, than the conditions in Singapore's prison system, which his twin brother, Hussein, endures. Fajar, who was interviewed at Cipinang Prison in Jakarta in September last year, has freedom of movement within the prison. Above all, police, prison wardens and fellow inmates accord him special respect as a devout Muslim. He is not seen as a mere petty criminal. He is also completely unrepentant. When asked by the interviewer, in a crowded visitors hall, what he planned to do after his release, he replied, animatedly, so that everyone around would hear, that the very next day: "I would go right out and bomb the US embassy [in Jakarta]." The prison interviews tell us many important new things about terrorism in Indonesia. Members of different groups, the now semi-defunct Jemaah Islamiah, Darul Islam, KOMPAK, Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid, or JAT, and many others, are much less likely to let doctrinal or organisational differences keep them apart any longer. They all recognise that they are in a common enterprise. Many of them feel they don't need big organisational backing any more. This may make them much harder to track and infiltrate. Some even describe themselves as freelance jihadis, sometimes expressing boredom with the organisational and ideological disputes of the different terrorist outfits. Iqbal Husaini served 4 1/2 years for harbouring terrorists, helping the famous JI leader Dulmatin travel to Mindanao in the southern Philippines, and illegal possession of weapons. Now on parole, he was interviewed in Jakarta, on September 20 last year. He told the interviewer: "Jihad in Indonesia will never decline. But the action itself will depend on the situation. For the time being, you can say that I'm moving alone by myself, but that doesn't mean I'm leaving jihad. When something comes up, and I have enough preparation, I will rise again." He believes Indonesia is an infidel country: "A country can be called an Islamic country when it is being led by a Muslim and enforces sharia law on its citizens. A country, even when the citizens are Muslim, if it does not enforce sharia law, then it is an infidel country. There is a duty for Muslims to uphold an Islamic country. It has to be done from all aspects such as politics, military, economics, law and state legislation. The upholding must be done with military power. "That's why this country must be turned into an Islamic country. The government is a group of infidels. The way to change them is by jihad." He also claims that JI prepared thousands of Indonesians for jihad: "The JI team [has] prepared people in their thousands, those in schools, those in Saudi Arabia, in Pakistan, wherever. Some people are sent to Afghanistan and The Philippines. They have thousands like them . . . People cannot have abilities without training. So people are selected. They were trained by alumni of Afghanistan or of Mindanao or of Algiers, Kashmir and other places. The ideal context is like Iraq. The battle between one enemy and another in armed conflict." But his strangest view was on the smell that Islamic martyrs exude in death. Like many of the terrorists interviewed, Husaini was perfectly happy about embracing death. But he believed shahids (Islamic martyrs) emit a special aroma in death: "Those who die in shahid will release a good smell from their rib cage. I once [smelled] it and it was nice. I asked around whether someone was using a perfume or not with no avail. The smell came right from the dead body." One of the strongest themes to emerge from the interviews was the overall failure of de-radicalisation programs within Indonesian prisons. In truth, there is no de-radicalisation program in the world that can claim significant success with convinced Islamist terrorists, but many spoke with open contempt of the official attempts to convert them away from violent jihad. Fatur said of the police: "What I see is that the police force received their orders, especially from foreign elements, demanding that terrorism be stopped using foreign methods . . . I felt that the de-radicalisation program is only talk." Nazaruddin Mochtar is serving nine years for various offences, including an attack on a police station. He says he was offered a house and finance for his family as part of a de-radicalisation program. But he didn't take it. Why not? "Because my pride is priceless." Qital made the most extravagant claims about what he was offered as part of de-radicalisation: "They say if I was willing to co-operate I will be given 50 million [rupiahs, about $5500]. I didn't know where Noordin Top was. They say if I don't know Noordin and [JI bomb-maker] Azahari [bin Husin], how about their underlings? They [the police] took me out for a meal several times, and they even put my wife and kids in a hotel. It was hard to decline their persuasion." In the end he didn't co-operate, and said: "If they want to stop the bombings, they shouldn't arrest the bombers, because there will always be a new one rising. Just cut all ties with the USA and we're done. It's futile to arrest the bombers, like Mukhlas, Samudra, Amrozi. The next generation is already prepared to replace their fathers. My son, for instance, he said he would like to kill the police who arrested me. They [the police] said why did I teach them to hate the police? I said, I didn't teach them. They grew their own hatred by witnessing what happened." Despite their many revelations, much in these interviews is familiar, such as the role of family in binding terrorists to each other. Senior terrorist leaders arrange weddings for younger recruits to their daughters or sisters, or in some other family connection intimately a part of the terror network. This makes defection, or de-radicalisation, all but unthinkable, as the terrorist would have to reject not only a lifetime of religious and political beliefs, all his friends and the network that sustained his family while he was in prison, but he would also have to reject or convert his wife, and reject all her family as well. Another common experience in the individual tales of radicalisation is the role of charismatic, or at least intense and devoted, clerics in turning an idealistic young man into a murderous, religious fanatic. The terrorists demonstrate they are not hypocrites by their willingness to sacrifice their own lives, but perhaps almost equally impressive is their willingness to undertake years of religious study. Often only at the end of such a process do they take action in the name of violent jihad. Yet another common experience is the easy interpretation of all modern geo-political disputes to fit a story of Muslims being persecuted by the West. Many of the terrorists mentioned Bosnia, yet none, of course, mentioned the Western military action undertaken to protect the Muslims of Kosovo. Any dispute involving Muslims, even if it is ludicrously lopsided, such as the persecution of Christians or of allegedly deviant Muslim groups within Indonesia, is effortlessly woven into the tale of Muslim oppression. This works at two levels: interpreting free mass media from CNN to Al Jazeera and local Indonesian TV; but also the creation of Islamist extremist media -- videos, audio recordings and magazines. Some of the terrorists interviewed had published their own extremist tracts from within the prison system. These interviews are profoundly disturbing. They show the rise of a new generation of terrorists, many hardened in battle but utterly undeterred by their prison experience or the futility of their past terrorist actions. And, worst of all, they show men in love with deep religious motivation. Islamist terror is often compared, as a pathology, with the violence of the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland. But IRA men in prison were reading nationalist tracts; they were not reading the Gospels. The Indonesian terrorists are insistent on the religious basis of their motivation. No doubt they are misguided. Certainly, however, they are very determined. Related Coverage a.. Battle for minds of terrorist convicts The Australian, 4 hours ago b.. Terrorist network thriving in prison The Australian, 1 day ago c.. Jihad's rookies under the radar The Australian, 6 May 2011 d.. Leader in waiting mouthpiece of group Courier Mail, 3 May 2011 e.. Indonesian extremists say jihad remains Herald Sun, 3 May 2011 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! 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