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The last sermon: Call for Islamic state
A Friday prayer sermon calling for Indonesia to become an Islamic state in front of 500 followers in Bandung, West Java, may be the last hurrah for radical cleric Abu Bakar Ba’asyir
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Friday prayer sermon calling for Indonesia to become an Islamic state in front of 500 followers in Bandung, West Java, may be the last hurrah for radical cleric Abu Bakar Ba’asyir.
Ba’asyir’s sermon at the Al Ikhwanul Qorim mosque on Jl. Babakan Priangan V, Bandung, was part of a tour of several cities in West Java to encourage his followers to adopt sharia law.
At the mosque, Ba’asyir blasted the government for refusing to incorporate sharia into the state system, likening them to infidels.
“Although our leaders claim to be Muslims, if they don’t apply the law then they are similar to infidels,” said Ba’asyir.
“There’s no apology for infidels.”
One Ba’asyir follower, who attended the sermon, said the cleric came to the mosque on invitation from grandchild, Rizky, who lived in the area.
Ba’asyir, 72, continued his tour to other parts of Bandung and to the nearby city of Tasikmalaya before being detained Monday by the antiterror police in Ciamis on his way home to Surakarta, Central Java.
Along with Ba’asyir, police also detained his wife, Aisyah Baradja, and five of his bodyguards, who attempted to resist the arrest. Also arrested was Muslihah Sungkar, the daughter of the late radical cleric Abdullah Sungkar and the wife of the Al Mukmin Islamic boarding school’s president director, Wahyuddin.
Aisyah and Muslihah were later released.
Ba’asyir’s youngest child and protege, Abdul Rohim, said the family was devastated, and questioned the police’s methods in the arrest.
“If the police wanted to arrest my father why didn’t they do it while he was home?” sobbed Abdul.
The police decided against arresting Ba’asyir at his home at the Al Mukmin to avoid inciting violent resistance from his followers.
Ba’asyir, the spiritual leader of terrorist group Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), has since the 1970s been the country’s most persistent figure in demanding the establishment of the Islamic State of Indonesia.
In 1983, he was arrested along with his partner Abdullah Sungkar, for encouraging their followers to reject Pancasila (Indonesia’s philosophical foundation) and for teaching their students to not acknowledge the Indonesian flag.
Both were sentenced to nine years in prison. However, Ba’asyir and Sungkar fled to Malaysia in 1985.
It was during his time in Malaysia that he formed JI, forging ties with Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorist network. Ba’asyir also sent a group of his Al Mukmin graduates to Afghanistan for military training.
Ba’asyir returned to Indonesia in 1999 and formed the radical movement group Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia (MMI).
