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strong>Feb. 25, Online

The US has formally included hard-line Islamic group Jemaah Anshorut Tauhid (JAT), an extremist organization founded by infamous cleric Abu Bakar Ba’asyir in 2008, on its list of foreign terror networks.

The US Department of State said on its website that the group was responsible for multiple coordinated attacks against innocent civilians, police and military personnel in Indonesia. “JAT has robbed banks and carried out other illicit activities to fund the purchase of assault weapons, pistols and bomb-making materials,” the department said.

A JAT suicide bomber detonated explosives in a Central Java church in September last year, killing himself and wounding dozens of others. The police have also uncovered additional suicide plots by the group across the archipelago, it added.

It also alluded to the role of JAT’s co-founder, Ba’asyir, as a co-founder of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), another hard-line group believed to be responsible for the 2002 Bali bombings, which killed more than 200 people.

Your comments:

This terror mindset is one of the major sources affecting the oil price hike and root of all social-economic problems. They sell threats and story after story, collect the money and maintain the situation of the long lasting poverty nation to keep their cash flow running.

Joshua
Jakarta

I am personally wondering who is the real terrorist. Is there any clear definition about it? Who defines it? I just want to stand on my own position as a reader (I am afraid the US will judge me by saying it like this) or as a “critical friend”.

I do not agree at all with the person who commits violence or terror on behalf of religion, tribe or group, but I also don’t really agree with US policies (not US people).

Let’s say that JAT and JI are identical organizations that were behind several bombings in Indonesia, but let’s see and compare with what US and its allies have done in the Middle East or other countries around the world, Indonesia as well.

Let’s see what happened in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. Why has there been no one saying that the US was also a “state terrorist”?

It has not been a secret that the US always intervenes in other countries’ policies, politics, economy and security.

I am just afraid that the US uses the issue (terrorism) as its strategy to gain its interests: energy (oil), power and policy.

Let’s be critical and smart, find the truth and not just be “blind followers”.

Supriyadi Lee
Jakarta

If they are intelligent people, they should fight the US not by using terror and suicide bombers that kill other Muslims.

To fight the US, people should use their brain. Communist China, which called the US its main enemy, has won the war without bloodshed. Today, US markets are full of Chinese goods.

They dominate not only US markets, but also European and Indonesian ones too. European leaders visited China to ask for financial assistance.

Widya Utama
Bergen, Norway

Terrorism comes in many different forms, starting from attacks to the political undermining of the nation’s values, through straight intimidation and the forcing of  a twisted version of Islam (their  interpretation).

David K
Jakarta