Thousands of books on radical Islamism still spread freely throughout Indonesia, rising concerns that they may hamper the government's efforts to combat terrorism in the wake of a recent attack in Jakarta, a researcher said on Friday.

There are about 5,000 books with radical teaching contents spread across the country, said Ali Asghar, secretary of the National Security Studies Center of Jakarta-based Bhayangkara University, urging the government to monitor the spread.

"They may trigger some readers to commit terrorist acts," he said.

Ali gave as an example a book containing extensive commentary about the Koran written by influential Egyptian author Sayyid Qutb: Fi Zilal Al-Quran (In the Shade of the Koran), which was a favorite among Indonesian readers.

The book, which has been translated into Indonesian, contained messages promoting sharia and claimed that any country that does not implement it is evil.

"Non-Muslim countries deserve to be attacked as they can be deemed infidels," he said about the book during a public discussion in Jakarta.

Moreover, readers of radical books are also those with educational backgrounds, Ali said.

"The buyers of radical books are not people who only graduated from Islamic boarding schools. On the contrary, they graduated from some reputable public universities in Indonesia," Ali said.

Radical Islamic messages are also dispersed through religious flyers distributed during Friday prayers.

"I find in the flyers the writers slam the government for its secular ideology," he said.

In the latest reports by local media, a textbook for kindergarten students in Depok, West Java reportedly contained radical messages such as "Sahid di medan jihad" [die as a jihadist], "Rela mati bela agama" [willingly die for religion], "Hati-hati zona bahaya" [warning, dangerous zone] and '€œBahaya sabotase" [danger of sabotage].

The government had announced plans to implement stronger programs to counter terrorism, including deradicalization of convicted terrorists.

Four terrorists launched an attack by suicide bombing and opened fire with handguns on Jl. MH Thamrin on Jan. 14, killing three civilians (a fourth was mistakenly shot dead by police) and injuring dozens of people. National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti announced that the attackers, who apparently all died in the incident, were connected to the Islamic State terrorist group. (rin)(+)

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