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Thousands of militant Muslims declare holy war in mass anti-US
rally in Surakarta
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The
Jakarta Post
September 25, 2002
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Thousands of militant Muslims declare holy war in mass anti-US
rally in Surakarta
SURAKATA (JP): About 1,500 militant Muslims from various regions in Java and
Sumatra attended a mass anti-U.S. rally in Surakata on Wednesday and declared
they were ready to wage a jihad against Washington.
Secretary-general of the Front for the Defenders of Islam (FPI) Ahmad Sobri Lubis
said that the rally was held to protest allegations by members of the international
community that the al-Qaeda network was active in Indonesia and that Indonesian
Islamic leader Abubakar Ba'asyir was involved with international terrorist networks.
"We declared at the rally that Indonesian Muslims should never trust any statement
from the U.S. government as long as they continue repressing Muslims in
Afghanistan," Lubis said.
"Everyone who attended the rally is waiting for instructions from their leaders to stage
a jihad against America," he told AFP following the 90 minute-rally, which ended
shortly before dusk.
The rally was decided on last week during a meeting at a Muslim boarding school
headed by Ba'asyir in Ngruki, near the Central Java city of Surakata.
Participants at the rally also gave their "ultimate support" for Ba'asyir, whose name,
Lubis said, had been "smeared" by a Time magazine report and accusations of links
to terrorists by Malaysia and Singapore.
A recent Time magazine report based on allegedly leaked CIA documents said
al-Qaeda had been operating in Indonesia. Citing a foreign intelligence report, Time
said in its Sept. 23 issue that an alleged al-Qaeda senior operative, Omar al-Faruq,
admitted he planned to kill Megawati Soekarnoputri in May 1999 when she was
running for the presidency.
According to a CIA report referred to by the magazine, Ba'asyir had offered assistance
to Faruq for carrying out a recent plan to bomb U.S. embassies in Jakarta and
elsewhere in the region.
Lubis said all accusations made against Ba'asyir "must be proven by Indonesian law".
U.S. Ambassador to Jakarta Ralph Boyce has said the report was not an official
government document, but he has also said al-Qaeda has been active in Indonesia.
Ba'asyir and Habib Riziq Shihab, the FPI leader, were not invited to a dialog between
Boyce and representatives of several Islamic organizations held at the headquarters of
the country's second largest Muslim group, the Muhammadiyah, in Jakarta on
Tuesday.
Boyce said at the meeting that Washington had not labeled any Indonesian Muslim
groups -- including Ba'asyir's Indonesian Mujahidin Council -- as international terrorist
organizations.
In an interview with private television station SCTV from Surakata earlier on
Wednesday, Ba'asyir said he saw Boyce's statement as "an improvement". But he
warned Indonesian Muslims to remain cautious of Washington's stance on Islam.
"We still have to be careful because no matter what (Boyce has said) America has
made Islam its enemy," he said, adding that Washington should be fair in solving the
Middle East crisis. Ba'asyir has denied the presence of terrorist networks in Indonesia
and any link to international terrorism.
Earlier, Habib Rizieq Shihab said the protest would also push for Jakarta to be "more
active in protecting its citizens in the face of pressure from overseas, including from
the United States, who want to turn them into scapegoats".
Several Indonesians have also been arrested or are being sought in the region on
suspicion of terrorist links.
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