Posted on 12/09/2003 11:02:42 PM PST by FairOpinion
South-East Asian radicals are divided over the wisdom of attacking hotels, nightclubs and other "soft targets" where Muslims may be killed alongside Westerners - an internal split that could weaken the terrorist enterprise, authorities have said.
Some militants inside the al-Qaeda-linked Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiah want their jihad, or holy war, to focus on fighting Christians in certain regions of Indonesia rather than bombing Western targets where Muslims die, too, according to government officials, defence attorneys and an intelligence adviser to Indonesia.
The debate among Indonesian militants appears to have intensified after the August 5 bombing of the JW Marriott in Jakarta - whose 12 fatalities were mostly Muslim.
A prominent group of Muslim defence lawyers said they would not accept any Marriott bombers as clients.
After the Marriott bombing, several senior militants close to Zulkarnaen, Jemaah's Islamiah's purported operations chief, expressed displeasure because most the victims were Muslim, said the senior intelligence adviser who asked that his name not be used.
He said the information was based on internal Jemaah Islamiah communications picked up by Indonesian intelligence agents.
The revelations about the rift coincide with a post-September 11 hobbling of al-Qaeda's and Jemaah Islamiah's command-and-control structure that many officials believe has led to more indiscriminate targeting - not just in Indonesia, but around the globe - moving away from al-Qaeda's tradition of limiting attacks to Western and Jewish targets.
Dissension inside militant ranks could potentially weaken terrorist networks anywhere in the world, officials said, though it may also mean greater danger as cells attack without the blessings of their peers.
In fact, officials in Indonesia, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said they're bracing for more attacks, which they say are increasingly likely, especially during the Christmas and New Year's holidays.
Indonesia's national security minister, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, warned in a speech Sunday in Bali that terrorists appear to be "regrouping, reconnecting, recruiting and retraining".
Jemaah Islamiah - whose professed goal is to impose an Islamic superstate spanning much of Southeast Asia - is loosely organised with an estimated 3,000 members in the region, including 2,000 in Indonesia.
Several senior Jemaah Islamiah operatives were not privy to either the Marriott bombing or the October 12, 2002 twin nightclub attacks on Bali island that killed 202 people, officials told AP, underscoring the diffuse nature of the terror group and its ability to act without consensus.
Most of the Bali blasts' victims were holidaying foreigners, with only a few Muslims, mostly waiters and other workers, among the dead.
That's because Bali, unlike the rest of Indonesia, is primarily Hindu and because the Sari Club, the worst-hit of the two nightclubs, had a controversial policy of only admitting foreigners.
All this helps explain why the Marriott attack led to far more soul searching among militants than the Bali blasts.
Ismail, a key suspect in the Marriott bombing, yesterday said he regretted carrying out the attack because of the high number of Indonesian victims.
His remarks came during a police re-enactment of the blast.
Increased Muslim deaths are a byproduct of successful blows against al-Qaeda's command structure, communications and finances as terrorists resort to local targets, said a US counterterrorism official, speaking on condition of anonymity from Washington.
He predicted that these killings may create a backlash in the Islamic world.
The Muslim Lawyers Group, which has defended most of the Bali bombers, said it will not take on any of the dozen or so men accused in the Marriott blast.
"We saw who the victims were ... almost 90 per cent Muslim," said attorney Mahendradatta, the group's leader, who uses only one name.
"We don't want to defend people who are doing their struggle like a loose cannon. They have no vision, no mission."
Introspection among militants in Indonesia - where the majority's notably tolerant practice of Islam stands in sharp contrast to a radical fringe - isn't necessarily the norm in the Islamic world.
Suicide bombers in the Middle East, for instance, have attacked Israeli Arab restaurants in Haifa and killed Israeli Arabs on buses in the Galilee - with scant public apology or remorse.
Almost all of the world's terrorist attacks attributed to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda or groups linked to al-Qaeda since Sept. 11 have taken place in Muslim countries - including Indonesia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia and Yemen.
The more than 60 deaths in a string of recent bombings in Istanbul, Turkey - as well as the 17 people killed in a Nov. 8 suicide bombing at a housing compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - were overwhelmingly Muslim.
For many militants in Indonesia and elsewhere, killing Muslims is an acceptable price to pay for the goal of ridding infidels from their midst.
"We don't want to defend people who are doing their struggle like a loose cannon. They have no vision, no mission."
Whereas, for some Indonesian lawyers the identity of the victim is crucial, for after all, one must keep ones "mission" in mind, lest you kill Muslims and be deemed unwothy of defense.
This "lawyer" Mahendradatta is no Muslim moderate, he is just a bit better focused on his "mission". He is still a POS.
They've already had the Christians targeted. Where was the religion of peace (tm) warning?
Bai`ram´
n. 1. Either of two Mohammedan festivals, of which one (the Lesser Bairam) is held at the close of the fast called Ramadan, and the other (the Greater Bairam) seventy days after the fast.
So I guess we have to assume they were talking about Greater Bairam, 70 days after the fast is over. Ramadan was over on 26 November, wasn't it? So that takes it sometime into the first week of Feb for Greater Bairam, but this event is supposedly to happen sometime before that.
"Bairam" referred to on this link by liz44040
9 December 2003-- A message posted on a monitored Islamic jihad forum suggests the release of yet another videotape prepared by al Qaeda and featuring Osama bin Laden. The taped message will purportedly contain a message from Osama bin Laden about a "great event that will shake the world" (terrorist attack) that will take place before the Bairam (feast 70 days from Ramadan). The taped message will reportedly be broadcast after this large scale attack.
| n. | 1. | Either of two Mohammedan festivals, of which one (the Lesser Bairam) is held at the close of the fast called Ramadan, and the other (the Greater Bairam) seventy days after the fast. |
Bairam or Beiram. The name of two Mohammedan feasts. The lesser Bairam, being celebrated at the termination of the great fast of Ramadan (q. v.), is to that extent the analogue of the Christian Easter. Then the Moslem world puts on its new clothes and comes out and rejoices over the return of sumptuary liberty. Visits and presents are exchanged. In Constantinople bands of music parade the streets, and the boats in the Bosporus are decorated with flags. ln the palace of Dolma-baktche the Sultan receives his friends after worshipping at the mosque. He takes his seat on the throne in the centre of the vast audience-room. The grand vizier is received first. He presses to his forehead a broad scarf or veil which is attached to the throne, and then bows low and withdraws. The Sheik-ul-Islam makes a feint at doing the same. But, being almost as high as the Sultan in religious rank, that sublime gentleman interrupts him and bows to him instead. The festivities are generally protracted over three days.
The second or greater Bairam, known also as the Feast of the Sacrifices, is celebrated seventy days later. This is the culminating ceremony of the pilgrimage to Mecca but it has an individual significance as a commemoration of the willingness of Abraham to offer up his son Ishmael (not Isaac, as stated in the Bible). The Moslem story runs thus: After the foundation of Mecca by Abraham, God commanded him to prepare a feast. The patriarch asked what the Lord would have served for the occasion, and the answer was, "Offer up thy son Ishmael." So Abraham placed Ishmael on his back with his head towards the black stone. But the patriarch's hand trembled, and the knife dropped out of it. Thereupon Ishmael told him to cover his eyes with the end of his turban and strike blindfolded. Abraham obeyed, and striking felt the blood gush forth from the victim. "God is great!" he cried. But, lo! when he unbound his eyes, a dying ram lay at his feet, which the archangel Gabriel had substituted for Ishmael. In memory of this deliverance of the patriarch's son, from whom Mohammed and his followers claimed descent, sacrifices of goats and sheep are offered by all who can afford them. These animals it is believed will reappear after death to help the souls of the offerers across the bridge that leads to paradise. Hence the richer Moslems, in a spirit of altruistic charity, frequently supply their more indigent brethren with victims to sacrifice.
Curiosities of Popular Customs
And of Rites, Ceremonies, Observances, and Miscellaneous Antiquities
By William S. Walsh
J.B. Lippincott Company
Copyright 1897
| SECOND SEMESTER AND SUMMER SCHOOL | |
| February 1-4,2004 | Religious Holiday (Holy Feast of Sacrifice) (Eve of the Greater Bairam, January 31 - Saturday) (The Feast lasts for 4 days) |
Increased Muslim deaths are a byproduct of successful blows against al-Qaeda's command structure, communications and finances as terrorists resort to local targets, said a US counterterrorism official, speaking on condition of anonymity from Washington.
He predicted that these killings may create a backlash in the Islamic world.
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