Posted on 03/19/2003 7:24:12 AM PST by areafiftyone
An Islamic group notorious for its raids on Jakarta nightspots has told Australians, Americans and Britons to leave Indonesia before allied forces enter Iraq.
The Front Pembela Islam (FPI) has labelled citizens from countries who have joined the allied forces kafir harbi, an Arabic term for non-Muslims who can be legally killed.
And Anshor, the youth wing of Indonesia's largest Islamic organisation Nahdlatul Ulama, threatened to force US and allied diplomats to leave Indonesia, and also said it planned a national boycott of US products.
The Front Pembela Islam declaration marks a return of the FPI, founded in 1998 and then disbanded last September, and raises questions about the commitment by Indonesian security forces to clamp down on terrorism.
"When the attack happens the allies will face thousands of new Osama bin Ladens who will destroy US interests around the world," FPI chairman Habib Rizieq told AAP, referring to the leader of the al-Qaeda terrorist network.
"Every citizen who directly supports the US is considered kafir harbi."
Rizieq said he had seen news from Australia of popular protest against unilateral military action and from England of Robin Cook's decision to resign from the cabinet.
"Not all (allied) citizens are bad, that's why we will give them warning for their safety to leave Indonesia immediately," he said.
The declaration followed a meeting of 250 senior members of the group at a university campus in Jakarta at the weekend.
While FPI has never fulfilled previous vows to "sweep" the city for foreigners, its high-profile raids on gambling dens and nightclubs has led many analysts to believe it works as a militia arm of the police to exact extortion fees.
"If they are still coordinating with the police, the police may want more money to protect international schools and so forth," said one analyst, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Any alliance with the police appeared to have dissolved last September when Rizieq was arrested for a number of weeks and his membership was disbanded in response to a violent raid on some billiard clubs in North Jakarta.
Rizieq said he would not be opposed by "good" police when he carried out his sweepings.
"They are not collaborators with immoral entrepreneurs, while bad police will try to stop us," he said.
Last night, National Police Chief Da'i Bachtiar told reporters his entire force of 250,000 officers would be on alert to maintain peace, while every embassy in Jakarta would be given extra security.
FPI broke up just before the October 12 bombings in Bali, last year which killed 202 people and forged a much higher level of commitment from the Indonesian police to fight terrorism.
Just after the Bali bombings, the Islamic extremist group Laskar Jihad, believed to be backed by the military, declared it would stop fighting Christians in the eastern island of Ambon.
This guy's life insurance policy was just cancelled!
The only American imports that these goat-buggerers regularly boycott are truth, freedom and peace!
Religion of Peace?
Translation: We are a religion of peace, so if you don't want us to kill you, you'd better leave because we love and support totalitarian islamic, genocidal, megalomanical, stalinist dictators that deny their people any human rights.
Are there many other religions that have specific terms identifying those who can be legally killed?
Last I heard this 'growing movement' managed to draw one hundred whole people together to protest outside the US embassy in Indonesia...which they declared on a banner was 'shut down'.
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