The fiery address from Abu Bakar Bashir came as officials at a school he set up confirmed that a man identified by police as the suicide bomber who triggered last week's huge blast at Jakarta's JW Marriott Hotel was one of their pupils.
The speech also comes just two days before Jakarta prosecutors will sum up their case against the frail cleric, who is on trial for treason, and make their demand for sentencing. The maximum penalty he faces is a life term.
Bashir, who denies the existence of the militant Muslim group blamed for last year's deadly Bali bombings and the Marriott attack, sent word to 3,000 believers gathered in a stadium in this city in central Java island for a congress of the Mujahiden Council of Indonesia, or MMI.
"Do not be afraid of being labeled as trying to overthrow (the government) or as terrorists when you are carrying out Islamic sharia (law)," Bashir said in the speech read out at an inaugural prayer meeting by Irfan Awwas, MMI executive chairman.
Bashir is spiritual leader of the MMI and is believed to play a similar role in the shadowy JI, seen as the Southeast Asian arm of Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al Qaeda network.
His words were interrupted by cries of "Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest)," from the congregation. Solo is the heart of Bashir's movement and where he runs the Islamic school that was attended by some of the accused Bali bombers.
School officials said another of the pupils was Asnar Latin Sani, identified as the suicide bomber who drove a car packed with explosives and fuel up to the lobby of the U.S.-run Marriott Hotel last Tuesday and blew it up.
Asnar, 28, graduated in 1994, they said.
The death toll from that attack rose to 11 Sunday when a severely burned taxi driver died of wounds sustained in the attack, officials said.
Bashir was taken in for questioning by police within days of last October's bombings of two Bali nightclubs that killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists, and his trial on charges of trying to topple the government began in late April.
TAKING ON THE GOVERNMENT
The congress of a group that is seen by many security experts as the public face of Jemaah Islamiah (JI) is held every three years and will elect a new emir, or spiritual leader. Bashir could be re-elected, officials of the group said.
In his speech, Bashir did not hesitate to confront the government.
"The Indonesian government must not discredit Muslims wanting to perform their religious duties and should not arrest clerics, religious leaders or religious teachers because that will anger God," the jailed cleric was quoted as saying.
One prosecution witness recently said at Bashir's trial that the cleric had approved a plot to assassinate Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri.
Bashir gave evidence for the first time in his trial last Tuesday, the same day as the blast at the Marriott Hotel.
The cleric, who also faces charges linked to deadly bombings of churches in Indonesia, told the court that Muslims were required to fight back against oppression and he could not condemn the church attacks without knowing the reasons.
Indonesian Defense Minister Matori Abdul Djalil said on Friday he was certain JI was to blame for the Marriott bombing.
A trove of evidence has been gathered at the scene that pointed to JI, police say.
The size of the group and the capabilities of JI's members after fighting or training in Afghanistan (news - web sites) could not be underestimated, the defense minister said.
