Free Republic

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Fugitive al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden once invited Indonesian preacher Abu Bakar Bashir to live in Afghanistan, a young militant jailed over the bombing of a Jakarta hotel has told the cleric's terrorism trial. Witness Mohamad Rais said he gave a message to Bashir from bin Laden in 2001 after returning to Indonesia from two years of military training in Afghan militant camps. "If Bashir feels no longer comfortable here (in Indonesia), Osama asked Bashir to go there," Rais told the court on Thursday when asked by a judge what was the content of the message....

BALI: Indonesian police said on Monday that their chief suspect in the Bali bomb blasts, a man who has confessed to involvement in the attack, was a student of detained Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir. Major-General Made Mangku Pastika, head of the multinational police investigation into the Bali attacks, told a news conference on the resort island that Bashir was also a co-founder of the Jemaah Islamiah militant Muslim network in Malaysia. It was the first time that Indonesia had tied the 64-year-old cleric to Jemaah Islamiah, a Southeast Asian militant group that has been linked to Osama Bin Laden's...

KUALA LUMPUR, October 20 (IslamOnline) - Islamic groups in Indonesia have decided to play a larger political role in the country in order to limit accusations against Islam in Indonesia, sources close to the Indonesian Mujahideen Council (MMI) told IslamOnline on Sunday, October 20. The source, known as “the Sheikh”, said the Islamic groups will follow the steps of the Laskar Jihad or the Jihad Force (JF) that disbanded itself on Wednesday last week, with several members joining its leader in forming an Islamic school in Java. Muslim groups targeted as “extremists” are currently being talked into turning their attention...