Bashir, Abu Bakar (1938–)

The Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir (aka Ustad Abu) was born in August 1938 to Yemeni parents living in Jombang, East Java, Indonesia. He has been described as the spiritual head of a militant Islamic group called Jemaah Islamiyah, which supports some of the goals of the terror group al Qaeda. While Bashir has not been found to have directly planned any of the terrorist attacks that shattered Indonesia in the early twenty-first century, he has been the ideological leader of militant Indonesian Muslims involved in terrorist bombings. As leader of the Indonesian Mujahedeen [Page 92]Council, Bashir's influence has spread beyond Indonesia's borders to several Southeast Asian countries, including Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines.

Bashir runs the al Mukmin boarding school in Ngruki, Central Java, which he cofounded with another cleric, Abdullah Sungkar, in 1971. Sungkar died in 1999, but al Mukmin has become a venue where young Muslims are taught radical ideas, which often drive them to engage in terrorist activities. Many Jemaah Islamiyah members, including the perpetrators of the 2002 bombing on the island of Bali, studied at al Mukmin.

During the presidency of Suharto, known as the New Order administration (1967–1998), Bashir and Sungkar were arrested several times for a number of reasons. They were imprisoned without trial from 1978 to 1982. Soon after their release, the two were linked to the 1985 bomb attack on a Buddhist monument, but they fled to Malaysia.

Bashir's radicalism was reinforced in exile as he interacted with young Muslims who had trained in Afghanistan and Pakistan with a view to fight the Soviet Union's occupation of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. Bashir also expanded his regional base by undertaking religious teaching in Malaysia and Singapore. It was during this period that Bashir and Sungkar reorganized Jemaah Islamiyah, which had evolved from a faction of the Darul Islam political movement. Following the fall of the Suharto regime, Bashir returned to Indonesia in 1999 and renewed his call for an Islamic state and for the implementation of Shariah law.

Bashir has expressed support for Osama bin Laden, but he has denied the existence of Jemaah Islamiyah, instead making contradictory claims about the Bali bombings and other terrorist attacks. Despite admissions by his followers that they planned and carried out the 2002 Bali bombing, Bashir has claimed the CIA and Israel were behind it. At the same time, he has described the Bali bombers as the defenders of Islam and Indonesia.

In October 2004, Bashir was arrested and charged with involvement in the Marriott Hotel bombing in Jakarta in August 2003, as well as the 2002 Bali bombing. The following spring he was convicted of conspiracy for the Bali attacks but acquitted for the Marriott Hotel attacks. He was sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment, but his jail term was later reduced. He was released in June 2006, and his conviction was overturned by the Indonesian Supreme Court. Bashir has continued to call for Shariah law to be imposed on Indonesia, and he continues to blame the 2002 Bali bombings on the Central Intelligence Agency.

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