Laskar Jihad
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Laskar Jihad, or Holy War Warriors, was formed in 2000 in Ambon, Moluccan Islands, Indonesia, by Jafar Umar Thalib, who studied in Pakistan and fought with the mujahadeen in Afghanistan in the late 1980s. Jafar admits to having met Osama bin Laden there but dismisses him saying the al Qaeda chief "knew nothing about true religion". Jafar claims to have rejected al Qaeda funding in 2001.
Between May 2000 to December 2001 an estimated 10,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands had to flee their towns as Laskar Jihad burnt indigenous Melanesian Churches and communities on Ambon and other Moluccas islands as well as Christian communities in Sulawesi. A video of the group being welcome to Ambon by Indonesian authorities was later joined by allegations of murder, torture, forced conversion to Islam, and forced circumcision. During 2001 and 2002 Laskar Jihad began to expand its activities sending militants to the provinces of Aceh and Papua, at opposite ends of the country. Although the group after the Bali bombing in October 2002 announced it was disbanding, during 2003 it requested the Indonesian government provide office space in Papua. In May 2003 reports smuggled out of Papua claimed fire and machete had been used to destroy ten townships, their food gardens and live stock sending the surviving women and children into jungle hiding from Indonesian forces. Video footage of an alleged Laskar Jihad training camp was broadcast in May 2005, and during June 2006 witness statements were gathered concerning three jihad training camps with 2500 troops allegedly training with TNI assistance near the PNG border.
Jafar, when asked (by Jessica Stern, in her book Terrorism in the Name of God)whether he promotes Wahhabism in Indonesia responded: "No, not exactly. Sheik Muhammad ibn-Abdul Wahhab emphasizes some hadith that are weak....Ahle Sunnah-the Islamic teachings that we embrace-are more reliable, more fundamental. We are not taking Wahhab's point of view; we identify ourselves as people who follow Muhammad's friends. We criticize some of Wahhab's literature, as relying too heavily on weak hadith that may not be the word of Allah." He considers himself more fundamentalist than Osama bin Laden, though he makes a distinction between 'kafir' (infidels) who hurt Muslims and kafir who either help or do not harm Muslims. The former he is fighting against, the latter, he believes, ought not to be hurt. Television is banned in Laskar camps and women wear burqa; but Jafar determined that al Qaeda's ideology is not in line with true Islam.
