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| Southeast Asia |
| Australia will be 'destroyed instantly' if it strikes at Muslim countries |
| 2002-12-12 |
| Australia will be "destroyed instantly" if it launches a pre-emptive strike against terrorist targets in other countries, warns the man Western governments say is spiritual leader of the terrorist group accused of masterminding the Bali bombings. Abu Bakar Bashir, the cleric said to be head of the recently banned South-East Asian group Jemaah Islamiah, said Australians would be dragged into a war with Muslims if they went along with the "crazy idea" of a pre-emptive strike floated recently by the Prime Minister, John Howard. That idea's looking less crazy every time Abu opens his mouth... "So, if John Howard's stance is followed by the people of Australia you must know that there will be war in the world and, God willing, Australia will be destroyed instantly due to the crazy idea of its Prime Minister." Or, God willing, Abu and his minions will be doorknob dead... Abu Bakar said that "Australian people, God willing, have no problem with Islam" but their leaders, like Mr Howard, "do influence their people a lot to make enemies of Islam ... the incumbent prime minister is the ally of George W. Bush, the worst and most evil president in the world. John Howard is his ally." The Australian people — and the American people — had no problem with Islam until Islamists started killing them. Things change, don't they? Abu Bakar, who heads a militant Islamic Didja ever notice how seldom the clerics who're saying what a noble thing suicide bombing is actually explode? Seems it's more noble when the common folk do it... "Israel gets weapons supplied by Allah's enemy, the American Government, while the Palestinians do not have weapons that are capable of fighting back, so there is no other way but the martyr-bombers way." Unless they felt like negotiating and abiding by their agreements. But that's not the Islamist way... Abu Bakar made his comments when answering a series of questions prepared by the Herald and put to him and recorded by one of his confidants in the police hospital in Jakarta on Wednesday. In contrast with his comments in an interview with the Herald just after the Bali bombing, Abu Bakar expressed some sympathy for the victims of the attack, who he said appeared to be "only ordinary tourists" and not involved in attacking Islam. However, he said Muslims had no choice but to defend themselves from attacks by the United States and its allies, including Australia. "... We are obliged to defend ourselves and attack people who attack Islam," he said. "And even people who don't give a fart about Islam. It's the same thing, ain't it?" "In Islam there is no word for hands up, there is no word for surrender, there are only two things, win or die ... if infidels do want to attack Islam, fight Islam, so we are instructed to fight them." Unless the West is wimpier than I think it is — maybe even as wimpy as Abu thinks it is — Abu isn't going to win. That means Abu can start decomposing any time now... Abu Bakar denied knowing Imam Samudra or any of the others arrested over the Bali bombings, claiming they were incapable of organising such an attack. He repeated his belief that the US and Israel were behind the bombings but again offered no evidence to support this. He doesn't need any evidence, does he? He also continued to deny his involvement in JI, or even that it exists, claiming the group was a US invention to prove that Muslims were terrorists. He admitted making "several trips" to Australia, but not the eleven the Federal Government says he has made. He remembered visiting Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane, but could not recall where he stayed. "I visited Australia because of Koran reading invitations by the Muslim community there ... I stayed in their houses, kept moving and forget who those people are because it is a one-week visit." He had no network in Australia and "all the trips" had been paid for by people in Australia who had invited him. Perhaps Australia should invite those very people to depart? Abu Bakar, who was arrested under new anti-terrorism legislation passed in the weeks after the Bali bombing, said he would like to visit Australia again but not if the situation was unsafe, as it was now. "The coppers are on to me now. But things'll cool off. Look at the Americans. Not much more than a year ago they were counting corpses. Today they're back to watching Britney's breasts..." |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #1 Pre-emptive strike? This guy looks like the poster child for it. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2002-12-12 21:46:08 |