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Down Under
Arrests force brothers to defend JI past
2006-11-04
ABDUL Rahman Ayub is a worried man, but he is adamant he has left his terrorist past behind. The Indonesian preacher, who along with twin brother Abdul Rahim Ayub headed the Australian chapter of regional terror network Jemaah Islamiah, says he has long renounced the radical teachings of former mentor Abu Bakar Bashir. The pair have also washed their hands of Abdul Rahim's sons, Mohammad and Abdullah Ayub, who were arrested in Yemen last month on terrorism charges.
They accuse Abdul Rahim's former wife, Australian woman Rabiyah Hutchison, of turning two "sweet, cute boys" into hardliners eager to create a Muslim caliphate by any means.
And they accuse Abdul Rahim's former wife, Australian woman Rabiyah Hutchison, of turning two "sweet, cute boys" into hardliners eager to create a Muslim caliphate by any means.

However, for the past four years, after long sojourns in Australia marshalling the faithful, they have kept their heads down in Jakarta, anxious to evade the scrutiny of authorities and, they claim, former religious compatriots who would like to see them come to a rough end. They even believe that Indonesia's National Intelligence Bureau, or BIN, could cause problems for them if they speak out.

Abdul Rahman, a genial, bearded character with a quick smile, arrived at a Jakarta Pizza Hut restaurant yesterday to explain why he and his identical twin had avoided the eye of Australian and Indonesian investigators keen to probe their involvement in terror atrocities such as the 2002 Bali bombing.
Abdul Rahman was deported from Australia months before the JI attack, after having his bid for refugee status rejected, and Abdul Rahim fled just days after it, attending a JI planning meeting in Indonesia at which the Bali planners were also present.
Abdul Rahman was deported from Australia months before the JI attack, after having his bid for refugee status rejected, and Abdul Rahim fled just days after it, attending a JI planning meeting in Indonesia at which the Bali planners were also present. The men had spent several years living and preaching in Sydney and Perth, and raising money from the local Muslim community to send to community leaders including Bashir. Abdul Rahman denied any knowledge of this fundraising activity yesterday, insisting that "any money I collected was only for the poor. For myself, I know of nothing else".

They have also been accused of being a link to al-Qa'ida after Abdul Rahman spent several years in Afghanistan in the 1990s fighting the Soviet occupation alongside Osama bin Laden -- then "a mere foot soldier" in the resistance movement. He was also friends with terror mastermind Hambali, alias Riduan Isamuddin. "But should we be responsible for people we once used to be friends with?" Abdul Rahman said.
Just because I knew Hambali means nothing. People think that all the veterans from Afghanistan are the same, but it's just not true. In Afghanistan I organised taking care of orphans and giving them food, but on my return I'm somehow a terrorist.
"Just because I knew Hambali means nothing. People think that all the veterans from Afghanistan are the same, but it's just not true. In Afghanistan I organised taking care of orphans and giving them food, but on my return I'm somehow a terrorist."

Abdul Rahman said his brother had a message for his ex-wife: please call. "He wants to know how his sons are," he said.

Abdul Rahim, who has survived by running a general store then by teaching English, has disowned his sons because of their hardline ways, but is sorry for the breakdown in communication and wants his former wife to make an effort to get in touch. Ms Hutchison has a daughter, Rahma, from her first marriage to a Balinese man, which foundered before she moved into the circle of JI founder Abdullah Sungkar in the early 1980s. Abdul Rahman says he and his brother met her when the study group she was part of went to hear him preach in Jakarta. He knew she was a "hardliner" even then, but thought that her radical views would mellow. That turned out to be a false hope, but not before the union between her and his brother had produced Mohammad and Abdullah and a daughter, Aminah.

After years of silence, Ms Hutchison called Abdul Rahim after their sons' arrests in Yemen, on October 17, but received a curt "I don't know, and I don't want to know" from the man who feels that his boys -- now 19 and 21 -- were kept from him after the marriage ended in 1996. It is a response he regrets, according to Abdul Rahman, who says providing for family -- both men have six children, Abdul Rahim with a second wife -- is more important than any effort they might have previously engaged in to spread Islam.

Abdul Rahman earns money preaching at mosques and small gatherings -- including for employees of state airline Garuda -- after previous low-paid stints selling donuts from the back of a motorbike and hawking his own paintings of flowers and wildlife. He denies he has been in The Philippines in recent months training terrorists allied with JI and the Abu Sayyaf organisation.
He also insists the men have been slandered by association with JI and al-Qa'ida, and fear their income will be diminished as students stay away because of the latest revelations. Abdul Rahman earns money preaching at mosques and small gatherings -- including for employees of state airline Garuda -- after previous low-paid stints selling donuts from the back of a motorbike and hawking his own paintings of flowers and wildlife. He denies he has been in The Philippines in recent months training terrorists allied with JI and the Abu Sayyaf organisation. "Our former friends in Australia don't contact us any more, because they're frightened given what they hear about us in the news," Abdul Rahman said. "All these accusations, there is no actual proof, only assumptions."

Abdul Rahman remains angry at claims by jailed Australian terrorist Jack Roche that the brothers were involved in a plot to bomb targets including the Israeli embassy in Canberra, saying: "If he comes here (to Jakarta), I will fight him over this."

"Australia should know that it was us who forbade him from carrying out terrorist actions," he declares. "We said that if you do this thing, we will destroy your house. This action would also have been in opposition to the preaching of Abu Bakar Bashir, who declared that violence was forbidden in Australia."

He says he abandoned Bashir's teachings because they were too extreme. Even so, he pleads for understanding: "You have to look at it case by case. Not everyone in JI is a terrorist. For now, we just have to find ways to live, to provide for our children."
Posted by:Fred

#3  Because the Lowlifes search out the MSM, not the MSM trying to find the Lowlifes.
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2006-11-04 14:17  

#2  Explain to me why the press can always find these lowlives and intel agencys can't.
Posted by: 3dc   2006-11-04 11:46  

#1  This entire clan of lowlife scum needs to be erased.
Posted by: SpecOp35   2006-11-04 11:35  

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