Backgrounder: Profile: Abu Bakar Bashir (a.k.a. Ba'asyir)
Council on Foreign Relations
Author: Lee Hudson Teslik
Updated: June 14, 2006
Who is Abu Bakar Bashir?
An elderly Indonesian cleric, stately if frail in appearance, Abu Bakar Bashir (also spelled Ba'asyir) hardly strikes the eye as one of the world's most fearsome men. His inflammatory rhetoric, however, has commanded widespread concern. Bashir was released from Indonesian prison on June 14, 2006, after serving out a twenty-five month sentence. He was found guilty by Indonesian courts in 2003 of being part of an "evil conspiracy" to commit the 2002 Bali suicide bombings, though all charges directly linking him to the attacks were dropped.
If Bashir's involvement coordinating Bali is debatable, as many experts have said, it is also somewhat beside the point. Indonesian officials say a striking number of the more than 200 Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militants arrested in the aftermath of the Bali attacks cited Bashir as their inspiration, the ideological general of their "holy war." Bashir has accordingly been labeled the "spiritual leader" of JI by a number of news sources.
Some experts have questioned whether any direct links exist between Bashir and the enigmatic terrorist group. Bashir himself has repeatedly insisted that he is merely a preacher. Whether or not he has terrorist ties, Bashir's influence on regional terrorist activities is undeniable. A fundamentalist firebrand of wide repute, Bashir has inveighed against the United States, Australia, and Israel, and has condoned violence motivated by jihad. "I support Osama bin Laden's struggle because his is the true struggle to uphold Islam," he said in a statement following the Bali attacks. "The terrorists are America and Israel."
What terrorist acts are linked to Bashir?
Claims that Bashir helped coordinate the Bali bombings were dismissed in the first of two trials brought against him in 2003.
Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.
Copyright 2006 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.
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