School Announces It Will Help Indonesian Mujahideen Reach Lebanon

By Daveed Gartenstein-Ross

From the Indonesian newspaper Tempo on July 30:

TEMPO Interaktif, Jakarta: The Alumni Organization of the Al Mukmin Ngukri Boarding School, Sukoharjo, is facilitating Indonesian volunteers to travel to Lebanon. According to the head of the organization, Ali Usman, the group has also opened a recruitment base for the coordination of members that are ready to fight. "Their departure will be secret. What I mean is without government knowledge, like when they went to fight in Afghanistan," he told Tempo on Sunday.

Ali Usman said volunteers that are already prepared to become mujahideen there is enough military knowledge and skill to fill the demand. "This is real solidarity for the Muslim brotherhood who are being persecuted. They are extremely serious to become mujahideen. In this short amount of time we have already coordinated their departure," he said.

According to Ali Usman, the organization at this time is thinking about the possibility of opening public mujahideen recruitment centers for non-alumni.

The mujahideen, he said, are the last resort after waiting (in vain) for the government's stance. "If the government is not willing to help the people of Lebanon and Palestine, the people themselves must help in any way they can," he said.

Meanwhile, in Surakarta the Prosperous Justice Party (Partai Keadilan Sejahtera, PKS) went to the streets to condemn Israel's military aggression that is supported by the United States. They also called for the closure of the United Nations because it failed to stop the aggression of Israel.

The Al Mukmin Ngukri Boarding School is affiliated with Abu Bakar Bashir, who intelligence agencies describe as the spiritual head of the terror group Jemaah Islamiyah.

The Tempo article was translated by my colleague Nick Grace, who provides the following note about the last paragraph: "It's interesting to note the last paragraph on the PKS Party, which is essentially the Muslim Brotherhood's wing in Indonesian politics. They are believed to be funded by Saudi Arabia and the leading legislator, Tamsil Linrung, was a central player in the Poso jihad a few years ago. He was arrested in Manila in 2002 and accused of carrying explosives for al Qaeda."

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