Crescent Moon Rising. Kerry B Collison
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fingernail on his left hand then flicked the hardened mucus into the dust.
A group of girls caught his attention as they walked purposely in the direction of the mosque, seemingly oblivious to the lung-parching heat. He frowned disapprovingly, observing that although their heads were covered with the traditional, white hijab scarf, the girls all wore jeans. There had been a time, he admitted silently, when he would have coaxed them inside and tempted them to play. But now, having learned to act in a manner more appropriate to his family’s standing in the local community, Amrozi’s delinquent ways had changed, the pious metamorphosis directly attributed to the reverence he held for his older brother, Ali Ghufron.
Amrozi’s sleepy and dirt-poor village of two thousand inhabitants lay in a dry and unkind environment, a few miles inland from the East Java coast, and two hundred kilometres from Surabaya. As a child it had been Ghufron who had watched over Amrozi, singling him out from amidst the other twelve siblings and providing him with special attention, taking Amrozi’s side whenever the younger brother’s frequent escapades earned their father Nur Hasyim’s ire. When the three brothers, Ghufron, Imron and Jabir left Tenggulun and traveled to Ngruki in Central Java to study at the Al Mukmin Islamic boarding school, established by the radical Abu Bakar Bashir, Amrozi’s delinquency had flared.
The greater majority of Tenggulun followed the more moderate thirty-five-million-strong Nahdlatul Ulama, an Indonesian Muslim society founded with the purpose of maintaining and developing, Ahlussunnah-wal-Jamaah Islamic teachings. Their members represented the majority of Indonesian Muslim traditionalists who, for generations, blended the rich cultural mix of local beliefs with Islamic doctrine, and tended to be bearably tolerant of other religions. There were very few Christians in this poverty-stricken community – the remaining inhabitants, followers of a strict form of Muslim fundamentalism known as Wahhabi which emphasized ties to the Arab world and ‘legitimate’ Islam, dismissing traditional practices as superstitious and archaic. Craving attention, Amrozi torched the sacred tomb of the town’s patron saint, Sinori, the action creating a village feud between the Nahdlatul Ulama and local adherents of Wahhabism. Tombs were regarded as having special mystical powers by the Nahdlatul Ulama. However, to the opposing Wahhabis and their unforgiving interpretation of Islam, these beliefs were primitive and blasphemous and, in consequence, Amrozi had done no wrong.
Overnight, he became a village celebrity to supporters aligned with Abu Bakar Bashir.
When Ghufron graduated from the pesantren in Ngruki and followed Bashir into self-imposed exile to join the radical Mujahideen in Afghanistan, all communications ceased; the void created by Amrozi’s brother’s absence, unbearable. Four years passed before Amrozi heard that Ghufron had returned to Malaysia and was teaching at a Wahhabi-based religious school founded by Abdullah Sungkar and Bashir. Amrozi successfully traced his brother to a small Madrasah off Sungei Tiram where Ghufron taught. Initially, he was embarrassed to attempt a reunion, concerned that his lack of piety would dis-please Ghufron.
It was at this time he learned that two of his other brothers had also opened their own school in Tenggulun to teach Wahhabism. He then decided to mend his ways and become a better Muslim and, in so doing, eventually became ensnared by the militant extremist organization Ghufron helped build. He supported himself working as a mechanic, attended prayer five times daily and, at night, studiously read the Koran.
He stole from his father and made his way to Ulu Tiram in Malaysia’s southern state of Johor, unaware that his destination was, in fact, a Jemaah Islamiyah recruiting station and a transit point for S.E. Asian Muslims on their way to fight in Afghanistan. There he sought his brother’s blessing, Ghufron welcoming Amrozi with open arms. Amrozi then became even more fanatical in his emulation of his older brother, undertaking training at a newly-established JI camp where he learned a number of skills and developed a competency for building explosive devices.
As his respect grew for Ghufrom who was then known by his adopted name, Mukhlas, so did his admiration for Riduan Isamuddin, the JI operations commander whom he was instructed to refer to as ‘Hambali’. Mukhlas worked closely with Hambali and there were times that Amrozi envied their relationship. When his brother founded a second Islamic boarding school in Johor, Amrozi was included in the new network, developing strong ties with one of the religious teachers, Abdul Aziz, aka Imam Samudra.
With the Malaysian government making it increasingly difficult for foreign laborers to obtain work, the brothers returned to Tenggulun to find their seventy-five-year old father bedrid-den and their tiny, ageing mother Haji Tariyem unable to cope. By now, his sisters had all married and the remaining brothers were preoccupied with their own lives.
Although a changed man in many ways, Amrozi was still not considered sufficiently dedicated to join his brother Imron in teaching at the village Pesantren. Instead, he eked a minimal existence from repairing motorbikes and the occasional car or bus, devoting his free time to caring for his father who now spent his final days wrapped in a sarong, lying listlessly on a concrete floor.
Seeking action, Amrozi led a demonstration to topple the village head. When this failed, he became disillusioned, slipping back into the mundane life he had previously escaped from, his waking hours filled with a desperation longing for recognition which, he brooded, might never be achieved.
Again, the muezzin’s call fell upon his ears. Reminded that he was running late for the noontime prayers, Amrozi moped his way to the mosque, arriving minutes before the sun reached its zenith.
Ipil – Mindanao Island
The Philippines
3rd April
Panicked, women and children ran screaming through the small southern town as Abu Sayyaf “Bearer of the Sword” guerrillas literally shredded the town center’s buildings with automatic fire. The founder and the leader, Abduragak Abubakar Janjalani, a veteran of the Afghanistan war, strutted into the local police headquarters knowing he would find not find any resistance there. The Abu Sayyaf enjoyed a most unusual de facto relationship with those who held power in Manila, which not only assured Janjalani of advance intelligence that assisted his force to elude capture, but also provided for financial and material support.
Since he had orchestrated a split from the Moro Liberation Front in 1991, Janjalani had almost exclusively operated in the southern parts of the archipelago, developing close ties with other Islamic radical groups. Afghanistan had provided him with the opportunity to establish a direct link with al-Qaeda and when Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed had ventured into the Philippines, it was the Abu Sayyaf that had been the beneficiaries of their material and financial support.
Janjalani trained his recruits well, specializing in assassinations, kidnappings and extortion, the first of which bringing his splinter organization to the attention of the CIA in 1991 when a grenade attack killed two foreign women. Bathing in the success of this action he consistently targeted foreigners, enjoying the notoriety the media provided, taking his activities to new levels in 1993 with the kidnapping of three Spanish nuns and their priest.
With Ramzi Yousef ’s much publicized capture in Pakistan the month before and his appearance before a New York judge to respond to an outstanding indictment over the World Trade Centre bombing, al-Qaeda funding had all but ceased. Janjalani realized that he needed to raise his organization’s profile if he were to expect further funding from the Sheikh.
Satisfied that the Ipil township attack would make headlines in the Manila Times and assist in someway restoring the severed lines of monetary flow from Hambali’s nerve centre in Malaysia, Janjalani had the town set ablaze, then called for his troops to withdraw.
In the aftermath of the botched Bojinka Operation the CIA increased its presence in the Philippines sweeping the city and countryside, recruiting informants and identifying anti-U.S. militants. And, with Ramzi Yousef’s voluminous revelations regarding his connection to the Abu Sayyaf, its leader, Abduragak Abubakar Janjalani’s life was suddenly destined for an abrupt end.
Manila – The Philippines