Indonesian Group Rejects US Branding as Terror Organization

A leader of the conservative Muslim group Indonesian Mujahidin Council (MMI) on Tuesday rejected the U.S. State Department’s designation a day earlier that branded it a global terrorist group.

As a result of the official U.S. listing of MMI – known in Indonesian as Majelis Mujahideen Indonesia – American citizens are prohibited from engaging in financial transactions or dealings with the 500-member group, which is based in the Javanese city of Yogyakarta.

“I do not know how MMI can become a global terrorist [organization],” MMI Secretary-General Shabbarin Syakur told BenarNews on Tuesday. “We have not even conducted any activities for years and MMI is anti-ISIS (Islamic State).”

In a news release on Monday announcing the designation, the State Department said MMI was formed in 2000 by jailed Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, the leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, which also has been tagged by the U.S. as a foreign terrorist organization. Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian affiliate of al-Qaeda, has been blamed for the 2002 Bali bombings and other terrorist attacks targeting Indonesian cities.

The news release said MMI had conducted attacks in Indonesia, including claiming responsibility for a May 2012 attack at the launch of a book by Canadian author Irshad Manji, where three people were injured. It said MMI also had links to the al-Nusra Front, an al-Qaida-affiliated group in Syria.

Shabbarin denied those allegations. He acknowledged visiting Syria in 2014 together with several MMI leaders to meet Islamic scholars, who were believed to be Islamic State (IS) members, but he said he had disagreements with them over their violent ideology.

“Some MMI leaders and I went to Syria and it was not for jihad (holy war) or joining any groups,” he said, explaining that MMI actively campaigned for the enforcement of Islamic law in Indonesia during the recent past, but lately has been inactive as an organization.

Full story: BenarNews

Kusumasari Ayuningtyas
Yogyakarta