The Religion of Peace to the Rescue? Or is Violence on the Cards?

Apparently several radical Islamic groups are currently recruiting people to head over to Aceh, pronto! Absolutely no one's questioning their right to help their own people, and of course they're making all the right bury-the-hatchet type noises - or are they?

Radical groups arrive in force

Radical Islamic groups best known for smashing bars and violent support of jailed cleric Abu Bakar Bashir have sent large contingents to Aceh province with funding from the Indonesian Government. At the airport, members of Bashir's group, the MMI, have been unloading trucks with supplies to be ferried to disaster-struck areas by US navy helicopters. One man was proudly wearing an Osama bin Laden T-shirt.

Great. And I'll bet laughing boy just slipped that on because everything else was in the wash. The reality, however, is sounding far more sinister. Something has been brewing for several days now, with various Asian media outlets around the region reporting an increasingly disturbing movement, including the recruitment of Jihadis, to go to Aceh. With that in mind, and with the example of the clever fellow in the latest in Osama casual wear, I wouldn't be at all surprised if this lot aren't going in with the intention of seeing if they can provoke an incident. The question is, if something happens, is the Indonesian Government going to protect our people, and (God forbid) shoot its own?

The head of the FPI contingent, Hilmy Bakar Almascaty, said about 250 members of his group had come to Aceh with plane tickets from the Indonesian Government. He said another 800 were on an Indonesian warship on their way to help clean up the province. "FPI is not only an organisation that destroys bars and discos, it has a humanitarian side as well that the media is not happy to expose," he said.

Maybe that's because our definitions of humanitarianism don't necessarily accord, hey Dr Almascaty?

Early yesterday morning, 50 of his troops wearing FPI shirts went through military drills before heading to the city to help collect corpses that still have not been recovered from the millions of tonnes of rubble.

Wow - now that's got to be appropriate, hasn't it? Of course, you never do know when you might have to go into action to, I don't know, take out - well - anybody who needs it, I guess. I wonder who they might have in mind?

Dr Almascaty . . . was determined to ensure that foreign soldiers and aid workers did not lead to a breakdown in shariah or Islamic law. "If anyone who comes here does not respect the shariah law, traditions and constitution, we must give them a warning and then we must attack," he said.

I think the word 'attack' carries some pretty important overtones, myself.

Dr Almascaty said his group was co-ordinating with MMI and with another hardline group that is banned in many countries, Hizbut Tharir, in their plan to curtail Western influence. "You cannot build a bar here," he said. "If you go to your room to drink that is no problem, but you can't drink in a public area."

Well, it's great to see he's got his priorities right, in any case. Of course it's a well-known fact that disaster recovery teams (especially American ones) will launch straight into building a few girly bars (they're filthy Westerners, after all), so we can all understand his well-founded concerns.

And now we get down to it:

Dr Almascaty said he had already urged the Indonesian military commander in Aceh, General Endang Suwarya, to set aside special areas "to keep the US separate". The head of the MMI contingent at the airport, Salman al Furizi, said he was prepared to put aside his vehement opposition to the US because of the help it was giving.

Personally, from what I'm hearing, I don't think Dr Almascaty is putting anything aside. He's just said he wants the 'US' quarantined. It's pretty obvious that their handing out of essential goodies is probably the only reason he's not in there trying to do something a tad more unpleasant. But for how long?

"We have to understand this is a disaster, so we are not talking about other problems," he said.

But you're thinking about it, aren't you, Doctor.

Dr Almascaty said he also welcomed the US and other traditional enemies of his group. "At the moment they (the US) have come as an angel - we don't know about tomorrow," he said.

I don't think it's all that hard to see where this character is coming from. And undoubtedly he and his ilk are pretty cross about the positive impact the US must be having, and, more significantly, the good will being earned. After all, the best way to stoke maximum hate is to maintain maximum ignorance. And yet here's the Great Satan itself, the first direct experience of same for the bulk of these people, saving Muslim lives by the tens if not hundreds of thousands.

The question this raises is obvious: sooner or later, will Dr Almascaty and crew try to turn this situation into one that is a little more to their liking?