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Indonesia: Mosque blocked to radical Muslims
[ADN Kronos] The largest mosque on the Indonesian island of Java has been blocked by local people who fear that radical Islamic militants including radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir have been using it to promote their teachings.

Indonesian media said that people in the city of Surabaya have blocked the entrance to the Al Ihsan Sabililla mosque for three days before agreeing to reopen it.

Bashir, one of the key leaders of the Al-Qaeda linked militant group Jemaah Islamiyah, is among those who have visited the mosque recently and gave several sermons.

JI is blamed for Indonesia's worst terror attack, the 2002 Bali bombings (photo) which killed 202 people, most of them foreigners.

The group, which wants to a single southeast Asian Muslim caliphate, is also believed to be responsible for several other attacks including the 2005 Bali bombing and the 2004 attack on the Australian embassy in Jakarta.

In his sermons, Bashir reportedly said Muslims who participate in state elections are 'infidels' and that the Indonesian state should not be recognised.

He was speaking ahead of Indonesia's forthcoming presidential elections taking place next month.

Local Indonesian newspaper, The Jakarta Globe, said the son of the mosque's director, Saifudin, who was jailed for having assisted in the Bali terrorist attack in 2002, was recently released.
Posted by: Fred 2009-06-25
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=272830