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Southeast Asia
Indonesia: New Group Tasked To Dialogue With Radical Islamists
2007-03-23
(AKI) - A new organisation whose role is to facilitate dialogue with radical Islamist groups and Communist leaning groups, is reported to be preparing to start work in Indonesia in April. The National Islamic Front (FNI) will operate in some of the cities where radical Islamists and Communist sympathisers are considered particularly active. Accoording to the political and economic monthly, The Van Zorge Report, the chosen centres include Solo, Yogyakarta, and Bandung, all on the island of Java.

In Yogyakarta and Bandung groups of students have recently raised the issue of the Communist Party which was banned in Indonesia following an attempted coup in 1965. The town of Solo is the seat of the Majelis Mujahaddin Indonesia (MMI) an umbrella organisation of various radical groups who are seeking to turn Indonesia into an Islamic state. The MMI is led by Abu Bakar Bashir, indicated by experts as the ideological leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, the most perilous of the terrorist groups active in South East Asia. According to indiscretions the FNI will comprise mainly academics who have studied at the Sunni university of al-Azhar in Cairo and will be open to non Muslims as well.
Posted by:Fred

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