Abu Bakar Bashir
Tuesday, October 28, 2003
The Australian exclusive
If you have reported his words accurately, Abu Bakar Bashir must be a mad man or a bad man, and his advice should not be followed. He says terrorist killing of civilians is not violence if it is justified by religion. If blowing up people who are going about their daily lives shopping, eating, studying, etc, is not violence, then the word has no meaning. This means Bashir is either a ruthless man trying to justify his hate campaign, or else his brain is not working.
He says terror bombing is "self-defence". He says its okay to blow up ordinary people whose government has some diplomatic connection with another country in which people of his religion are being mistreated. That is very loose grounds for murder. On this basis, we all have justification to blow up someone. These are not the words of a man of peace. Bashir's legacy would be endless blood-feud. This is just the kind of misery that people of good will of all faiths are trying to lift the human race out of.
Bashir-ism is not Islam. His is benighted, primitive, tribal hatred. The man does not appear to be a simpleton: therefore he must be either mad or bad.
Philip O'Carroll