Bashir's Sermon

It would appear that Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir is another in a long line of misunderstanders of the true nature of the Religion of Peace.

ISLAMIC cleric Abu Bakar Bashir has returned to his hardline rhetoric with a call for followers to beat up Western tourists and for young Muslims to die as martyrs.

Where do these people get these crazy notions that fighting and dying is linked in some way to Islam? Nothing to do with this surely?

"The youth movement here must aspire to a martyrdom death," said the cleric, who was convicted of conspiracy over the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, but was later cleared and released from prison.

"The young must be first at the front line - don't hide at the back. You must be at the front, die as martyrs and all your sins will be forgiven. This is how to achieve forgiveness."

So, he's preaching that fighting for Islam is linked to going to Paradise? What is he, some kind of Islamophobe?

Bashir likened non-Muslims to crawling animals. "Worms, snakes, maggots - those are animals that crawl. Take a look at Bali ... those infidel tourists. They are naked."

He called for signs to be erected across Indonesia warning tourists they were entering a Muslim area, and directing they cover up appropriately. But in east Java, he urged the Islamist youth to "beat up" foreigners.

"God willing, there are none here," Bashir said. "If there were infidels here, just beat them up. Do not tolerate them."

It seems he's missed the memo that Islam teaches tolerance and respect for other beliefs too.

"Don't be scared if you are called a hardliner Muslim," Bashir said. "It must be like that. We can't follow human law that is in conflict with Allah's law."

And there you have it- an explicit statement that his beliefs are in accordance with Islamic law. Who, I wonder, is going to disabuse him of the notion- and exactly what evidence are they going to use to convince him that he is misunderstanding his own faith?

BTW, I wrote about the BBC's rather biased profile of this scumbag here.