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JAKARTA, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Separatist rebels from the Indonesian province of Aceh on Monday deplored the presence of two militant Islamic groups helping survivors of the devastating tsunami, saying they were using aid to push a religious agenda.
The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) said in a statement from its government in exile in Stockholm that the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) and the Indonesian Mujahidin Council (MMI) “would squander scarce resources”.
The statement branded the two groups as “criminal organisations” and said they were not welcome in Aceh. It said “the actions and words of FPI and MMI contradict Islamic teachings and the tolerance and faith of Acehnese Muslims”.
The self-styled prime minister of the government-in-exile, Malik Mahmud, told Reuters that their brand of fundamentalist Islam was not acceptable in Aceh, which fought Dutch colonialists and Japan’s World War Two occupation and whose campaign is fuelled by a centuries-old nationalist movement and not by religion.
“What we don’t like is they make people more confused about the situation under the pretext of giving aid and give their version of Islam, which we think is very radical,” he said in a telephone interview from Stockholm.
“They say things like the tsunami happened because Indonesia did not accept sharia law in Aceh,” Malik said.
More than 100,000 people were killed in the earthquake and ensuing tsunami that hit Aceh on Dec. 26. MMI was founded in August 2000 with the avowed aim of promoting the adoption of strict Islamic law in secular Indonesia. The group’s founder is radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, the suspected leader of Jemaah Islamiah, which authorities say is part of the al Qaeda network.
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The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) said in a statement from its government in exile in Stockholm that the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) and the Indonesian Mujahidin Council (MMI) “would squander scarce resources”.
The statement branded the two groups as “criminal organisations” and said they were not welcome in Aceh. It said “the actions and words of FPI and MMI contradict Islamic teachings and the tolerance and faith of Acehnese Muslims”.
The self-styled prime minister of the government-in-exile, Malik Mahmud, told Reuters that their brand of fundamentalist Islam was not acceptable in Aceh, which fought Dutch colonialists and Japan’s World War Two occupation and whose campaign is fuelled by a centuries-old nationalist movement and not by religion.
“What we don’t like is they make people more confused about the situation under the pretext of giving aid and give their version of Islam, which we think is very radical,” he said in a telephone interview from Stockholm.
“They say things like the tsunami happened because Indonesia did not accept sharia law in Aceh,” Malik said.
More than 100,000 people were killed in the earthquake and ensuing tsunami that hit Aceh on Dec. 26. MMI was founded in August 2000 with the avowed aim of promoting the adoption of strict Islamic law in secular Indonesia. The group’s founder is radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, the suspected leader of Jemaah Islamiah, which authorities say is part of the al Qaeda network.
more here