Author: Press Trust of India/Associated
Press
Publication: www.expressindia.com
Date: December 30, 2002
URL: http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=18002
The alleged spiritual head of the
terror group blamed for the October 12 Bali bombings has been named "Man
of the Year" by an Indonesian Islamic magazine.
Abu Bakar Bashir's "charisma" and
"stand against the US" were the main reasons why Sabili magazine honored
him in its December edition, its editor Yogi Utomo said on Friday.
Bashir, a 64-year-old Muslim cleric
who runs a religious boarding school on Java island, is currently in police
detention in Jakarta over a string of church bombs in 2000 that killed
19 people.
Intelligence officials in Southeast
Asia allege he heads Jemaah Islamiyah, the al-Qaida-linked terror group
suspected in the Bali bombings that killed 192 people, mostly foreign tourists.
They haven't directly linked Bashir
to the Bali attack.
Bashir has denied any wrongdoing,
and claims that Jemaah Islamiyah does not even exist.
Sabili magazine typically features
fiery articles on the alleged injustices by western governments on Muslims
worldwide, on efforts to impose Islamic law in Indonesia and advice columns
for young Muslims.
The magazine -- its title means
"My Path" -- sells upto 85,000 copies a month and is distributed all over
Indonesia, the world 's most populous Muslim nation.
Editor Utomo said Bashir's campaign
for the imposition of Islamic law was another reason he was honored.
