07.05.2006

Indonesia should send fighters to support Palestinians against Israel, militant Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Bashir said on Monday.

Bashir, released last month after finishing a jail term for links to deadly bombings in Bali, was responding to a reporter's question about Israeli military actions in the Gaza Strip tied to the seizure of an Israeli soldier by terrorists.

"Since the old days, Israel has been attacking Palestine. Therefore Israel must be battled," said Bashir.

"Our government (should) dispatch its fighters there," he also said.

Indonesian and Western intelligence officials say Bashir was the spiritual leader of al-Qaeda-linked Southeast Asian militant network Jemaah Islamiah.

Bashir spoke to reporters before a speech to 200 supporters of the Muslim-oriented Star and Crescent political party (PBB), in which he urged Indonesia, officially secular despite a population that is 85 per cent Muslim, to adopt Islamic law.

'US happy to see bombings in Indonesia'

The PBB is part of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's parliamentary coalition and represented in his government.

Bashir, 67, left a Jakarta jail on June 14 after serving time over the 2002 Bali bombings that killed more than 202 people, including 88 Australians.

The white-bearded and bespectacled Bashir has consistently denied any connection to that or other attacks blamed on Jemaah Islamiah, which he has said does not exist, and is still appealing his conviction.

In his talk, he said the United States was happy to see bombings in Indonesia - the world's most populous Muslim country - because such actions give Washington an excuse to interfere.

Y Net NewsGlobal Prayers for Gilad
07.04.2006

Ignoring fundamental differences that have kept them apart for 2000 years, Jews and Christians in more than 50 different nations have been joining in prayer to the God of Israel for the safekeeping and speedy release of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.

Since his abduction by Palestinian Arabs on June 25, congregations in synagogues and churches and students in colleges and seminaries at all four points of the compass have held special prayers on behalf of the 19-year-old and his family.

And in what is surely a sign of the extra-ordinary days in which we live, The Jerusalem Post – a secular Israeli daily – has been printing the prayers of hundreds of these “People of the Book.”

This ongoing phenomenon of worldwide intercession ignited spontaneously among people of many tribes and nations and tongues who worship the one true God, and whose hearts have been wrenched at the photographs of the slight, sweetly-smiling and bespectacled young man standing in uniform next to an Israeli tank.

Whether been made to “HaShem,” “Adonai,” “Jesus,” or “Yeshua,” more than 1000 prayers have been posted on the Post website by concerned individuals in Argentina, Austria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Curacao, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, England, Finland, France, Gabon, Germany, Gibraltar, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Rwanda, Scotland, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Turkey, the Ukraine, Uruguay, USA, Venezuela and the Virgin Islands.

To read some of these prayers click here.

Petitioners, many of them parents who said they could hardly imagine what Shalit’s family must be going through, expressed their hopes for a safe reunification, for courage for both the captured soldier and his family, for wisdom and strength for the Israeli government, and for the exacting of just and swift retribution on the abductors.

On Monday morning, the terrorists holding Shalit issued an ultimatum, saying that unless Israel met their demand for the release of hundreds of Arab prisoners by 6:00 am Tuesday, the Jewish state would have to pay “the full future consequences.”

Prayers for Shalit's freedom are expected to intensify in the coming hours.

Jerusalem Newswire