Playboy and terrorists with military links

In April 2006, the Islam Defenders Front used violence to stop the publication of a nudity-free Playboy magazine in Indonesia.

Who is behind the terror in Indonesia?

The real power in Indonesia is the military. The military is involved in various illegal businesses. But the military has more than one faction. And various factions within the military have a history of setting up 'militant Moslem groups' in order to do their dirty work.

In The Asia Times ( a counter-offensive ) 14 June 2006, Gary LaMoshi wrote:

Violent extremism's renaissance began with police using vigilantes to extract protection money from reluctant bar owners and blossomed with the military's logistical support to send thousands of jihadis to the Malukus and central Sulawesi to undermine Abdurrahman Wahid's presidential election victory in 1999... Government reluctance to stand up to thugs gives the impression of implicit approval, or that the extremists serve a higher authority.

The present president of Indonesia is General Yudhoyono, a friend of the USA.

Some people suspect that a certain military faction would be happy to replace Yudhoyono.

The Islam Defenders Front (known as FPI) is a militant Moslem group believed to be working for elements of the police and/or military.

Gary LaMoshi, in the Asia Times ( a counter-offensive ) 14 June 2006, wrote about an attack of former president Wahid on 23 May 2006:

At an interfaith forum in the West Java town of Purwakarta, members of FPI and other radical groups forced Wahid, virtually blind and limited physically because of a series of strokes, off the stage.

The radicals cited Wahid's opposition to the anti-pornography bill as an insult to Islam.

Mainstream Muslim groups Nahdlatul Ulama - formerly headed by Wahid - and Muhammidyah, with a combined membership of 70 million, denounced FPI's action against Wahid.

Hundreds of his young supporters from the National Awakening Party's paramilitary wing poured into the streets, clashing with FPI members.

It may not have been just the political cover from mass organizations and the prospect of further street violence that moved the government.

If the extremists went after Wahid, a Muslim cleric and scholar as well as a former president, no politician could feel safe.

While Wahid's iconoclasm and failed presidency - he was removed in favor of Megawati Sukarnoputri after two stormy years in office - have left him virtually powerless, he's still widely respected as a symbol of Indonesia's unique brand of Islam.

Radicals might have miscalculated Wahid's political impotence as a signal they'd win applause rather than condemnation for attacking him.

'Invisible hands'The Yudhoyono administration's campaign against violent Islamists began innocently in the president's Pancasila Day speech on June 1. Pancasila (Sanskrit for "five principles") is the national philosophy enshrined by the nation's founders and subsequently corrupted under Suharto. In his speech, Yudhoyono called for a revival of Pancasila and accused "invisible hands" of trying to spread ideas against the nation's core principles of tolerance and pluralism.

Invisable hands?

Could these be people within the military and big business?

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