Indonesia’s Hizbolluh
Indonesia Correspondent, Matt Brown, is packing his bags this weekend, and heading for the Middle East.This is his last assignment from Jakarta ,a story which has fascinated him since he read a few scant lines in a history book at the start of his posting, two and a half years ago.
MATT BROWN: I’m almost packed and about to get on the plane for the Middle East, so I’ve been thinking a lot about Hizbullah. No, not the Shiite militia and political party that runs much of Lebanon; the Hizbullah here, in Indonesia.
It was a Muslim militia created by the Japanese to fight the Allies in World War II.
Now, you’re probably familiar with the thread winding from al-Qaeda’s attacks on America in 2001, back to the CIA’s (Central Intelligence Agency) funding for the Mujahedeen who fought the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. But that’s just part of a broader story about outsiders oppressing, fostering and flirting with local Muslim forces. And it stretches from the battle scarred streets of Beirut and Baghdad, across the rugged mountains of Afghanistan, all the way to Bali.
The most important name in this Indonesian chapter of the story is Kartosuwiryo. He was an Islamist leader who first got involved in politics in the 1920s and, to this day, he’s an inspiration for Islamist activists and terrorists alike.