Now that Abu Bakar “Bucktooth” Bashir – leader of the al-Qaida-linked terror group behind the Bali bombings (among others) – is out of jail, he is letting loose with his mouth.
A reputed leader of the al-Qaida-linked terror group blamed for deadly bombings across Indonesia on Thursday accused President Bush and Australian Prime Minister John Howard of waging wars against Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir also called on Bush and Howard to convert to Islam, saying it was “the only way to save their souls,” adding that families still grieving after the 2002 Bali blasts that killed many foreigners should also become Muslim to find “salvation and peace.”
—-Bashir, who has never been linked to the execution, preparation or commission of terrorist attacks, was asked Thursday about families still suffering from the Bali blasts.He said the attacks “were God’s will” and that survivors should “convert to Islam” if they wanted to soothe their suffering.
He had the same message for Bush and Howard, whom he criticized for waging wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, saying converting was “the only way for them to save their souls.”—-Before the Bali blasts, Bashir was chiefly known for his campaign to make his secular nation an Islamic state – something he said Thursday he would continue to do – and his vitriolic criticism of the West.
Bashir called Bush an “infidel,” but said he was happy the American people were starting to realize that their president had made a mistake when he decided to wage war on Muslims. He did not elaborate, but was apparently referring to sliding opinion polls.“I feel sorry for the American people, but it seems now they realize he was wrong,” Bashir told reporters who were invited to speak to him on the porch of his modest home inside the al-Mukmin boarding school complex, which he founded in 1972.
