Myanmar threatened over Rohingya
- Published: 3 Aug 2012 at 15.42
- Online news: Asia
The jailed Islamist cleric Abu Bakar Bashir has threatened to wage war if Myanmar continues to harm Muslim Rohingyas.
The threat is contained in a letter to Myanmar President Thein Sein that was released by supporters of Bashir.The 74-year-old is widely regarded as a spiritual leader of radical Islam in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, and is currently serving a 15-year-jail term for funding terror."We've heard Muslims screaming in your country because of your acts of evil. ... You have taken them out from their homes and are killing them," Bashir wrote in the letter dated July 22, which was passed on to followers and published on the website voa-islam.com."If you neglect these calls, by Allah our Lord, you have witnessed the fall of proud and conceited countries in the hands of our mujahideen soldiers," he added.The letter was confirmed as authentic by Son Hadi, the spokesman for Jemaah Anshorut Tauhid (JAT), a group founded by Bashir in 2008 and labelled a terrorist organisation by the United States.An outspoken supporter of violent jihad, Bashir was convicted in 2010 of financing a teror cell in Aceh province. Earlier this year, the country's top court overturned a lower court's decision to cut his 15-year term."You must know that we are brothers as Muslims. Their pains is our pain, their sorrows are our sorrows, and their blood that you shed is our blood too,"...
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