A Muslim cleric did this? A man who has dedicated his life to understanding Islam properly and communicating it effectively? How did he overlook all of the Qur’an’s exhortations to peace and tolerance that Western non-Muslim analysts are so sure are in there without actually having opened the book?
“Indonesia hands death sentence to Islamic State-linked cleric for militant attacks,” by Agustinus Beo Da Costa and Darren Whiteside, Reuters, June 22, 2018 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
JAKARTA (Reuters) – An Indonesian court on Friday sentenced to death a cleric linked to Islamic State, for masterminding from his jail cell a string of deadly militant attacks across the world’s largest Muslim-majority country.
The ruling comes as Indonesia struggles to rein in a rising tide of homegrown militancy, inspired in part by the extremist group Islamic State, with parliament approving tougher anti-terrorism laws last month.
Aman Abdurrahman, 46, is considered the ideological leader of Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) – a loose grouping of Islamic State sympathizers in Indonesia.
“The court sentences the defendant to death,” said the judge, Ahmad Zaini, adding that Abdurrahman had been proved guilty of “carrying out terrorism”.
Abdurrahman bowed and touched his forehead to the floor on hearing the verdict, but did not respond to the judge’s query whether he would appeal against the ruling.
He was convicted of planning a 2016 gun-and-bomb attack in the heart of Jakarta, the capital, that killed eight people, including four attackers.
Abdurrahman was also proved to be behind a suicide attack last year that killed three police officers at a Jakarta bus station and the bombing of a church in Samarinda on Borneo island that wounded four children.
He was serving a sentence in a maximum security prison at the time.
Abdurrahman’s defence team told reporters the sentence was “too harsh”.
“He himself does not have the desire to appeal because he does not recognise the court or Indonesian laws,” said Asludin Hatjani, a lawyer for Abdurrahman, adding that the defence team had a week to consider filing an appeal….