Indonesian Muslim hardliners demanded on Tuesday the government disband an American trained special anti-terror unit, saying it was a tool of the United States to fight Islam. Indonesia has been hit by a spate of deadly bombings in recent years mostly blamed on Islamic militants from the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) militant group. Hundreds of Muslim militants allegedly linked to JI have been arrested since the 2002 nightclub bombings in the resort island of Bali that killed 202 people mostly foreigners. In the latest anti-terror crackdown this month, Detachment 88, a police unit funded and trained by the United States and Australia, arrested two top leaders, including the head of its military wing, Abu Dujana. An umbrella group representing various Indonesian Muslim organisations said Detachment 88 was an American tool to “stigmatise Islam”. “We call on the Indonesian government to stop cooperation with the United States and its allies in the global war on terror,” Kholil Ridwan, a spokesman for the Islamic Community Forum, told a news conference. “The United States war on terror, with the help of its sheriff, Australia, and deputy sheriff, Singapore, is a war against Islam,” Ridwan said.
Indonesia is a key regional ally in the US-led “war on terror” and looks to America for trade and investment. But many of President George W Bush’s policies, especially in the Middle East, are unpopular in the world’s most populous Muslim country.