'Bikinis and booze caused bombings'

Simon Kearney in Surabaya
October 10, 2005

AUSTRALIANS had declared a moral war on Muslims in Indonesia with their drinking and skimpy clothes in Bali, the eldest brother of three of those responsible for the 2002 attacks said yesterday.

Muhammed Khozin told The Australian at his home in Tenggulun, East Java, that his community didn't care about the October 1 Bali bombings because they were not linked to people from his village.

Mr Khozin's younger brothers Amrozi and Mukhlas were sentenced to death and Ali Imron to life imprisonment for their roles in the attacks on the Sari Club and Paddy's bar, which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

Mr Khozin said the behaviour of Westerners in his country was to blame for the radicalism adopted by his brothers.

"Alcohol, bikinis, that kind of thing makes Muslims angry. Don't do that when visiting a country with a Muslim majority," he said. "I'm sorry, Australian culture makes war on morality. They come to Bali with bikinis, they make war on morality. Not physical war, morality war. Respect the culture and religion of Indonesia."

His son, 19-year-old university student Afif, said there would be no end to terrorism while Australians continued going to Bali and behaving without respect for Muslim culture.

He believed the first Bali bombing committed by his uncles was justified because it discouraged tourists in Bali. "If Muslims died in that action, the Muslims will go to heaven," he said.

Afif said Muslims and Christians would only live side by side when Christians learned to respect Muslim culture.

Mr Khozin runs the Al-Islaman boarding school in the village that he founded with his late father 30 years ago. Such schools, known as pesantren, are seen as a breeding ground for terrorists.

He said if Canberra wanted to stop radicalism in Indonesia, it should teach Australians to be more respectful of Islam.

Moreover, Australia could help fund facilities at Islamic schools like his, which are mainly in poor areas and are under-resourced, to help better educate Muslims in Indonesia.

"Please give to us because maybe that's the way to make the relationship with Indonesia and Australia better," he said.

He taught his students the concept of "dakwah", which means to confront people who do things that are wrong and tell them to stop.

But he did not subscribe to the view of radicals that they should act to physically erase something they did not agree with.

His brothers had a different view of Islam to his but he believed they were still good people. He called on the Indonesian Government to return them to their community, where they could be rehabilitated.

"The community have a dream. If Amrozi came back here, he will do things like that."

Taken from The Australian