bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

SCMP Reporter

Institute set up by radical cleric denies backing violence despite a chilling list of alumni - including three Bali bombers

Indonesia's most infamous Muslim boarding school, Pesantren al-Mukmin, is deceptively simple.

Cramped in between small houses in a poor neighbourhood in Solo, central Java, it consists of simple white concrete buildings centred around a small and poorly maintained mosque, which is so small it is easy to miss.

There are few clues that this school has produced some of Indonesia's top bombers, including several of the 10 main Bali bombing plotters, three of whom have been convicted.

Ali Gufron, alias  Mukhlas, last week was sentenced to death after being convicted of being the  orchestrator of the bombings. He graduated from the school in 1982.

Bomb plotter Mubarok, who was sentenced to 17 years for financing the attack and his role in several earlier bombings, was also a former student.

Alleged Bali bomb plotter and head of Jemaah Islamiah's military operations Zulkarnaen, who also has been closely linked to the JW Marriott hotel bombing in August and remains a fugitive, graduated from the school in 1979.

At Pesantren al-Mukmin's front gate, two fierce young men in military fatigues and green T-shirts, control who comes into the compound and a sign warns visitors they must report to the front office. It also insists that all women wear headscarves.

Since the pesantren's founder, radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, was convicted last month of minor treason charges for his role in JI, Pesantren al-Mukmin appears to have undergone a make-over.

Today Pesantren al-Mukmin, better known as Pondok Ngruki, shows few signs of its former strident anti-Americanism.

Gone from the walls are any signs exhorting students to jihad or condemning Israel and the United States, nor are the students chanting slogans about 'hanging Jews and Americans', as visitors to the pesantren found just a few weeks ago.

Instead, the walls are covered with inspirational sayings in English and Indonesian such as 'I love English and Arabic' and 'failure is the first step to success'.

Ngruki's alumni also include Asmar Latinsari, the suspected suicide bomber in the JW Marriott attack, and others involved in a series of church bombings.

But the pesantren's new director, who replaced Bashir, claims the terrorism has nothing to do with training they received at Ngruki.

'That's the education process from outside - they spent a lot of time outside the country,' Mr Wahyudin says.

Ngruki also denies that its former director and founder Bashir  advocated violence.

Western experts think differently.

Sidney Jones, an expert on JI, and Indonesia director of the International Crisis Group, warned in the group's latest report that 'a new generation of salafi jihadists is also being raised among the children of JI members sent to study in the small circle of pesantren that constitute the JI's educational circle'.

Salafi teachings follow a more fundamentalist stream of Islam.

'There's no doubt that in every class this stuff [jihadism] is being preached every day. We know who they mean when they talk about the enemies of Islam - it's the US,' one western analyst said.

And for a school that claims to promote non-violent Muslim struggle, there is an alarming emphasis on jihad and military-style exercises.

If students wanted to go and fight a jihad against Americans in Iraq, Pondok Ngruki would not object, Mr Wahyudin says.

'The US has to stop fighting Muslims ... otherwise Muslims can attack the US,' he says.

In the school's latest magazine, Bashir continues to write of jihad from his prison cell.

'Once Muslims have built up their strength, Allah gives permission to jihad to pressure the enemies of Islam who try to prevent the spreading of the faith,' he advises.

In the school's main courtyard, a dozen students dressed in military fatigues and black T-shirts participate in pre-prayer drills. Standing to attention on the orders of two young instructors, the students turn and face the wall, then turn again and face the mosque before yelling 'Allah' and racing for the mosque.

Tough physical training is an important part of Ngruki's curriculum, with students participating in scouting and mountain climbing groups.

This is to ensure students are able to defend themselves when spreading Islam after they graduate, Mr Wahyudin says.

'This means they will be brave enough to face  whoever treats them unjustly. If they are spreading the faith then there could be opposition,' he says.

Despite these worrying signs, the Indonesian authorities appear reluctant to close the school or properly investigate what exactly is being taught at Ngruki, where about 2,000 high school and primary students are enrolled.

Police say they are monitoring the school but until it involves itself in terrorist or criminal activities they have no right to close it.

Officials from the Department of Religious Affairs say the school has distanced itself from Bashir's teachings and is not promoting jihad.

'The teachings there are just normal. We don't see Bashir has the influence to establish a Muslim state,' says Faiqoh Hum, director for the pesantren in the Department of Religious Affairs.

Students lead a strict routine, beginning at 3.30am with the first of the day's prayers and ending with Koranic studies at 10pm, with an afternoon break for exercises and some rest.

Music, apart from that of the religious variety, is banned and access to television is restricted.

All the students or santri are required to dress in a style more associated with Pakistan and the Middle East than Indonesia.

Boys wear salwar kameez, long loose Pakistani or Afghani-style cotton shirts over loose pants, while girls as young as five sport jilbabs, or head coverings, and cover their arms and their feet.

Ngruki's teachers claim the school follows a modern curriculum teaching maths and computer skills as well as Arabic and English.

But if Mr Wahyudin's justification for the practice of polygamy is any indicator, it appears that maths and science don't feature heavily in the curriculum.

Mr Wahyudin claims the Koran justifies polygamy because women can't always have sex, for example when they are menstruating, and therefore multiple wives prevent men going to prostitutes.

He also claims polygamy is necessary because the number of women far outnumber men.

'There are fives times as many women as men. The Indonesian government figures prove it,' he says bizarrely, although official figures say females outnumber males by less than 2 per cent

Such thinking is typical of the selective teachings of a school that promotes a return to a 7th century-lifestyle in order to follow the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed, says Fahar Titik, a researcher from non-governmental group the Rahima Foundation who spent several years studying the school.

'That's the paradox of Ngruki. They like to use modern tools such as the internet and computers but their thinking is really very conservative, like that of the Prophet's era,' Ms Fahar says.

Analysts say that while police and government intelligence agencies are concerned about the activities of Pondok Ngruki and many other facilities like it, they are reluctant to make any move against Muslim schools. It would be interpreted as an attack on all Muslims.



Faith flourishes in a cradle of terrorism