Indonesian radical cleric Bashir goes on trial for terrorism

“All I ever wanted to do was defend Islam.”

Then you should have done it with dialogue, not bombs.

He´ll get a slap on the wrist, like last time. A short, comfortable time as priviliged prisoner, and then his followers will clamor for him to be let go, and the Indonesian government will relent. Just like before.

He is the problem. He thinks what he is doing is somehow 'right', which is why he is smiling.

Same problem here too. Twisted/warped selective interpretation of scripture to justify death of hated opponents, where the inner motivation is probably simple ignorant discrimination. You just have to lie a little to convince people that Islam is under attack. Easy to inflame people into doing stupid things, and unfortunately there are enough quotations in the Qu'ran to support such idiotic action.

Abu Bakar Bashir, 72, faces a maximum penalty of death if found guilty.

Good. This plank-toothed mass murderer deserves it for his crimes.

nandakamanda:

" He is the problem. He thinks what he is doing is somehow 'right', which is why he is smiling. "

He is a cleric. He has studied the teachings of his religion and came to the same conclusion as others who have done that, like Ayatohlla Khomeini, Nasrallah, al Quaradavi, Sheikh Bin Ladin, Omar Bakri, Anwar al Avlaki etc etc etc. He is not "the problem", he is simply a sincere scholar.

"These charges against me are fabricated"

Highly doubtful.

“All I ever wanted to do was defend Islam.”

And we all know how you do that.

They interrupted proceedings with shouts of “God is Great!” every time the cleric was mentioned by name.

Where have I heard that phrase before?

1,500 hard-liners attacked Ahmadiyah sect members with sticks and machetes, killing three men. Two days later, a mob set two churches ablaze to protest a Christian’s blasphemy sentence as too lenient.

Oh yes. Now I remember where I heard it. From these extremist muslims who we occasionally hear about. Killing is a holy thing to do apparently for some of all religions. This isn't particular to the Islamic religion as we'll be told. I hope hollywood doesn't make a movie about this guy. It could get Steven Spielberg killed for making a movie about the religion of hate.

It's a shame that Indonesia is promoting this Islamophobic fear-mongering.

Must be so they can get the Muslims out of the way and steal their oil.

WilliB, this smiling promoter of violence is not the problem for his supporters.

He doesn't see himself as the problem, but he is the problem for us, the rest of the generally normal, sane world. Locking him up or executing him will surely add fuel to some people's flames.