His remorse over the massacre of civilians and the Indonesian police's careful handling of him transformed Abbas. From a terrorist commander he became a terrorist counsellor, working with the police to try to convince other captured militants that their interpretation of Islam is wrong.
"I (came to) understand that the Bali bombings were a crime, not a jihad," he says.
Today, Abbas is the most famous alumnus of an Indonesian government initiative that fights terrorism by persuasion. Authorities try to "de-radicalize" militants, debating religion with them and reconnecting them with their families instead of relying on the high-tech weapons and harsh interrogation techniques that have characterized President Bush's approach since Sept. 11.
"Because terrorism is an ideologically motivated crime, it is not possible to stop it using mere physical operations," said Ansyaad Mbai, the head of the Indonesian government's Counter-Terrorism Coordinating Desk. "Based on our experience, the harder we hit them with military force, the more radical they become." Mbai is critical of the Bush administration's approach to fighting terrorism. The war in Iraq, in particular, has made the job of handling terrorism in Indonesia harder, he said: "Even the moderate Muslim leaders find it difficult to explain that the war taking place in the Middle East is not a war against Islam."
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1:11 AM
Moderate Islamist here
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