Who is Abu Bakar Bashir..?

Abu Bakar Bashir (also Abubakar Ba'asyir, Abdus Somad, and Ustad Abu ("Teacher Abu"), born August 17, 1938, is an Indonesian Muslim cleric and leader of the Indonesian Mujahedeen Council (MMI).

He runs the Al-Mukmin boarding school in Ngruki, Central Java which he co-founded with Abdullah Sungkar in 1972. He was in exile in Malaysia for 17 years during the secular New Order administration of the President of Indonesia Suharto resulting from various activities, including urging the implementation of Sharia law.

Intelligence agencies and the United Nations claim he is the spiritual head of Jemaah Islamiyah (also known as JI) and has links with Al-Qaeda. Bashir, however, denies connections with Jemaah Islamiyah or terrorism stating he does not believe Jemaah Islamiyah exists.

Biography:
Bashir was born in Jombang, East Java in August 17, 1938, to a family of Hadhrami Arab and Javanese descent. He was a student of Gontor Islamic boarding school in Ponorogo, graduating in 1959, before entering Al-Irsyad University, in Solo, Central Java and graduating in 1963. After time as an activist for the Islamic Student Association (Indonesian: Himpunan Mahasiswa Islam) in Solo, he was elected secretary of Al-Irsyad Youth Organization, and then president of Indonesian Islamic Youth Movement (GPII) (1961), and Indonesian Student Da'wah Organization (LDMI).

In 1972, Bashir founded Al-Mukmin boarding school with friends Abdullah Sungkar, Yoyo Roswadi, Abdul Qohar H. Daeng Matase and Abdllah Baraja. Al-Mukmin is located in Ngruki, near Solo, Central Java. Initially, Al-Mukmin's activities were limited to religious discussion after dhuhr (mid-day prayer). Following increasing interest, the founders expanded Al-Mukmin into Madrasah (Islamic school) and then to Pesantren (Islamic boarding school).

During President of Indonesia Suharto's New Order, Bashir and Sungkar were arrested for a number of reasons, firstly for actively supporting Sharia, the non-recognition of the Indonesian national ideology Pancasila which in part promotes religious pluralism. Secondly, the refusal of their school to salute the Indonesian flag which signified Bashir's continual refusal to recognise the authority of a secular Indonesian state. Bashir appealed but was subsequently imprisoned without trial from 1978 to 1982. Soon after his release, Bashir was convicted on similar charges; he was also linked to the bomb attack on the Buddhist monument Borobudur in 1985 but fled to Malaysia. During his years in exile Bashir undertook religious teachings in both Malaysia and Singapore. The United States government alleged that during this period he became involved with Jamaah Islamiyah, an alleged militant Islamist group. . Bashir remained in exile until Indonesian President Suharto's fall in 1998. Bashir returned to Indonesia in 1999 and became a cleric, renewing his call for Sharia law.

Source: Wikipedia