A repentant Islamic militant who fought in Afghanistan and later joined a South-East Asian group blamed for a string of deadly attacks has become a comic book hero in Indonesia. The 137-page book chronicles the life of Malaysian-born Nasir Abas from the time he joined Afghans fighting the Soviets in the late 80s to his transformation as an Indonesian police informant and preacher of peaceful Islam.
Abas, 42, is a former senior member of Jemaah Islamiyah, the regional militant group blamed for a series of deadly attacks in Indonesia since 2000, including the 2002 Bali bombings. I Found the Meaning of Jihad was published by an Islamic group dedicated to fighting religious radicalism, and aims to send a message to young readers that Islam is peaceful and terrorism brings only misery.
"This is part of educational efforts in response to the spread of radicalism among the youth," Lazuardi Birru group spokesman Praga Adidhatama said. "Every act of terrorism only causes suffering to people because most of the victims are civilians."
The book was launched with an initial print-run of 10,000 copies and would be distributed to the country's 33 provinces, the publisher said. Indonesia has won international praise for its fight against terrorism, having arrested about 600 militants since the 2002 Bali bombings, but analysts say radicalism remains a major problem.
The attack on two night-clubs on the Indonesian resort island killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists. Abas, bespectacled and soft-spoken, said he wanted young people to understand that jihad does not equal terrorism. "Islam is a religion that teaches us to do good and spread good deeds," he said. The book begins with a 15-year-old Abas watching news about the war in Afghanistan.
"I really want to go to Afghanistan to help Afghan fighters and those suffering because of war," he says. While studying at an Islamic school, he was offered to join 14 others, most of them Indonesians, to travel to Afghanistan. He learned warfare skills at a militia camp and quickly became an instructor before returning to Malaysia a few years later and helped establish a training camp for Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines.
Abas was arrested in Indonesia in 2003, a year after the Bali bombings. Because he was co-operative and gave valuable information to police, he was allowed out of detention to meet other detained militants and try to persuade them to abandon terrorism.
Abas, whose sister married one of the three men executed for the Bali bombings, has since appeared on television discussing terrorism and published a book titled "Unraveling Jemaah Islamiyah." "I hope everybody is involved in fighting terrorism," he says at the end of the book. "It's not only the job for the police."
The comic-style book also tells the story of how a 17-year-old high school graduate was lured into radicalism and turned into a terrorist who blew himself up in a suicide bombing at Jakarta's Marriott hotel in 2009. Seven people were killed in the twin attacks that also targeted the adjacent Ritz-Carlton hotel.
The comic also recounts the story of Iwan Setiawan, a man who lost his eye in a 2004 bombing at the Australian embassy in Jakarta. That attack killed nine people. Setiawan was riding a motorcycle with his pregnant wife when a car bomb exploded outside the embassy. His wife died of her injuries after giving birth to the child.