The 54-year-old Muslim cleric - said to be a mentor of escaped terrorist Mas Selamat Kastari - travels round the archipelago and beyond spreading his brand of hardline religious teachings at mosques, and through his books and TV and radio talk shows.

His mission is to make Indonesia conform to his notions of Islam, even at the cost of being 'labelled a terrorist' by those he considers enemies of the religion, he told The Straits Times in an interview earlier this month.

Mr Jibril has long denied being linked to the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) network of militants. He dismissed allegations that he had recruited fugitive Mas Selamat Kastari for the group's campaign of violence.

It is a new house which he built after the rented house he had been living in a few blocks away was hit by a drive-by bombing in June 2005.

Stacks of Islamic books written by him and magazines published by the family company are piled on the floor of his living room.

While he has no qualms about spouting doctrines that inflame passions against practices or behaviour that he sees as a threat to Islam, he deflects claims that it was he who inspired Mas Selamat and terrorists like him.

'I am a religious teacher,' he said. 'It is normal for students to admire their teachers or to be inspired by them.'

Mr Jibril said he was sceptical about Mas Selamat's reported escape, saying he did not consider the Singapore Government's account credible.

'How could a man like Mas Selamat escape a high-

security prison in a place like Singapore?' he asked.

Mr Jibril was part of a group that included terrorists such as Hambali and militant clerics such as Abu Bakar Bashir.

Members of the group fled Indonesia in 1985.

Landing in Malaysia, they set up a hardline religious school, Lukmanul Hakim, in Johor Baru.

Others went to Afghanistan to join the fight against the Soviet Union and later formed the JI.

Mr Jibril was arrested and jailed in Malaysia in June 2001. Three years later, he was released and deported to Indonesia.

As soon as he arrived in Jakarta, the Indonesian government detained and sentenced him to 61/2 months in prison for falsifying his identity card and passport.

The International Crisis Group's Sidney Jones said Mr Jibril had actively recruited JI members while in Malaysia. She cited some interrogation depositions, including one from Mas Selamat himself.

'He recruited Mas Selamat personally,' she told The Straits Times. But she said Mas Selamat was not likely to contact Mr Jibril while on the run as the cleric's profile was too high.

Mr Jibril, who denied Ms Jones' allegation, refused to talk about his past, especially his alleged role in JI, and would only say that it had hurt his family and his community.

But he talked enthusiastically about his current campaign for Islamic law to be made part of the Indonesian Constitution.

'It is our duty to spread the truth and expose evil through our missionary work,' he said.

He is a regular fixture at mosques in the city and travels across the country to give sermons. He also hosts a monthly talk show.

The author of some 20 books, Mr Jibril recently published Virus Virus Syariat, a book that hits out at Muslim leaders whose teachings are not Islamic in his opinion.

His family owned company, Ar-rahmah Media, run by his eldest son Muhammad Jibril Abdul Rahman, 24, published the books, which are enjoying brisk sales, he said.

The company recently launched Jihad Magz, a glossy 148-page magazine devoted to Islamic fighters and wars across the world.

According to Mr Jibril, Vice-President Jusuf Kalla had approached the cleric when the latter gave a sermon at a mosque in south Jakarta in June 2006.

The Vice-President, who was among the worshippers, wanted to discuss the implementation of syariah law in Indonesia, he said.

'He asked what kind of syariah should be implemented in Indonesia, whether this should include cutting off the hands of thieves or stoning adulterers,' Mr Jibril said.

That is exactly the kind of draconian punishments that the cleric envisions. He blamed opposition to such punishments on a 'grand design by the evil George Bush to undermine the Muslims across the world'.

While he did not openly support violence in the campaign for syariah law, he described the three Bali bombers now on death row as 'mujahid', or warriors.

But he was quick to add that 'their calculation might have been off'.

'Still, I believe the time will come when the Muslims will rise because they have been oppressed for so long,' he said.

'It will be like the fight against the Dutch colonisers in the past.'

asmarani@sph.com.sg

RADICAL VISION

'Still, I believe the time will come when the Muslims will rise because they have been oppressed for so long. It will be like the fight against the Dutch colonisers in the past.'
MUSLIM CLERIC ABU JIBRIL

Mas Selamat Kastari belongs to a generation of pre-9/11 militant leaders strongly committed to their goals, whether it is plotting mass murder or engineering their own escape. Many of them have been arrested or killed in recent years. Terrorism watchers worry about some of the militants who are still at large and the clerics who motivate them and who continue to spread radical propaganda. In this report, Straits Times correspondents report on two prominent religious leaders in Indonesia who inspired terrorists like Mas Selamat to join the Jemaah Islamiah and trace the fugitive's connections to others in the militant world.