Islamic Militants Volunteer to Aid Muslims in Indonesia
Black-jacketed volunteers from one of Indonesia’s most militant Muslim groups scraped away the clammy mud that clung to the walls and floors of a badly damaged house here on Sunday. They moved the once handsome dining room chairs outside to dry. In a few days, they said, the owner of the house, Azman Ismail, an imam at Banda Aceh’s central mosque, would be able to move back in. The men, members of Lasker Mujahedeen, a paramilitary group that has fought Christians elsewhere in Indonesia and has had links to Al Qaeda, are among hundreds of Indonesian Islamic militants who have come to Aceh in the name of helping their fellow Muslims, they say, to offer a dose of Islamic teachings to the already devout Acehnese, and to recruit members. Full Story