Indonesia Police have detained a top cleric suspected of having ties to terrorism

[ASEAN NOW Content Team]

 

A prominent Muslim preacher in Indonesia has been arrested on suspicion of using a charitable organisation to fund Islamist assaults.
In recent years, the country has been subjected to a wave of extremist attacks.

Densus 88, Indonesia's counter-terrorism unit, arrested one of the country's most prominent Muslim preachers on suspicion of having ties to the al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), police said on Wednesday.

Ahmad Zain An-Najah is a member of the Ulema Council, an umbrella body of religious groups made up of Islamic academics in the Southeast Asian country.
He is suspected of having close ties to the terror organisation and of funding its activities.

 

According to national police spokeswoman Rusdi Hartono, Ahmad was detained in Jakarta on Tuesday, along with two associates, following a police raid.

According to Rusdi, the cleric started a nonprofit organisation "for education, social activities, and some of the monies are utilised to activate JI."

Returning militants carry out assaults in their own country.

Indonesia is the world's most populous Muslim country.
It has been hit by a wave of militant attacks, many of which have been linked to residents returning from fighting for the so-called "Islamic State" in Iraq and Syria.

 

The militant Islamist group is suspected of being behind the explosions that killed 200 people in Bali nightclubs in 2002.

They're also suspected of being responsible for a string of recent strikes in Indonesia and the Philippines.

The Indonesian government has taken a hard line against militant Islamism in the country, banning a number of groups accused of having ties to it.

Charity is linked to an Islamist political group.

According to investigators, Ahmad's charity operated in cities across the major Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra.

 

Officials had previously blocked the organization's assets and arrested its leader earlier this month, according to German news agency KNA.