Nasir Abbas
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Nasir Abbas, was one of the most wanted Malaysian jihadists in South East Asia. He was a member of al-Qaeda's regional affiliate, Jemaah Islamiya (JI).
According to Indonesia's top anti-terrorist police officer, General Ansyaad Mbai, Abbas was a very dangerous man and one of the key figures in the JI.
[edit] Political stands
In a BBC interview piece, Abbas explains his philosophy of jihad, where he believes it is acceptable to fight and kill foreign forces occupying Muslim countries. He gives as examples the Soviets in Afghanistan, the Americans in Iraq and the Philippine army occupying what he describes as ancestral Muslim lands in Mindanao. To Abbas' philosophy, the killing of innocent civilians - men, women and children - is forbidden.
Abbas uses this to criticize the modern violent jihad philosophy, outlined by Palestinian Abdullah Azzam, acknowledged to be the "father" of modern violent jihad.
Abbas pertains that the knowledge that the 2002 Bali bombings, in which 202 civilians died, were caused by people he trained in Afganistan in the early 1990s, caused him to re-think his decade long affiliation to the islamist organisation, and as a consequence he decided on switching of allegiance and decided to talk and help the police.
Abbas actively assisted the police in tracking down and arresting some of his former comrades and pertains he felt no guilt in doing so.
He explains that from that point on, he tried to persuade his former comrades that their interpretation of the Quran was wrong, and urged them to "return to the right path of Islamic teaching."
