About Author
Abu Bakar Ba'asyir ( AH-boo BAH-kər bah-SHEER; Arabic: أبو بكر باعشير, romanized: ʾAbū Bakr Bāʿašīr; Indonesian pronunciation: [ˈabʊbakar baˈʔaʃir]; Arabic pronunciation: [əˌbuˈbɛkər ba:ʕaɕir]; born 17 August 1938) also known as Abu Bakar Bashir, Abdus Somad, and Ustad Abu ("Teacher Abu") is an Indonesian Muslim cleric and leader of Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid.He ran the Al-Mukmin boarding school in Ngruki, Central Java, which he co-founded with Abdullah Sungkar in 1972. He was in exile in Malaysia for 17 years during the secular New Order administration of President Suharto resulting from various activities, including urging the implementation of Sharia law.
Intelligence agencies and the United Nations claim he is the spiritual head of Jemaah Islamiyah (also known as JI), best known for the 2002 Bali bombings and which has links with Al-Qaeda. In August 2014, he publicly pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and his declaration of a caliphate.
