[Tlc] Fwd: FW: Accidental ‘Jihadist’ tells his story

[Michael Montesano]

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Saturday February 28, 2009, *The Star* (Malaysia).
 Accidental ‘Jihadist’ tells his story THAI TAKES
By PHILIP GOLINGAI
*Fired up by a footage of the Tak Bai massacre, a university student
volunteered to help oppressed Thai Muslims, only to be disillusioned.*
INSIDE a prison in Thailand’s restive south is a Malaysian accidental *
jihadist*. Muhammad Fadly Zainal Abidin, a 23-year-old Universiti Teknologi
Malaysia (UTM) student, is waiting to face trial for illegal entry and
disturbing public order.
Minor transgressions. But what shocked the Thai authorities was Muhammad
Fadly – after he was arrested for allegedly attempting to steal a motorcycle
in Sungai Golok – confessed to slipping into southern Thailand to wage *
jihad* against the Thai military.
And Thai military intelligence was also shocked to discover that Muhammad
Fadly was from Malacca.
Typically, the Malaysians linked with Muslim insurgents in southern Thailand
are Kelantanese who hold dual citizenship – Malaysian and Thai.
They are ethnically and culturally similar to Muslims from Narathiwat, Yala
and Pattani, the three Thai Muslim-dominated provinces synonymous with
shootings, bombings and beheadings.
Curious to see the face of a Malaysian *jihadist*, I flew 90 minutes from
Bangkok to Narathiwat town, the capital of Narathiwat province.
Before my journey, I was told by contacts familiar with the Deep South that
it was unlikely that I could interview Muhammad Fadly, who is locked up in a
maximum prison because he is a terrorist.
The visitor hall at the Narathiwat prison was filled with two dozen
tudung-clad *makcik* (aunties) waiting for their names to be called so that
they could meet with their imprisoned loved ones.
The boy in charge of visitor registration wore a blue prison garb, and
outside the prison wall about six inmates (also dressed in blue) performed
manual labour without any supervision.
Surprised, I asked around and was told that it was a minimum security
prison.
I wrote down my name, Muhammad Fadly’s name and my passport number on a
registration form, and the inmate rewrote it in Thai.
I asked him in Malay what were my chances of meeting up with Muhammad Fadly.
The boy said: “Memang boleh (definitely you can).”
An hour later I was searching for a Malaysian face among the 10 prisoners
standing behind reinforced glass and iron bars. The inmates in brown
uniforms looked the same, as Thai Muslims shared the same DNA with
Kelantanese Malays.
The only prisoner wearing glasses smiled at me. A bespectacled baby-faced
student was certainly not what I expected a *jihadist* to look like.
In my interviews (three 12-minute prison visits) with Muhammad Fadly, he
related that Ustaz Muhammad, a secretive religious teacher in his early 30s,
had convinced him to slip into southern Thailand to help Thai Muslims
oppressed by the government.
The final year mechanical industry student believed the ustaz after watching
video footage of the massacre in Tak Bai, a Thai border town on
Malaysia-Thailand border, where 78 Thai Muslim protesters – who were packed
like sardines – died of suffocation and injuries while being transported in
military trucks on Oct 25, 2004.
Upon arrival in Sungai Golok, a Thai border town about 63km from Narathiwat
town and separated from Kelantan by the Golok River, Ustaz Muhammad ordered
Muhammad Fadly and a 17-year-old Malaysian high school dropout, to buy
knives and parangs, steal a motorcycle, and kill Thai soldiers and take
their weapons.
“I was shocked, as these were not appropriate tasks for me to perform. And
they were beyond my capabilities,” recalled Muhammad Fadly.
Nevertheless, he could not defy the orders as Ustaz Muhammad told him it was
a sin to disobey.
On June 28, 2008, Muhammad Fadly and the 17-year-old tried to steal a
motorcycle at a village near Sungai Golok town. Suspicious villagers alerted
the police who arrested them at around 3pm.
Asked why he confessed to wanting to wage holy war against the Thai
military, Muhammad Fadly said: “Inside my bag were knives and parangs so it
was difficult for me to sell another story.”
The fact that Muhammad Fadly is a student at UTM alarmed the Thai military
intelligence as it is the *alma mater* of prominent Jemaah Islamiyah members
Noordin M. Top and the late Dr Azhari Husein.
“Yes, I have heard of them. But I’m not influenced by them as I’ve never met
them,” he said.
Asked if Ustaz Muhammad had ever visited him in prison, Muhammad Fadly,
whose court hearing begins in August, said the ustaz had since disappeared.
“I regret believing him,” the accidental *jihadist* sighed.


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