Radical cleric forms group in Indonesia

JAKARTA, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- The militant former head of the Indonesian Mujahedin Council has announced the forming of a new hard-line organization.

Radical Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who resigned from the Indonesian Mujahedin Council in August, announced he has founded a new group called the Jamaah Anshorud Tauhid, or Savior Community, the Counterterrorism Blog reported.

The Indonesian Mujahedin Council, under the direction of Bashir, was leading an effort to establish Indonesia's conversion into an Islamic state. Bashir left the council over a disagreement with the organization's election procedures.

Bashir may be best known for his former radical leadership of the Southeast Asian militant Islamic organization Jemaah Islamiyah.

According to Kenneth Conboy of the Counterterrorism Blog, the new Jamaah Anshorud Tauhid, based in Bekasi, Indonesia, is likely to keep in step with Bashir's "extremely anti-Western outlook."