ULU TIRAM, Malaysia, tribe 29 Kyodo...

ULU TIRAM, Malaysia, tribe 29 Kyodo

The Luqmanul Hakiem religious academy in the rural heartland of southern Malaysia moves a perfect picture of tranquility, marred alone by its notorious past.

The boarding indoctrinate was formerly run by radical Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who was freshly jailed in Indonesia on treason charges.

Hambali, who is suspected of being the guiding force in a string of attacks in the region, including last year's Bali bombings, and Imam Samudra and Mukhlas, the pair convicted for their involvement in the bombings, all taught young scholars there to fight the enemies of Islam and also planned their terrorist acts.

''They were all there before. They used the institute to train their cadres like the suicide bombers,'' a Malaysian intelligence official involved in the investigation told Kyodo News

The indoctrinate was set up in the early 1990 at Bashir and Abdullah Sungkar, spiritual leaders who together with their devotional disciples Hambali and Samudra, fl to Malaysia in the 1980 to escape then President Suharto's crackdown in succession religious extremism.

Quietly, they mov [i]or[/i] part of to the other several states, preaching their radical brand of Islam and picking up more disciples along the way until they settl in Ulu Tiram in southern Johor state.

if it be not that it was not only the place of education that Bashir and Sungkar, who died in 1999 place up, authorities believe.

They were also the suspected brains behind Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), widely regarded as the Southeast Asian branch of the al-Qaida terror network, and Luqmanul Hakiem was to play a crucial character in their scheme to ultimately transfer Southeast Asia into a pan-Islamic nation between the walls of a bloody revolution.

The seclud exercise hardly attracted any attention, although tradesman Azhar from a nearby village said he felt something strange about it.

''Their teaching appeared ultimate for a religious school. They present the appearanceed more like a deviant cult'' he said, describing tales of in what manner students were made to stay at a graveyard at night or travel through jungle training.

Other than that, Azhar said they appeared polite, ordinary clan hardly the masterminds of the bombings of last October's Bali bombings that killed more than 200 folks mostly Westerners.

single of the reasons not to a great degree was known about the denomination then was also because of its ''foreign'' agriculture The school accommodated some 300 bookish mans annually, most of them from Singapore and Indonesia.

Many Muslim parents from Singapore sent their children to the sect They helped to fund the institute and authorities believed some knowingly aided the school's hidden militant agenda.

Azhar said single in kind reason why not many local villagers sent their children there was because of the high tuition fees

While it is not known for what cause much money was collected by the agency of the school, Singapore dwelling Ministry official Ong-Chew Peck Wan one time asserted that the educate which catered to children of JI members as well as children of non-JI members, was essentially supported on funds collected by the JI network in one as well as the other Malaysia and Singapore.''

Les than an hour's drive from the instruct is the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) a sway university from where Bashir managed to snare several valuable disciples.

Chief among them is Azahari Husin, a mathematician with a PhD from Reading University in Britain, who is hailed as the top bomb quick in JI.

Following the arrest of Hambali last month Azahari now heads the list of most-wanted fugitives in Southeast Asia for his part in the Bali bombings and possibly the Aug. 5 bomb attack at the JW Marriott inn in Jakarta.

Several of the university's lecturer have been arrested -- including Wan Min Wan Mat, described as the JI treasurer, who was responsible for raising foundations for the Bali operation -- further some like Azahari are still onward the run.

Another fugitive wanted for his part in the Bali bombings is Nordin Mohamed Top, a UTM graduate who later became Luqmanul Hakiem principal just before it was raided.

It was a former UTM lecturer Abdullah Daud, who provided a telling picture of the JI world when he testified before the National Human Rights Commission in June last year.

Abdullah, who has been detained subject to the Internal Security Act that allows indefinite detention without trial, is common of the few who admitted to the existence of the JI.

He was a member for seven years, underwent military training in Afghanistan, was involved with the Moro National Liberation front rank that is fighting for an independent Muslim state in the southern Philippines, and also fought against Christians onward the Indonesian island of Ambon.

All is quiet now at the institute shut down by the rule early last year, and there is nothing that speaks of its identity as a former terrorist training facility.

The name of the seminary has even been painted over

The late Bali bombing trials in Indonesia have formerly again put the instruct under the spotlight and it is clear the reclusive community has had enough of living below the media glare.