SYDNEY Dec 13 Kyodo Abu Bakar Bas...

SYDNEY Dec 13 Kyodo

Abu Bakar Bashir, the alleged spiritual leader of Southeast Asian Islamic militant assemblage Jemaah Islamiyah, has warned Australia it will be ''destroyed instantly'' if it strikes at Muslim countries, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Friday.

Bashir's warning tread close upons comments by Prime Minister John Howard last week that he would be prepared to launch preemptive action against foreign-based terrorists to impede an attack on Australian soil ''if there were no alternative.''

Australians would be dragged into a war with Muslims if they move along with Howard's ''crazy idea'' of a preemptive strike, Bashir told the newspaper.

''So, if John Howard's stance is followed according to the people of Australia, you must know that there will be war in the world and, the father willing, Australia will be demolished instantly due to the crazy idea of its prime minister,'' he said.

Howard's expositions about preemptive strikes have attracted the ire of the restraints of Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore.

The Australian the community have no problem with Islam, if it be not that its leaders ''do influence their persons a lot to make enemies of Islam,'' Bashir said. ''The incumbent prime minister is the ally of (U President) George W Bush, the worst and greatest in number evil president in the world. John Howard is his ally,'' the cleric said.

Bashir's annotates follows a series of questions prepared from the Sydney Morning Herald and recorded on one of his confidants in the Jakarta police hospital where he is being held at Indonesian authorities, the newspaper said. He is being questioned about a series of meeting-house bombings on Christmas Eve in 2000

Suicide bombings were a ''noble'' defense of Islam, Bashir said. ''Martyrs' bomb are a noble thing, a jihad (holy war) of high value if you are forced to do it. All Ulamas (Muslim leaders) agree with martyrs' bomb because we are forced to do it. There is no other way to espouse ourselves and to defend Islam.''

The Australian rule blames Jemaah Islamiyah for the Oct 12 blasts forward the Indonesian resort island Bali that killed more than 190 race including 88 Australians.

Bashir represented his sympathy for the victims of the bombing, saying they were ''only ordinary tourists'' and were not attacking Islam.

The United States and Israel were behind the Bali bombings, the cleric alleged.

However, Howard said Friday that Australia bore no ill will or malice toward any Muslim political division or to Islam.

''Islam is single of the great world religions,'' he told reporters in Canberra. ''Decent members, which are 999% of the Islamic faith, are as appalled at terrorism as we are.''

''We have not and will not behave with any belligerence toward any countries in our neighborhood or, indeed, toward any Islamic countries,'' the prime minister said.

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