Bali bombers

Pax Christi Victoria Inc. International Christian Peace Movement invites you to the first Agape of 2015. Sunday February 15 at Kildara, rear 39 Stanhope Street, East Malvern. Shared meal 1 p.m Meeting 2 p.m-4.00 p.m. Speaker will be Noor Huda Ismail, from Central Java, Indonesia, the founder and director of a grass root NGO called Yayasan Prasasti Perdamaian (Institute for International Peace Building in Indonesia). He describes himself " a terrorist's whisperer". His
connection to jihadism world went back to his childhood where he studied for 6 six years with Bali bombers in a pesantren (an Islamic boarding school) in Central Java. One of the founders of the school is Abu Bakar Ba'asyir who is now incarcerated in Nusakambangan (Indonesia's Alcatraz prison) for his involvement in Aceh Military training Camp in 2010.
He will speak on : "The Emergence of Groups of Violence in Indonesia in the Name of Islam and the Effort of Civil Society in Indonesia to Peacefully Fight this Toxic Ideology.”

Please come and bring a friend.
Sunday February 15
at Kildara, rear 39 Stanhope Street, East Malvern.
Shared meal 1 p.m
Meeting 2 p.m-4.00 p.m
Bring food to share. All Welcome!

Biography of speaker

"Noor Huda Ismail describes himself " a terrorist's whisperer". His connection to jihadism world went back to his childhood where he studied for 6 six years with Bali bombers in a pesantren (an Islamic boarding school) in Central Java. One of the founders of the school is Abu Bakar Ba'asyir who is now incarcerated in Nusakambangan (Indonesia's Alcatraz prison) for his involvement in Aceh Military training Camp in 2010.

Noor Huda worked as a special correspondent for The Washington Post South East Asia Bureau from 2002-2005. He was assigned to cover the story of the Bali Bombings and its aftermath in 2002. He was so shocked when he found out that one of the perpetrators was his roommate during his Islamic boarding school years. This event became a turning point in his life.

The question why some of his friends turned to violence preoccupied him and changed the direction of his life. In 2005 he won the British's Council Scholarship to pursue a master degree in International Security at St Andrews University (a Jesuit-run University) in Scotland. While in Europe he travelled to different countries and visited many terrorist hotspots and met with former members of the terrorist groups (IRA in Northern Ireland, Brigatte Rosse in Italy, ETA in Basque/Spain and Baader Meinhoff in Germany). In 2008 shortly after returning from Europe to Indonesia Huda established Yayasan Prasasti Perdamaian (Institute for International Peace Building in Indonesia) in order to understand why some of his friends got involved in terrorism world. It is through this Institute that he pioneered a controversial approach to help former convicted terrorists to integrate back to society where they can lead a normal and peaceful life.

This is done through his restaurant chain called " Dapoer Bistik Solo" (Solo Beefsteak Kitchen) where he employs some of the former criminals and ex-detainees to raise their self-esteem and dignity. The establishment of his peace institute was inspired by an NGO in Ireland that helps integrate former terrorists back into society.

In 2014 Huda won the Australian Award Scholarship to pursue his PhD in Politics and International Relations at Monash University.” Huda’s writings have been published in The Conversation, The Australian, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Strait Times, The Jakarta Post and others. He is the author of the book, My Friend the Terrorist?, a book about his personal friend and former roommate turned terrorist. Now he is completing the second documentary film on Disenchanted Foreign Fighters. He is also making another documentary film on terrorism in Indonesia called Paradise and Prison.

Huda is a husband and a father of a young son. His wife is also from Central Java.