Alleged terror leader: 'Naked women worse than Bali bombings'
Alleged terror leader Abu Bakar Bashir said TV shows featuring scantily clad women were more harmful than the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people, the state news agency reported.
The remarks were likely to anger Australia, which lost 88 citizens in the attacks on two crowded nightclubs.
Bashir, recently released from jail after serving 26-months for conspiracy in the bombings, said images of naked or semi-naked woman on television were sinful and chipped away at the moral fibre of Muslim believers.
“So, if I am asked which is more dangerous, naked women or the Bali bombs, then my reply is of course those women in skimpy clothes,” Antara quoted him as saying at a public rally calling for the imposition of Islamic law in Indonesia.
Bashir, who denies any terrorist activities, did not elaborate.
The United States and other Western governments have publicly accused the Muslim cleric of being a key leader in Jemaah Islamiyah, the regional terror group blamed for the Bali bombings and other deadly attacks in Indonesia.
Bashir, 69, has travelled across the predominantly Muslim nation since his release from jail preaching in favour of Islamic law and against the secular government.
