On any Friday night after prayers in Jakarta, Indonesia’s secular capital, drinkers half expect Rizieq and his thugs to drop in to their local bar and start trashing the place, outraged that alcohol is being imbibed in the world’s biggest Islamic country, and worse, in the holy month of Ramadan.

When Jakarta’s half-hearted police finally caught up with Rizieq and his men last year, he spent nine months inside the putrid Cipinang prison. His cellmate was Abu Bakar Bashir, the fiery Javanese cleric those prosecuting the War on Terror believe is the mastermind behind Jemaah Islamiyah, the group responsible for three Islamist terrorist attacks on foreigners in Indonesia in two years, including the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing that killed 202 mostly foreign tourists.

Rizieq, 39, is unrepentant. Speaking at his local mosque in a West Jakarta slum, he told The Times: “The question you must ask of yourself is, ‘Why do they treat us as an enemy?’ And the answer is, ‘Because I, in the West, have acted unfairly’. America, England, Australia, have to realise that there are certain groups who hurt, and feel vengeful and angry and who would like to pour out their anger towards them, towards certain Western countries they consider are trying to crush Islam or reduce Islam.”

Rizieq shares Bashir’s vision of a Taleban-style, pure Islamist state in South-East Asia stretching from Buddhist Burma to Protestant Papua, taking in all points in between. It is that vision that has Rizieq hoping — and the majority of moderate Indonesians afraid — that the recent carnage in Buddhist-governed Thailand’s Islamic south may flare into a wider communal conflict engulfing the region.

Almost 100 people died this week as a long-simmering separatist dispute that has claimed 400 lives so far this year flared between local Malay-speaking Thai Muslims and Thai Buddhist officials.

A Thai government crackdown last month killed 85 Muslims; many were suffocated while being transported in police and military vehicles. On Thursday nine Buddhists, including two policemen, were shot dead across the disputed region, one of Thailand’s most popular tourist destinations.

The outbreak of overt hostility in the so-called Land of Smiles has alarmed Thailand’s mostly Muslim neighbours in Malaysia and the regional superpower, Indonesia.

Abdullah Badawi, Malaysia’s moderate Prime Minister, has called for calm and moderation from his Thai counterpart, Thaksin Shinawatra, who seems unable to provide either. Mahathir Mohamed, Badawi’s still-powerful predecessor, has managed to throw petrol on an already raging fire by comparing the dispute to Palestine.

As tempers flared across the region, including a punch-up in the Thai Senate, Malaysia’s main Islamic political party gave warning that Thailand faced a Muslim uprising. A Malay national newspaper likened Bangkok’s heavy-handed crackdown to “the rounding up of Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland”.

But it was Dr Mahathir’s remarks that most rankled his Thai neighbours. “This is like the Palestinian issue,” the former Prime Minister said. “If it had been resolved from the beginning it would not have led to problems. They cannot get the independence they want, so they are hoping for autonomy.”

The Thai Embassy in Jakarta has issued a warning to its 500,000 citizens in Indonesia to be on the alert for harassment by groups such as Rizieq’s Islamic Defenders Front.

He was spoiling for a fight. “Grant autonomy to the Muslim community in the South, or else we Muslims from the Malayan region will go there to help our brothers,” he said.

“If he (Thaksin) denies my suggestion, he is creating another tragedy. Muslims in the South are not many, just four to five million, that it is not a big deal to grant them autonomy. But the four to five million people can be powerful militants when they fight together against the Government.”

BUDDHIST STATE WITH A MUSLIM MINORITY

Explore World News

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• Baghdad fury at claim US spied on PM
• British envoy criticised over Swaziland party
• How perfect is Sarah Palin’s First Dude?