Leadership Quote by Abu Bakar Bashir

Fear of Western media becomes a blunt cudgel here: Abu Bakar Bashir is naming a villain (timid Muslim leadership) and absolving a constituency (the “masses”) in the same breath. It’s a recruiting logic disguised as diagnosis. By invoking the BBC and CNN, he doesn’t just criticize leaders for being image-conscious; he frames global journalism as a disciplining force that turns “radical” into a scare label and “soft” into moral failure. The word choice is surgical: “scared” infantilizes leaders, “soft” feminizes them, and “problem lies there” pins blame upward, away from ordinary believers.

The subtext is strategic. If leaders are compromised by reputation management, then legitimacy can be relocated to those willing to defy the cameras. He is trying to widen the gap between establishment clerics/politicians and the public, converting frustration into permission: permission to bypass institutions, to distrust moderation as cowardice, and to treat militancy as authenticity. The “not the Muslim masses” line is especially potent because it flatters listeners while also mobilizing them; it implies the public is sound, even righteous, but misled or held back by a leadership class captured by external judgment.

Context matters: Bashir is associated with hardline Islamist activism in Southeast Asia, and this rhetoric fits a post-9/11 media ecosystem where “terrorism” coverage and the politics of condemnation became constant. He weaponizes that pressure, reframing public scrutiny as ideological coercion. The intended outcome isn’t nuance; it’s polarization, with “soft” leaders on one side and a supposedly uncorrupted community on the other, waiting for bolder guidance.