Dean Yates, Solo – Abu Bakar Bashir ambles around the grounds of an Islamic school in Indonesia's central Java in white robes and a skull cap, chatting with students and looking every bit the avuncular teacher he claims to be.
To some Southeast Asian governments the tall but reed-like Bashir is a pivotal player in a regional terror group, Jemaah Islamiah, which the United States is now considering labelling a terrorist organisation.
Not so to the students at the Al Mukmin boarding school, which the radical Muslim cleric, an open admirer of Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden, helped found decades ago.
"He's great," shout several 12-year-old students wearing Indonesian school uniforms as they crowd around Bashir, sporting his trademark wispy silver beard and large reading glasses.
At 65, Bashir spends much of his time teaching the tenets of Islamic sharia law and dispensing advice to the 2,000 students here at the school, reached through a maze of narrow lanes in a suburb of Solo city, 500 km east of Jakarta.
Not surprisingly, the terror accusations against Bashir by Singapore and Malaysia carry little weight here, where students say they admire Bashir for his efforts to implement strict Islamic sharia law in the world's most populous Muslim nation.
A relatively obscure Muslim cleric until Singapore and Malaysia officials earlier this year accused him of being a key leader of Jemaah Islamiah, the growing spotlight on Bashir has put Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri in a bind.
Matthew Daley, US assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, on Tuesday stepped up pressure on Jakarta by linking Bashir to Jemaah Islamiah, calling it "the Abu Bakar Bashir organisation", apparently to differentiate it from the literal translation of the group which means Islamic community. He said the US was considering calling it a terrorist group.
Bashir denies such a group exists and calls Daley's comments groundless. Indonesian police questioned Bashir earlier this year over the terror accusations, but said they had no evidence.
Holy war
This is not Bashir's first brush with trouble. He was jailed in 1979 under former autocrat Suharto for agitating to set up an Islamic state. In 1985 he escaped that jail term and fled to Malaysia and returned in 1999 when subversion laws used widely by Suharto, who kept a tight lid on militant and political Islam, had been repealed.
In an interview, Bashir insists he is just a simple Islamic teacher, although he readily admits to encouraging Muslims to wage holy war if they believe Christians are attacking Muslims.
He said while teaching in Malaysia it was possible some of his followers in an Islamic study group, whom he called his "listeners" and which had informally called themselves the Sunnah Group, had gone to fight in places such as Bosnia.
Bashir said he had heard some followers had also gone to Indonesia's eastern Moluccas islands to battle Christians. The Moluccas have been ravaged by Muslim-Christian violence. "If you understand jihad and are capable, carry it out but only in places of jihad, where there is a war against infidels, protecting yourself and Muslim brothers under attack like in Bosnia," he said.
Political ties
Complicating things for Megawati, Bashir has garnered support from many quarters in Indonesia, where scepticism over American intentions toward the Muslim world have grown, partly in response to a possible US attack on Iraq.
Indeed, Bashir said he hoped to meet Vice President Hamzah Haz soon in Jakarta. Haz paid Bashir an unexpected visit last May, adding to perceptions that arresting him would not be easy.
Clearly at ease with the growing spotlight on his activities, Bashir grabs a small television microphone before an interview and expertly attaches it to his robes.
"I already know how to do this," he said laughing, flashing a grin from his narrow face that showed a few bottom teeth missing.
Jemaah Islamiah has been accused of seeking to bomb Western targets as part of a jihad, or holy war, intended to establish an independent Islamic state across the region.
Bashir says one member of Jemaah Islamiah, Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi, jailed in Manila for illegal possession of explosives, attended Al Mukmin, probably while Bashir was living in Malaysia.
Some Southeast Asian governments have linked Jemaah Islamiah to bin Laden's al Qaeda network, Washington's prime suspect in the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
Students from across Indonesia, ranging in ages from 12 to 19, attend Al Mukmin, which differs from moderate mainstream Muslim boarding schools. They are quick to defend their teacher.
"He's not what they say he is, he's a good man," said Karnadi, 18, a student from West Java, speaking near a sign that said: "Enter the house to study, leave the house to fight."