By Kazi Mahmood, IOL Southeast Asia Correspondent

JAKARTA, March 31 (IslamOnline.net) - Several thousands Indonesians, members of local Islamic parties and organizations such as the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the Keadilan Party or Justice Party (PK) and the Mujahideen groups declared war against the U.S. Monday, March 31, saying they were ready to head for Iraq to join the middle Eastern country’s army in its battle against the invasion of the U.S.-British forces.

The NU’s Banser group, a security wing of the largest Muslim organization in Indonesia, said it was prepared to send 4000 Indonesians to Baghdad to participate in the war against the U.S. led aggression against the Muslim nation. Despite denials by the Banser chairman Saifullah Yusuf that the reports were not true, the fact remains that some Indonesians are ready to fight the U.S. troops in Iraq.

Other individuals in the mainstream Islamic movement in the largest Muslim country on earth has also voiced their desire and given their names to the PK and other groups that are organizing a possible paramilitary force that would be sent to the Middle East for Jihad.

The number of people listing for the paramilitary force could rise to thousands of jobless and other fundamental or ordinary Muslims eager to take up arms against the formidable war machine of the US.

Some of the individuals are intellectuals who said they were tired of the US arrogance against a small country like Iraq. Moderate Muslims as well as those considered to be more radical in their views have joined forces on Sunday to rally in the streets of the capital city, Jakarta calling for peace and for the end of the war in Iraq.

“Moderate Muslims, usually tame in their attitudes against the US and its arrogance against the Muslim world, are fed up and tired of this attitude and of the war of aggression,” said a member of the Intellectual group that has joined the call for jihad.

He said the US has lied to the world about the weapons of mass destruction, which he added was clearly non-existent in Iraq and was just part of the propaganda machinery of the Pentagon to attack the Muslim nation.

Sources in Jakarta said those who registered for the jihad force might be sent to Iraq via Jordan or Syria, two possible entry points into the embattled country though they agree that Jordan might prove difficult to convince to allow them to cross the border.

The major problem facing the jihad force will be the flight ticket to go to Syria or Jordan, which costs easily US1000 or more for a return flight using either Gulf Air or the Emirates Airlines.

Garuda too flies to the Middle East but tickets through the Indonesian national airline may be more expensive and might be difficult to secure for political reasons.

The Megawati Sukarnoputri government is firm on its stance on the war against Iraq. It does not believe that Indonesia could be of military assistance to the Iraqis but it is strongly against the US invasion of the country of Saddam.

If East Java Banser does send members to Iraq, it would be another blow to the campaign by the government and moderate religious leaders to assure the people that the war in Iraq has nothing to do with religion, the Jakarta Post said.

“Will they or will they not reach Baghdad is not the question here, what matters is that the Iraqi people knows there are a considerable number of Indonesian Muslims who are ready to fight for them against the “crusaders of Oil”,” said Rudy Supardi, 22 and unemployed in Jakarta.

The tolerance of the US towards Israel considered, as an aggressor against Palestinians in the occupied territories is also cause for the anger and concern of what is happening in the Middle East.

The Muslims in Indonesia has not forgotten the war against Afghanistan and the death toll in that country, the 1991 war against Iraq and the civilian casualties as well as the current relentless bombing of the Iraq and the killing of civilians are not elements that will bring the Muslims to be at peace with the US and its allies, IslamOnline was told by a University Lecturer in Jakarta.

In the crowd on Sunday, Muslim men and women accompanied by their children marched in the hot sun to shout their anger at the US and Britain as well as the UN for not doing enough to stop the war in Iraq.

Many of the people said they were not pro-Saddam Hussein but the stiff resistance the Iraqi people have demonstrated against the invading forces made Hussein a hero for the day.

Some even carried the picture of Saddam Hussein while more moderate ones said they condemned both George Bush the US president and the Iraqi president for the current conflict.

Meanwhile, Liberal Islamic Network (JIL) coordinator Ulil Abshar Abdalla criticized the Front Popular Islamic (FPI) and East Java Banser, describing their efforts as "unrealistic".

"It would be ridiculous to join the fight there (in Iraq). It would be better to concentrate more on sending humanitarian assistance to the Iraqis," he said in Semarang according to the Jakarta Post on Monday.

"This is not a religious war, there is reason to call for a jihad in Iraq. We have seen the non-Muslim community around the globe also oppose this war," he said.