Australia: Who are the Jihad Sheilas?

A story from News.com.au, formerly in The Australian, describes how two Muslim women have been complaining about their representation on Australia's national TV station ABC. They claim that last year, an ABC documentary crew approached them about appearing on a show, discussing their conversions to Islam.

The women are Rabiah Hutchinson and Raisah bint Alan Douglas.

They claim that they were told the footage would be used in the documentary strand Australian Story. Instead, they became the unwilling "stars" of a one-off documentary entitled "Jihad Sheilas". They sent a letter of complaint to ABC headquarters in Sydney, NSW.

This documentary aired Tuesday at 8.30 pm Australian time, though Rabiah Hutchinson has claimed that as a result of the documentary (or its advance publicity) she has been verbally abused.

In the documentary, she stated: "I would defend Islam with my life, so that makes me a filthy, dirty, subhuman terrorist." She was asked if she would die for her faith. She answered: "Of course. The same as if you asked me, would I die defending my children. Does that mean I'm going to go and lob grenades out of the bus in Lakemba? No, it doesn't. But you have just asked me a question that could very well have me put away for a long time."

Raisah bint Alan Douglas said on the documentary talking about the burkas she wears: "We hear a lot, "They're oppressed those poor darlings? Are you hot in there?" Well I say look, it's hotter in hell, so you know what, I'd rather wear this now and if I am a bit hot, it's hotter in hell. So I'll just do what God told me to do."

She also praised Osama bin Laden, as he followed the "correct" and "undiluted" version of Islam. She said: "It's not a bad thing for Islam, what Osama bin Laden has said. I believe that he has woken a lot of Muslims up to the oppression they were under but didn't realise it."

Shortly before US forces swarmed into Afghanistan in late 2001, Rabiah Hutchinson was in the country, staying at a village. She had left by the time the US military arrived. She has also had close links with Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the terrorist group that carried out the Bali bombings of October 12, 2002. A total of 202 people, mainly tourists had been killed in the suicide blasts, with 88 Australians among the dead.

She had stayed at the pesantren called the Al-Mukmin, based at Ngruki, Soya in East Java. This had been founded more than 30 years ago by Abdullah Sungkar, a founder of Jemaah Islamiyah, and Abu Bakar Bashir, who is still the "spiritual leader" of JI. Both individuals had founded JI around 1995. Sungkar died of natural causes in November 1999. A downloadable pdf document from the International Crisis Group from 2002 has revealing background information on Jemaah Islamiyah.

On the "Jihad Sheilas" documentary, Hutchinson was asked about whether she felt any sympathy for the victims of the 2002 Bali bombings. Her answer has generated controversy in the Australian press. She said: "Do I feel for the people that died? Not as much as I feel for those 200 Afghani people that gave me and my children shelter. Why? Because they weren't holidaying in someone's country, you know, sometimes engaging in child pornography or paedophiiia or drug taking."

To suggest that the victims of the Bali blasts engaged in paedophilia and child pornography naturally has caused resentment in Australia, which lost 88 citizens in the attacks. To complain that she and Douglas were duped into making the program is a distraction from the gravity of the words she uttered. If she was verbally abused, it