Page 15, a one-horse town called Wollar: Author visit to Wollar, February 2008.
Page 15, a baby sister named Susan: I have changed the name of Robyn’s sister at her request.
Page 16, ended up with shit all over him: Anecdote related by Stephen Gay.
Page 18, a guest of the Royal Far West Children’s Health Scheme: General information provided by the Royal Far West Children’s Health Scheme and Services for the Aged. They have no record of Robyn’s stay, as records from that era have not been retained.
Page 21, a pale-blue weatherboard bungalow: Author visit to Mudgee, February 2008.
Page 25, ‘I do remember her bailing me up’: Interview with Annmarie Hanchard, Mudgee, February 2008.
2 Wild Child
Page 27, house propped like an eyrie: Author visit, March 2008.
Page 28, British model Jean Shrimpton: ‘The Shrimp shocked them’, Sun News-Pictorial, 1 November 1965, Melbourne, p. 1.
Page 28, a corps of neatly frocked middle-class mothers: Photograph of mothers in the SOS movement demonstrating outside the front steps of Brisbane City Hall in the 1960s, Fryer Library Online Exhibition, University of Queensland,
Page 28, Harbord Diggers Memorial Club: Information from Harbord Diggers Memorial Club, Sydney, courtesy Jennifer Hamilton.
Page 28, ‘Modern Go Go Dancing for Teenagers’, etc: Harbord Diggers Memorial Club newsletters from the 1960s.
Pages 29–30, Her brother George and baby of the family, Susan: Robyn’s brother and sister would not be interviewed so I am reliant on her recollections.
Page 32, historic Hydro Majestic hotel: Author interview with Roderick Hutchinson, Sydney, 14 May 2008.
Page 32, Freshwater Beach:
Page 32, legendary Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku: ‘Duke Kahanamoku and the Dawn of Australian Surfing at the “Boomerang Camp”, Freshwater Beach, Sydney, in the Southern Summer of 1915’, web publication by Mountain Man Graphics, Australia,
Page 33, Manly Girls High: Information provided by Freshwater Senior Campus (formerly Manly Girls High), Harbord; and old school magazines, courtesy Di Marik, deputy principal.
Page 33, ‘She was an unreal girl’: Author interviews with Deborah Jensen, June 2008 and 18 November 2008.
Page 37, ‘She was great, she was a really nice person’: Author interview with Ian Goodacre, March 2008.
Page 37, a neat Edwardian bungalow: Author visit, March 2008.
Page 37, ‘They treated her like their own daughter’: Anonymous interview, March 2008.
Page 38, her grandfather, Archibald Roy McCallum, died: NSW Death Registration Transcription, transcribed by Marilyn Rowan, 14 May 2008; and information at Mudgee cemetery.
Page 39, ‘She smoked dope’: Author interview with Steve Warnock, Sydney, April 2008.
Page 40, ‘Their relationship was distant’: Roderick Hutchinson.
Page 43, A friend remembers: Anonymous interview.
Page 44, ‘She was quite a character’: Author interview with Lynn Collins, April 2008.
3 God Is Great
Page 47, Bali was still largely untouched: Tony Wheeler, South-East Asia on a Shoestring, 1st edn, Lonely Planet, Melbourne, 1975.
Page 52, a job with Intensive English Course (IEC):
Page 52, It was seven years after General Suharto: Adam Schwartz, A Nation in Waiting, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1999, p. 37.
Page 53, ‘I just saw a bule’: Author interview with Malik Sjafei, Jakarta, 7 July 2008.
Page 54, ‘She had a good heart’: Author interview with Liliek Soemarlono, Sydney, 13 June 2008.
Page 54, ‘It was felt that the gang needed an identity’: Article on Prambors website,
Page 55, held in his mansion in Jalan Borobodur: Author visit to Jakarta, July 2008.
Page 59, a famous Muslim intellectual known as Buya Hamka: Information from Dr Greg Fealy, College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra.
Page 60, Raden Bambang Wisudo: In the Javanese alphabet there is no distinction between ‘a’ and ‘o’, so Bambang’s name can be rendered as either ‘Wisuda’ or ‘Wisudo’. Rabiah says that in Indonesia his family used ‘Wisuda’, but Australian records show it as ‘Wisudo’.
Page 60, aristocratic priyayi class: Peter Burns, The Leiden Legacy: Concepts of Law in Indonesia, KITLV Press, Leiden, Netherlands, 2004.
Page 60, the title raden ayu: Rochayah Machali and Ida Nurhayatai, ‘Challenging Tradition: the Indonesian Novel Saman’, University of New South Wales, GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies, published by the School of Language Studies and Linguistics, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia,
Page 62, had to formally convert to Islam: Certificate issued by Department of Religion, Ubud, Indonesia, 1 February 1974. Sighted by author.
Page 68, new organisation called Islam Jamaah: ‘Exclusivity is not our doctrine: LDII’, Jakarta Post, 29 October 2005; additional information from Greg Fealy.
Page 68, Student protests demanding price cuts: Schwartz.
4 A Javanese Wife
Page 71, the term tante girang: Advice on this and other Indonesian terminology courtesy Indonesia analyst and terrorism consultant Ken Ward.
Page 73, They called her Devi: As I have reported here the girl’s given name was Devi Suni Wisudo Putri. However, the family called her not ‘Devi’ but another variant on her given name. I have used ‘Devi’ for the purpose of disguising her name in order to protect her privacy, because I have not been able to contact her to obtain her authorisation.
Page 74, last vestiges of the White Australia Policy: Department of Immigration and Citizenship, Abolition of the ‘White Australia’ Policy, Fact sheet 8, Australian Government,
Page 75, ‘They didn’t get on’: Author interview with Roderick Hutchinson, Sydney, 14 May 2008.
Page 76, ‘She was certainly different’: Author interview with Steve Warnock, Sydney, April 2008.
Page 76, Australia had fallen on troubled times: 1975 Cabinet Records, Selected documents—The Economy, National Archives of Australia,
Page 77, ‘Boy was a sweet guy’: Author interviews with Deborah Jensen, June 2008 and 18 November 2008.
Page 78, On 23 July 1976: Information on the drug bust is from Steve Warnock, ‘Drug Family May Lose Baby’, Sunday Mirror, 1 August 1976.
Page 80, a letter arrived from the immigration department: Immigration department records on this were not made available, so I am reliant on Rabiah’s account.
Page 81, expansive residential compound for customs department officials: Author visit to customs compound at Pondok Bambu, Jakarta, July 2008.
Page 90, They gave him the names: At his request, I have not used the first given name of Rabiah’s eldest son. The name Mohammed— which is the basis for Rabiah’s kuniya ‘Umm Mohammed’, meaning ‘the mother of Mohammed’—was given to him a few years later. At the time of his birth he was given a Hindu name, to which he has since reverted.
Page 91, ‘She went through a really, really bad time’: Deborah Jensen.
Page 92, Three months later she sent enough money: I was unable to contact Rabiah’s benefactor so I am reliant on her account, which is corroborated in part by Deborah Jensen.
5 The Death of Robyn
Page 94, ‘She was just relieved to be back’: Author interviews with Deborah Jensen, June 2008 and 18 November 2008.
Page 96, tipped a beer over her head: Deborah Jensen.
Page 98, Silma Buckley: Linda Morris, ‘Islamic Pioneer Still Battles for Land, Twenty Years on’, Sydney Morning Herald, 24 June 2003; ‘“Justice for All”
the Principal Lesson’, Manly Daily, 26 August 2006; Silma Buckley, ‘About me’,
Page 99, ‘I remember when she came in’: Author interview with Silma Ihram, 23 May 2008.
Page 101, ascetic named Rabiah al Adawiyah: Encyclopaedia Britannica; ‘Sufism and its Influence on Europe’, a lecture by Dr Anne-Marie Schimmel, delivered at Stanford University, 4 May 1997,
Page 101, ‘One night Rabiah al Adawiyah’ and ‘Man, do not put yourself’: From ‘World of Tasawwuf’, Sufi anecdotes and stories,
6 Becoming Rabiah
Page 106, an American convert named Rahmah McCormack: From Susan Molloy, ‘Two Women Converts Explain Islam’s “Simplistic” Appeal’, Sydney Morning Herald, 8 November 1980, p. 4.
Page 106, ‘It was not intellectually satisfying’: Molloy.
Page 107, built in the mid 1970s with a gift of $300 000: Author interview with Sheikh Khalil Chami, Lakemba, May 2008.
Page 109, Mohammed John Webster: ‘The Priest and the Prodigal’, Australian Story, ABC TV, 27 May 1999; Tony Stephens, ‘Anarchistic Demagogue Has the Last Word’, obituary, Sydney Morning Herald, 17 December 2008.
Page 109, Jemaah Tabligh: Mitsuo Nakamura, Sharon Siddique and Omar Farouk Bajunid (eds), Islam and Civil Society in Southeast Asia, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 2001; Syed Serajul Islam, The Politics of Islamic Identity in Southeast Asia, Thomson Learning, Singapore, 2004.
Page 110, ‘She was very motivated’: Author interview with Siddiq Buckley, Sydney, May 2008.
Page 111, Rabiah was pictured wearing: photograph with caption ‘Islam in Dulwich Hill’, Sydney Morning Herald, 8 November 1980, p. 1.
Page 111, Khadija: W Montgomery Watt, Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman, Oxford University Press, London, 1961; Maxime Rodinson, Muhammad: Prophet of Islam, Tauris Parke Paperbacks, London, 2002.
Page 112, women’s equality in religious matters: For more on the role of women in Islam, see Sayyid Qutb, Social Justice in Islam, Maktabat Misr, Cairo, 1953, pp. 73–9.
Page 112, For the women of seventh-century Arabia: Geraldine Brooks, Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women, Penguin, London, 2007, p. 186.
Page 112, rights that were well ahead: Brooks.
Page 114, ‘I picked up the newspaper’: Author interviews with Deborah Jensen, June 2008 and 18 November 2008.
Page 119, to teach Muslim scripture: Sheikh Khalil Chami.
Page 124, banned by the Shah of Iran’s father: Brooks.
Page 124, matched dollar for dollar: Burke.
Page 125, an Afghan doctor named Abdul Aziz: Sheikh Khalil Chami.
Page 126, She travelled to Canberra: Amin Hady recalls assisting Rabiah with ‘family matters’ but has no specific recollection of this occasion.
7 An Enemy of Suharto
Page 129, After obliterating the Communist Party: Adam Schwartz, A Nation in Waiting, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1999.
Page 129, Indonesians turned to their mosques: Edward Aspinall, Opposing Suharto: Compromise, Resistance and Regime Change in Indonesia, Stanford University Press, 2005; Martin van Bruinessen, ‘Genealogies of Islamic Radicalism in post-Suharto Indonesia’, South East Asia Research, vol. 10, no. 2, IP Publishing, 2002. Additional information provided by Greg Fealy, Sidney Jones and Ken Ward.
Page 134, ‘She was beautiful’: Author interview with Pujo Busono, Solo, Indonesia, July 2008.
Page 135, part of a clandestine student movement: Quinton Temby, ‘Imagining the Islamic State in Indonesia’, Bachelor of Asian Studies thesis, Australian National University, 2007; Human Rights Watch, ‘Academic Freedom in Indonesia: Dismantling Soeharto Era Barriers’, 1998; Noorhaidi Hasan, ‘The Expansion of “Salafis” and the Zeal of Islamic Resurgence’, in Laskar Jihad: Islam, Militancy and the Quest for Identity in Post–New Order Indonesia, SEAP Publications, Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 2006; van Bruinessen, Schwartz.
Page 135, ‘personal morality, piety and discipline’: van Bruinessen.
Page 136, the new movement used a cell structure: Amnesty International, ‘The Imprisonment of Usroh Activists in Central Java’, October 1988.
Page 136, Irfan Awwas: Amnesty International, ‘Indonesia—the Imprisonment of Irfan Suryahardy’, July 1986; Sidney Jones, ‘Al-Qaeda in Southeast Asia: The Case of the “Ngruki Network” in Indonesia’, International Crisis Group, August 2002; Sidney Jones, ‘Indonesia Backgrounder: How the Jemaah Islamiyah Terrorist Network Operates’, International Crisis Group, December 2002.
Page 137, ‘Rabiah was very famous’: Author interview with Irfan Awwas, Jogjakarta, Indonesia, July 2008.
Page 137, Abu Jibril: Jones, ‘Al-Qaeda in Southeast Asia’; Jones, ‘Indonesia Backgrounder’.
Page 137, featured in a JI recruitment video: Video obtained by author in Indonesia in 2002.
Page 137, ‘We were quite close’: Interview with Abu Jibril conducted for the author by Faried Saenong, Jakarta, July 2008.
Page 139, when she was travelling on a train: Story recounted to author by Shabharin Syakur at MMI office, Jogjakarta, July 2008, and confirmed by Abu Jibril.
Page 140, Darul Islam: David J Kilcullen, ‘The Political Consequences of Military Operations in Indonesia 1945–99’, PhD thesis, University of New South Wales, 2000; Greg Fealy, ‘Darul Islam and Jemaah Islamiyah: An Historical and Ideological Comparison’, The College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, 2004; Jones, ‘Al-Qaeda in Southeast Asia’; Sidney Jones, ‘Recycling Militants in Indonesia: Darul Islam and the Australian Embassy Bombing’, International Crisis Group, February 2005.
Page 141, covertly supported by the Indonesian intelligence: Jones, ‘Recycling Militants’.
Page 141, Abdullah Sungkar and Abu Bakar Ba’asyir: Sally Neighbour, In the Shadow of Swords, Harper Collins, Sydney, 2004. Primary sources relied on: Abu Bakar Ba’asyir, statement to Indonesian police, January 2003, obtained by the author in Indonesia; Abdullah Sungkar and Abu Bakar Ba’asyir, ‘The Latest Indonesian Crisis: Causes and Solutions’, Nida’ul Islam, July–August 1998; Abu Bakar Ba’asyir, ‘Indonesia, Democracy, Priests, Parliament and Self-made Gods’, Nida’ul Islam, October–November 1996; Abu Bakar Ba’asyir, ‘System for the Caderisation of Mujahidin in Creating an Islamic Society’, address delivered at the first Indonesian Mujahidin Congress, 5–7 August, Yogyakarta, 2000, trans. Tim Behrend.
Page 141, a full-scale crackdown: Temby.
Page 141, ‘The charges were standard fare’: Jones, ‘Al-Qaeda in Southeast Asia’.
Page 141, Sungkar made an impassioned oration: Temby.
Page 142, The pair had begun regrouping their followers: Temby; Amnesty International, ‘The Imprisonment’.
Page 142, There was no shortage of eager suitors: Pujo Busono.
Page 147, Ibnu Thoyib: Jones, ‘Al-Qaeda in Southeast Asia’, ‘Indonesia Backgrounder’ and ‘Recycling Militants’.
8 True Believers
Page 148, On the outskirts of Solo: Descriptions are from author visits to Ngruki in 2003 and 2008.
Page 149, ‘Why have you got chairs?’: The chair story is recounted by both Rabiah and her former husband Pujo. He says he witnessed her exchange with Ba’asyir. However, Rabiah says he was not there, that she travelled to Solo with two female friends, escorted by Abu Jibril, in which case she must have told Pujo about it afterwards.
Page 150, ‘She was really enthusiastic’: Author interview with Ecun at the Ngruki school, Solo, July 2008. (I was unable to obtain an interview with Abu Bakar Ba’asyir.)
Page 150, ‘She was unemployed’: Author interview with Wahyuddin at Ngruki school, July 2008.
Page 151, Ecun, found her new friend a house: Ecun.
Page 151, community of 1000 to 1500 peop
le: Wahyuddin.
Page 151, ‘The jihad atmosphere’: Alan Sipress and Ellen Nakashima, ‘A Quiet Voice Echoes Among Islamic Radicals’, Washington Post, 3 January 2003.
Page 158, The practice of swearing bai’at: Amnesty International, ‘The Imprisonment of Usroh Activists in Central Java’, October 1988.
Page 159, Pujo remained a committed activist: Author interview with Pujo Busono, Solo, Indonesia, July 2008.
Page 161, Rabiah was ‘very strong and very strict’: Author interview with Sri Murtiah at Ngruki, July 2008.
Page 164, analysis of Ba’asyir’s manuals: Amnesty International, ‘The Imprisonment’.
Page 165, rumblings of disaffection: Quinton Temby, Imagining the Islamic State in Indonesia, Bachelor of Asian Studies thesis, Australian National University, 2007; Sidney Jones, ‘Recycling Militants in Indonesia: Darul Islam and the Australian Embassy Bombing’, International Crisis Group, February 2005.
Page 165, Abdul Rahim bin Ayub: His correct name is Abdul Rahim bin (meaning ‘the son of’) Ayub; however, in the Australian usage it is commonly rendered as simply Abdul Rahim Ayub.
Page 166, Arifin remembers Rabiah: interview with Zainal Arifin, Sydney, May 2003.
Page 166, Activists including the son: Temby.
Page 166, Irfan Awwas was raided: Amnesty International, ‘Indonesia— The Imprisonment of Irfan Suryahardy’, July 1986.
Page 167, ‘The Indonesian government has regularly accused’: Amnesty International, ‘Indonesia—The Imprisonment’.
Page 168, The flagpole … remained conspicuously bare: The story of Rabiah’s refusal to fly the Indonesian flag is also recounted by Ba’asyir’s wife, Ecun.
Page 170, port district of Tanjung Priok: Amnesty International, ‘Indonesia: Arrests of Muslim Activists Relating to the Tanjung Priok Incident of 12 September 1984’, July 1985.
Page 170, ‘Listen, brothers!’: Amnesty International, ‘Indonesia: Arrests’.
Page 171, ‘prisoners of conscience’: Amnesty International, ‘The Imprisonment’.
The Mother of Mohammed Page 37