The case began when Henock Niki played spiritual songs at high volume while Ja'far gave a lecture after the Fajr prayer.
[5] Thalib studied the teachings of the Salafi sect from Jamilurrahman al-Salafi al-Afghani in Kunar province, near the Pakistan border around 1990.
[6] Jafar returned to Indonesia around 1989 and then taught at Al-Irshad Al-Islamiya boarding school in Salatiga run by Osman Yusuf Ba'isa before left for Yemen.
Upon his return from Yemen in 1993 with the help of a few Salafi followers, he then set up a boarding school called Ihya Sunnah ("Preserving The Prophet's Tradition") in Degolan village in Sleman, Yogyakarta on the Waqf land endowed by a nephew of some military official at the time.
Specifically, its purpose was to denounce the campaign of a female presidential candidate, because according to their interpretation sharia law strictly forbids women from having any authority.
Jafar Umar Thalib disagreed with the board's decision as he was still in litigation with the East Jakarta District court where he was indicted for acts of treason, inciting, and insulting Indonesian President at that time, Megawati Sukarnoputri.
Jafar obliged to announce the dissolution of Laskar Jihad when reporters asked for confirmation moments after the first Bali bombing on October 16, 2002.
According to the judge panel, there was no proof that Jafar had insulted or defamed Megawati Sukarnoputri, inciting the masses, and for his call for hostility in his speeches at al-Fatah Mosque in Ambon,[11] 26 April 2002.
At the launch of a book entitled Mereka Bukan Thagut (They're Not Cause of Evil), Jafar affirmed his stance that he is a genuine Wahabist.
[12] 28 days after his release, Ja'far Umar Thalib admitted to the Harapan Kita National Heart Center Hospital, Jakarta due to cardiovascular issue.
[15] And even this student of Ja'far Umar Thalib won an award from the Indonesia-World Achievement Institute in the field of sports, namely as the Creator of Street Martial Arts with the First Independent Legal Entity in Indonesia.