THE belief began to take hold in a living room in a corner of Jalan Menteng Raya, Jakarta. The five boys were deeply impressed by the exhortation of their father, the late Ahmad Kandai, an activist of the Islamic State of Indonesia (NII) to choose either the road to heaven or the one to hell. The road they chose in unison was that of a life of struggle for the sake of the religion.

As it appeared, that belief later brought them close to detention