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Southeast Asia
Too good to be true? Unpacking Jemaah Islamiyah’s self-declared disbanding
2024-09-08
2024.07.10
[BenarNews] At an event organized last month by the Indonesian counter-terrorism agency (BNPT), Abu Rusydan and 15 other leaders of Jemaah Islamiyah announced their group’s dissolution.

JI, the Southeast Asian affiliate of al-Qaeda, had carried out a string of devastating attacks in the 2000s, including Indonesia’s deadliest-ever terror attack — the 2002 Bali bombings. But now it was "ready to actively contribute to Indonesia’s progress and dignity," Abu Rusydan declared as he read from a prepared statement during the event on June 30.

This is not the first time that a bully boy group has disbanded itself. The Provisional Irish Republican Army unilaterally broke up in 2005, throwing itself solely into legal activities through its political arm, Sinn Féin. In 2018, the Basque separatist organization ETA also unilaterally disbanded.

But Jemaah Islamiyah’s announcement surprised many people, and left others feeling skeptical.

There are three interrelated questions that need to be asked about the move by JI: How did we get here? Is this for real? And what does this mean for regional security?

HOW DID WE GET HERE?
Jemaah Islamiyah, which has its roots in the Darul Islam movement, was founded in Malaysia in 1993, when its two founders, Abdullah Sungkar and Abu Bakar Bashir
... Leader of the Indonesian Mujahedeen Council and proprietor of the al-Mukmin madrassah in Ngruki. The spriritual head of Jemaah Islamiya, which he denies exists. Bashir was jugged and then released in the wake of the 2002 Bali bombings, which he blamed on a conspiracy among the U.S., Israel, and Australia. In 2014, as leader of Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), he pledged allegiance to ISIS. Currently in jug...
, were on the run from Suharto’s New Order government in Indonesia.

While in Malaysia, they served as a way-station for several hundred gunnies who traveled to Pakistain to join the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan, putting them in direct contact with al-Qaeda.

In 1996, a charter (the PUPJI) created the group’s organizational structure and codified JI’s Salafi ideology. At the time, the group also reached an agreement with the Philippine armed separatist organization, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, to allow al-Qaeda to establish training camps in the southern Philippines.

In Indonesia, JI perpetrated terrorist attacks on Christian churches and established two paramilitary organizations to wage sectarian conflict in the Maluku Islands and Central Sulawesi province.

Following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001, the al-Qaeda leadership called for diversionary attacks. One of these was the twin Bali bombings that killed 202 people a year later.

Between 2002 and 2007, JI perpetrated a major attack almost every year. But each attack left the organization weaker as counterterrorism forces became more adept and better resourced.

This led to an ideological split in the organization between proponents of the line of targeting the "far enemy," versus those who wanted to foment sectarian conflict in order to rebuild their depleted ranks.

The government legally banned JI in 2008, but allowed it to operate as an entity as long as it refrained from violence.

In 2010, more than 100 JI members were swept up, including Abu Bakar Bashir, breaking the organization’s back. JI’s last terrorist act took place that year.

Yet, from 2020-2023, Indonesian counter-terrorism efforts were as focused on JI as it was on the pro-Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
 umbrella group, Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD). Security forces originally saw JI as an off-ramp for the more radical JAD, but attitudes hardened.

In 2019, when counterterrorism police arrested JI’s emir, Para Wijayanto, they were shocked by the group’s size and national reach. Its madrassas and charitable arms had grown, while its corporations and publishing arms had created a steady revenue stream. As many JI members were arrested in 2021 and 2022 as JAD suspects.

Indonesian counter-terrorism forces have applied a softer approach. Though seemingly campy, they’ve held mass rallies where former gunnies pledge allegiance to the republic.

Former gunnies have established madrassas for the children of incarcerated bully boys, so they are not raised in JI or JAD-run schools, breaking terrorist social networks.

They’ve gotten leaders, including the JAD Emir Aman Abdurrahman, who is on death row, and Umar Patek, to publicly renounce violence.

Meanwhile the conflict in Poso, which served as a rallying point for all bully boy groups in Indonesia, has been stamped out.

Internationally, there has been more cooperation amongst the regional security services. And while ungoverned space and institutional weakness remains in the southern Philippines, bully boy groups are no longer attracting JI and other foreign bully boys.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front continues to implement the grinding of the peace processor and build up institutions that will help the autonomous Moslem region transition to self-governance. There has been an unprecedented sustained attack on the Abu Sayyaf
...also known as al-Harakat al-Islamiyya, an Islamist terror group based in Jolo, Basilan and Zamboanga. Since its inception in the early 1990s, the group has carried out bombings, kidnappings, murders, head choppings, and extortion in their uniquely Islamic attempt to set up an independent Moslem province in the Philippines. Abu Sayyaf forces probably number less than 300 cadres. The group is closely allied with remnants of Indonesia's Jemaah Islamiya and has loose ties with MILF and MNLF who sometimes provide cannon fodder...
, which is now fighting for survival.

IS THIS FOR REAL?
While JI has not been in a position to engage in terrorism, until now, it has never renounced violence. Many in the organization were simply waiting for the right circumstance to resume operations.

It’s easy to be cynical about the group’s prepared statement, especially at an event stage-managed by the BNPT. Some of those who were on hand had been arrested and gone through government disengagement programs.

To young radicals, they’re sell-outs, and past their prime. The average age of the men who renounced violence was in the late 50s or older.

To what degree will younger members follow the leadership and pursue a legal-political alternative?

In many ways, this is more promising. JI’s campaign of militancy failed to bring about the establishment of an Islamic State governed by Sharia. Democratic politics have advanced their political agenda more effectively.

It’s not that Islamist parties do terribly well at the national level. Indeed, in Indonesia’s 2024 general election, they collectively represented about 20% of the electorate and won 101 of 580 seats. But they are important members of political coalitions, which tend to give them a disproportionate voice.

It’s at the local level where we see faith-based parties make their mark, especially in the passage of public policy and Sharia compliant codes, which the majority of provinces and districts now have.

Islamist parties are riddled with rivalries and have never formed a cohesive bloc.

Perhaps for that reason, JI saw an opening for a tactical shift. In May 2021, JI established the Indonesian People’s Dakwah Party (PDRI). Yet, counter-terrorism forces arrested its founder, Farid Ahmad Okbah, that November for being a senior member of JI. Two others were arrested.

The PDRI did not contest the 2024 elections. But it seems likely that with JI’s dissolution, the government will give former members more political space.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR REGIONAL SECURITY?
JI’s manpower and locus were largely-Indonesian based, but it remains a Southeast Asian organization.

Some affiliates gravitated elsewhere. Darul Islam Sabah, for example, went from facilitating JI and the movement of foreign gunnies in and out of the southern Philippines to working with the JAD and other groups.

There has always been more fluidity between Southeast Asian bully boy groups than those in the Middle East or South Asia. Abu Bakar Bashir defected from being pro-al Qaeda to being pro-Islamic State, with large numbers of acolytes, without consequence.

As such, many younger gunnies who are committed to using violence to achieve their political aims are likely to defect to other groups.

What those groups may be, though, is unclear. The JAD is decimated and leaderless, though to be fair, it was always far more horizontally structured. It has not executed a major terrorist attack since 2019.

At present there is no apparent charismatic leader for bully boy Salafists
...Salafists are ostentatiously devout Moslems who figure the ostentation of their piety gives them the right to tell others how to do it and to kill those who don't listen to them...
 to coalesce around. And while one would expect external events, such as the war in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
, to serve as a catalyst, to date it has not.

JI still runs a network of madrassas, including some very large ones like al-Mukmin and Pesantren Hidayatullah in Balikpapan. These continue to be ideological incubators and hate factories.

It’s hard to see state educational personnel intervene and change their curriculum. But Indonesian security forces have not let up, despite the decline in organizational strength or the tempo of operations.

Terrorism will be a persistent but manageable threat in Indonesia. JI’s dissolution makes it more so, providing a legal-political alternative that is more moral, but also proven to be more effective.

Zachary Abuza is a professor at the National War College in Washington and an adjunct at Georgetown University. The views expressed here are his own and do not reflect the position of the U.S. Department of Defense, the National War College, Georgetown University or BenarNews.
Related:
Jemaah Islamiyah: 2024-01-28 Philippine govt soldiers kill 8 suspected Islamic State-linked militants in Mindanao firefight
Jemaah Islamiyah: 2024-01-28 Malaysian defendants in Bali bombings to serve about 5 more years
Jemaah Islamiyah: 2024-01-07 Experts: Extremist groups spread disinformation online to provoke conflict during Indonesian election
Link


Southeast Asia
Jemaah Islamiyah big turban Zulkarnaen on trial
2021-10-16
[BenarNews] People convicted of the 2002 Bali bombings testified in the trial of Aris Sumarsono, who is better known as Zulkarnaen and is the former military leader of the outlawed murderous Moslem group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).

Zulkarnaen, 58, who had been on the run for about 18 years when he was arrested last year, is charged with a criminal conspiracy for allegedly harboring Upik Lawanga. Police said Upik, who was also arrested last year, was a top JI bomb-maker.

Indonesian authorities blamed JI for a series of deadly attacks in Indonesia in the early 2000s, including the October 2002 bombings at nightclubs in Bali, which killed 202 people in Indonesia’s most fatal terror attack.

The outlawed JI is the Southeast Asian affiliate of al-Qaeda, but it has not staged a major attack here since 2011.

Zulkarnaen is not charged with involvement in the Bali bombings, even though witnesses said he was the group’s military leader at that time.

In a virtual hearing, the witnesses told the court that Zulkarnaen formed and recruited members for a JI special team to prepare attacks. But they said they never met or took orders from Zulkarnaen before the Bali attack.

"Regarding the Bali bombing, [Zulkarnaen] has nothing to do with it, but long before the Bali bombing, he had been our leader," said Sarjio, who is serving a life sentence for helping assemble the bombs used in the attack.

Another witness, Suranto, said Zulkarnaen had never provided any directions regarding the Bali bombings. Suranto said he joined the special team set up by Zulkarnaen.

"I have known him since we joined military training in Pakistain. Other members have known the defendant since he was in Pakistain and Afghanistan," Suranto testified.

Muhammad Adhe Bhakti, a researcher at the Center for Radicalism and De-radicalization Studies (PAKAR), said terror groups created cells whose members often do not know each other.

"It is possible that the witnesses of the Bali bombing did not know who played what role in the attack, including what role Zulkarnaen played," Adhe told BenarNews.

According to the indictment, Zulkarnaen helped write JI’s guidebook. During his escape, other JI members helped Zulkarnaen and provided him with cash because he was considered a valuable asset and had military expertise, it said.

On Tuesday, a top counter-terrorism official said that police remained vigilant against threats posed by JI.

Police have arrested 876 members of the group since the 2002 Bali bombings, according to M.D. Shodiq, a director at Densus 88.

But the number of JI members and sympathizers is estimated to be 10 times as many, with 67 JI-affiliated religious schools suspected to be breeding grounds for murderous Moslems, he warned.

In 2020, JI’s overall leader, Para Wijayanto, was sentenced to seven years in prison. The group’s radical spiritual leader, Abu Bakar Bashir
... Leader of the Indonesian Mujahedeen Council and proprietor of the al-Mukmin madrassah in Ngruki. The spriritual head of Jemaah Islamiya, which he denies exists. Bashir was jugged and then released in the wake of the 2002 Bali bombings, which he blamed on a conspiracy among the U.S., Israel, and Australia. In 2014, as leader of Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), he pledged allegiance to ISIS....
, 83, was released from prison in January after serving nearly a decade of a 15-year-sentence on terror-related charges.
Related:
Aris Sumarsono: 2021-03-28 Indonesia: Explosion at church causes casualties Update: 20 maimed, 2 jacket wallahs toes up
Aris Sumarsono: 2020-12-15 Indonesia: Densus 88 Captures Suspected Jemaah Islamiyah Commander
Aris Sumarsono: 2016-01-31 Experts question incentives in Rewards for Justice program
Link


Southeast Asia
Indonesia: Radical Cleric Rejects Violence, Denies Role in Bali Bombings
2021-02-20
Wudn’t me.”
[BenarNews] Cleric Abu Bakar Bashir
... Leader of the Indonesian Mujahedeen Council and proprietor of the al-Mukmin madrassah in Ngruki. The spriritual head of Jemaah Islamiya, which he denies exists. Bashir was jugged and then released in the wake of the 2002 Bali bombings, which he blamed on a conspiracy among the U.S., Israel, and Australia. In 2014, as leader of Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), he pledged allegiance to ISIS....
 on Thursday denied that he knew about the 2002 Bali bombings ahead of time and said he opposed violence in Islam’s name, as counterterrorism officials visited him as part of their monitoring of former terrorist inmates.

The elderly Bashir spoke to officials from the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) as they dropped by at his home in Sukoharjo, Central Java, for the first time since his release last month after serving a decade in prison on terror-related charges. His lawyer, Achmad Michdan, said Bashir told the officials he had never supported acts of violence in the name of religion.
Link


Southeast Asia
Indonesia to Free Radical Cleric Abu Bakar Bashir from Prison
2021-01-30
January 4, 2021
[BenarNews] Abu Bakar Bashir
... Leader of the Indonesian Mujahedeen Council and proprietor of the al-Mukmin madrassah in Ngruki. The spriritual head of Jemaah Islamiya, which he denies exists. Bashir was jugged and then released in the wake of the 2002 Bali bombings, which he blamed on a conspiracy among the U.S., Israel, and Australia. In 2014, as leader of Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), he pledged allegiance to ISIS....
, the radical Moslem holy man who co-founded a holy warrior group blamed for Indonesia’s deadliest terrorist attack, will be released from prison on Jan. 8 after his 15-year sentence was cut for good behavior, officials announced Monday.
Link


Southeast Asia
Indonesia links church attacks to local ISIL-inspired group
2018-05-14
[Al Jazeera] At least 13 people were killed and more than 40 maimed in separate suicide kabooms by one family on three churches in Indonesia's second-largest city.

Police said the bombings were carried out by six family members, including two young children, on Sunday in Surabaya, about 800km west of Indonesia's capital, Jakarta. The blasts occurred minutes apart as worshippers headed into the churches for services.

"The father and one of the sons did the attack on the first church, the mother with two young children under the age of 10 committed the second attack. Two younger boys around the age of 16 committed the third attack," Al Jazeera's Step Vaessen, reporting from Surabaya, cited the city's police chief as saying.

"Several more bombs were found in two different churches that didn't explode."

At least seven people plus the six bombers died in the attacks in Surabaya, according to police.

The bombings were the worst to target churches in Indonesia since a series of attacks on Christmas Eve in 2000 killed 15 people and maimed nearly 100.

"This act is barbaric and beyond the limits of humanity, causing victims among members of society, the police and even innocent children," President Joko Widodo said during a visit to the scene.

A spokesperson for the country's intelligence agency said Sunday's bombings were suspected to have been carried out by an ISIS-inspired group, Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD).

Abu Bakar Bashir
... Leader of the Indonesian Mujahedeen Council and proprietor of the al-Mukmin madrassah in Ngruki. The spriritual head of Jemaah Islamiya, which he denies exists. Bashir was jugged and then released in the wake of the 2002 Bali bombings, which he blamed on a conspiracy among the U.S., Israel, and Australia ...
, JAD's leader, pledged allegiance to Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
 of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) in 2014.

The group has committed smaller attacks over the last few years, but Sunday's was the largest and most coordinated in Indonesia in the last decade.

National police chief Tito Karnavian said the father detonated a boom-mobile, two sons aged 18 and 16 used a cycle of violence for their attack, and the mother and her two daughters wore explosives. He said the family had returned to Indonesia from Syria, where until recently ISIS controlled significant territory.

The wife of one of the victims said the attack took place shortly before the Sunday service was about to start.

"They were about to celebrate mass. My husband was opening doors and welcoming people," she said.

No church services will be allowed because the authorities suspect more attacks could happen.

The bombings come days after prisoners linked to ISIS killed five members of an elite counter-terrorism force during a 36-hour standoff at a high security jail on the outskirts of the capital.

Islamic State claims deadly Indonesia church attacks

[IsraelTimes] The Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
 group was responsible for suicide kabooms against three churches in Indonesia that killed at least 11 people on Sunday, it says via its propaganda agency Amaq.

"Three martyrdom attacks killed 11 and maimed at least 41 among church guards and Christians," it says via the Telegram messaging app.

The jihadist group’s toll tallied with that of police following the seemingly coordinated attacks against three churches in the city of Surabaya at around 7:30 a.m. local time.

IS has grabbed credit for several recent attacks in Indonesia, most of them carried out by its affiliate Jamaah Ansharut Daulah.
Link


Southeast Asia
House arrest ruled out for Indonesia’s ailing radical cleric
2018-03-06
[ARABNEWS] Indonesia’s Ministry of Justice and Human Rights said holy man Abu Bakar Bashir
... Leader of the Indonesian Mujahedeen Council and proprietor of the al-Mukmin madrassah in Ngruki. The spriritual head of Jemaah Islamiya, which he denies exists. Bashir was jugged and then released in the wake of the 2002 Bali bombings, which he blamed on a conspiracy among the U.S., Israel, and Australia ...
 is ineligible for house arrest, one of the options the government said it was considering as leniency to the ailing holy man.

"House arrest is only available for a defendant who is standing trial, while he (Bashir) is no longer a defendant. He is a prisoner, convicted to serve time in prison," Ade Kusmanto, a front man for the ministry’s Directorate General of Correction, told Arab News.

Last week, Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu told journalists at the state palace that house arrest for the holy man is very likely, as the government is weighing up which form of clemency it could give to Bashir. The holy man suffers from pooling of blood on his legs, a condition which requires him to undergo regular medical check-ups.

On Mar. 1, Bashir was taken to a hospital in Jakarta for treatment which his lawyer, Achmad Michdan, said had been scheduled for Nov. 2017.

President Joko Widodo said the government gave permission for Bashir to go to the hospital on humanitarian grounds.

Kusmanto said the holy man can ask the president for clemency, given that he is in poor health and will become an octogenarian this year. Another possibility is to demand parole, for which he will be eligible in June 2019 when he will have served two-thirds of his 15-year prison sentence.

Talking to Arab News, Michdan said his client rules out both the options since applying for either one would mean that Bashir pleads guilty to the charges against him.

Bashir was convicted in 2011 for supporting paramilitary training in Aceh, and the firebrand
...firebrands are noted more for audio volume and the quantity of spittle generated than for any actual logic in their arguments...
 holy man is described as the ideological icon of Jamaah Islamia (JI), including those who carried out kabooms in Bali in 2003.

"Bashir believes he is innocent because he was merely observing his faith as a Moslem. He was collecting money to fund training and travel for those who wanted to go as mujahideen to Paleostine. He wasn’t rebelling against the country," Michdan said.

Michdan said that it should be possible for the government to "relocate the place" where Bashir serves his sentence from Gunung Sindur prison in Bogor, West Java, to his house in Solo, Central Java.

He cited examples of tossed in the calaboose
Drop the rosco, Muggsy, or you're one with the ages!
 former Jakarta governor Basuki TjaHajja Purnama, who is serving his two-year sentence for blasphemy at a special police detention instead of a correctional facility, and East Timor resistance fighter Xanana Gusmao who had been imprisoned in Jakarta when he was fighting for East Timor’s independence from Indonesia. He was then confined to a house in Central Jakarta in 1999.
Link


Southeast Asia
Indonesia tries to steer convicted militants to new lives
2016-06-30
[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] In the heart of Solo city, not far from the Islamic boarding school founded by the radical holy man who inspired the 2002 Bali bombings, the staff of an unremarkable-looking restaurant prepare for another day serving the humble staples of the Indonesian diet to hungry locals.

The manager, a slightly built man with quick lively gestures, darts about the narrow kitchen, dropping ingredients into sizzling hot pans to make the bistik and other fare that customers including the local police crave. With a wife and two children to support, he also runs a car hire business and a laundry service on the side.

One of the millions of small-time business owners that keep the world’s most populous Moslem nation ticking, 40-year-old Mahmudi Haryono is also a poster boy for the transformation of a bomb maker and Death Eater into a productive member of society.

To be sure, his extensive Death Eater history doesn’t inspire easy trust. It includes being a combatant with the rebel Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the Philippines for three years, where he honed bomb making skills, and fighting in sectarian conflicts between Moslems and Christians in Indonesia. He was nabbed
Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up!
 less than a year after the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people and convicted of hiding materials used to make the bombs.

"The fact is that I trained in the Philippines as a Jihadi fighter to defend Moslems and I did jihad only when Moslems were oppressed in conflict regions. It was part of my past," Haryono said in an interview. "Today, my priority in life is taking care of my family and business and preaching a path to help reform radical inmates."

A private foundation has worked intensively with Haryono since his release from prison in 2009, and holds him up as an example of how hardened holy warriors can be reformed. The need for such success stories is great in Indonesia, where several hundred men imprisoned for terrorism offenses have been paroled in the past several years, including 97 last years alone.

Since 2002, Indonesian authorities, with US and Australian help, have vastly improved their intelligence gathering and counterterrorism operations. The imprisonment of nearly 800 holy warriors and the killing of more than 100 in raids have weakened the groups under the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah network responsible for the Bali tragedy and dozens of other plots and attacks.

But efforts to de-radicalize holy warriors in prison have been less successful, partly because ISIS inspires them to hold to extremism. Two perpetrators of the ISIS-inspired Jan. 14 suicide kaboom in the Indonesian capital had been released from prison shortly before the attack.

"We have to admit the de-radicalization programs by the non-state groups, and the government, are not enough," said Taufik Andrie, executive director of Yayasan Prasasti Perdamaian, an institute that helps paroled holy warriors and established the restaurant where Haryono works and now owns a stake in.

Andrie estimates that 40 percent of the more than 400 holy warriors released as of December last year returned to their radical networks.

He said some of those people may want a normal life, but few Indonesians want to employ them, or even have them living in their neighborhoods. Back in their radical circles, they would be welcomed as heroes.

"When they are released, they are on their own. For them, society is a second prison because of the stigmatization," Andrie said.

In the Solo neighborhood of Ngruki, former Death Eater Joko Purwanto, who uses the alias Handzollah, said he has slowly gained acceptance from the devout Moslem community that shunned him when he was released from prison two years ago.

The village of narrow lanes and tightly packed houses is dotted with shops selling hijabs and famously is home to the fundamentalist Al Mukmin Islamic boarding school founded by Abu Bakar Bashir
... Leader of the Indonesian Mujahedeen Council and proprietor of the al-Mukmin madrassah in Ngruki. The spriritual head of Jemaah Islamiya, which he denies exists. Bashir was jugged and then released in the wake of the 2002 Bali bombings, which he blamed on a conspiracy among the U.S., Israel, and Australia ...
, the aging spiritual leader of the Bali bombers, who is now languishing in prison for his role in funding a Death Eater training camp in Aceh.

Handzollah, a former student at Al Mukmin, fought alongside Haryono and was arrested in a 2010 raid on Bashir’s training camp. After his release, he said, neighbors ignored his greetings, and at the mosque a worshipper called him a terrorist who should be ostracized.

"I responded by doing good," the 41-year-old said. "I didn’t avoid them. Instead I tried to approach mainstream society.

"Gradually, they realized that I’ve changed."

Nowadays, Handzollah is popular as a preacher and often travels. Numerous children from two wives are supported by one wife’s business making snack foods for restaurants and shops.

He now says violent holy warriors is not justifiable within Indonesia because Moslems aren’t under attack. In common with other parolees, he denounces ISIS for killing Moslems who reject its extreme interpretation of Islam.

"What I did in the past was a mistake. Many tenets of Islam were violated to do jihad, by doing bombing attacks in peaceful places like hotels, markets or other public areas that killed innocent people," he said.

Prized for his skill in repairing weapons, Handzollah said ISIS supporters have attempted to recruit him since he left prison. He said he has persuaded at least 10 young men not to travel to Syria to join the ISIS group.

Like Haryono and other former Jemaah Islamiyah holy warriors interviewed by The News Agency that Dare Not be Named, he still believes Indonesia should be governed by Islamic Shariah law, not a secular government, but says that goal should be achieved through peaceful methods.

Yet Handzollah does not unequivocally rule out a return to militancy.

"Of course the ideology of jihad remains inside me, because it’s part of Islam," he said. "I believe in Shariah law and an Islamic state, so, if someone is able to convince me with certain arguments - but this is very unlikely to me now - it may make me go back" to violence.

For those who support de-radicalization efforts, Handzollah represents a form of success but also underlines a dilemma for the government: Will doing more to support released holy warriors join mainstream society help prevent future attacks, or provide the cover for holy warriors to rebuild and plot?

Brig. Gen. Hamidin, director of prevention at Indonesia’s counterterrorism agency, said there are limits to what the government can do. It can’t provide former bully boyz small-business loans, for example, since that could create a perception there’s a financial incentive for terrorism, he said. Instead, it plans to mentor released holy warriors and help them get national ID cards, which are needed to apply for jobs, opening bank accounts and conducting other essential tasks.

Hamidin, who uses one name, says the government already has had some success. Government figures show that less than 10 percent of released holy warriors have been re-arrested or killed in anti-terrorism operations. He concedes, however, that the number who returned to radicalism is much higher.

The recidivism figure doesn’t include those who joined ISIS in Syria, for instance. It’s not illegal for Indonesians to join conflicts abroad, though Parliament is considering a revamped law.

Andrie, from the institute, said it has been successful with most of the 30 men it has been involved with in the past five years. It finds ways to draw individuals into their communities and focuses on persuading them to repudiate violence, rather than trying to try change core beliefs such as support for a caliphate.

The group has learned on the job, including from its mistakes.

In one case, a paroled Death Eater was provided with $500 to start a T-shirt business. Soon the group discovered the venture had failed, partly because the business didn’t engage the man with regular people.

As for the T-shirts? They were emblazoned with either the face of the late Osama bin Laden
... who used to be alive but now he's not...
 or an AK-47 and given away within the man’s radical circle.
Link


Southeast Asia
Radical cleric Bashir to front court in bid for early prison release
2016-01-12
[CHANNELNEWSASIA] Terrorist convict Abu Bakar Bashir
... Leader of the Indonesian Mujahedeen Council and proprietor of the al-Mukmin madrassah in Ngruki. The spriritual head of Jemaah Islamiya, which he denies exists. Bashir was jugged and then released in the wake of the 2002 Bali bombings, which he blamed on a conspiracy among the U.S., Israel, and Australia ...
 will appear in court Tuesday (Jan 12) for a judicial review to get an early release from his 15-year prison sentence.

The trial was moved to Cilacap, central Java, from its original location at the South Jakarta district court after judges approved a request from Bashir's team of attorneys to have it at a more convenient location, because of his age and frail health.

The 77-year-old holy man, who publicly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
 holy warrior group in 2014, is being held at the Nusakambangan prison island in Cilacap regency.

Bashir, known as the spiritual leader of holy warrior organization, Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid, is serving 15 years in prison.

In 2011, he was found guilty of funding military training of a terrorist group in Aceh.

He appealed to the Jakarta High Court, which reduced his sentence to nine years.

But, the Supreme Court overruled that decision and changed the sentence back to 15 year before Bashir asked for a judicial review.

In Tuesday's judicial review, Bashir will be represented by a team of ten attorneys, who will be presenting five new witnesses in the trial, three of whom are also serving time in the Nusakambangan prison.

Many of the hardline holy man's supporters are expected to attend the trial which is open to the public.

Bashir's attorneys have urged them to exercise restraint and not cause any security problems.

"They have already agreed on that, and they already promised us they will only come and give mental support but for the security institution, please be careful, and be alert for provocateurs who might provoke the situation," said lawyer Mahendradatta.

The judicial review is expected to stretch over three to four sessions, which could last for several weeks.
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Southeast Asia
The confessions of a Bali bomber
2012-09-30
Meet Idris: Bali bomber, a senior member of the terrorist group that planned and then carried out the attack 10 years ago that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

Ask him for an explanation of what he did and Idris comes up with the most lame of all possible answers: he was just following orders.

In his first interview with Australian media, the freed bomber says he would willingly wage jihad on Indonesian soil again, but only if he thought he was fighting in a "legitimate war zone" - including an armed inter-religious conflict on Indonesian soil.

He said, "If some time in the future I form the intention to do jihad, it is obvious that I'll go to war. If there is such a zone in Indonesia, of course I will go there."

It's clear he's mostly concerned about himself. What torments him is the question of whether or not he will go to heaven.

He said, "I have never felt glad, happy or gay about this affair. In my heart I keep hoping that what I did was right and that I will be rewarded. However, I'm always worried that it was wrong and that Allah will punish me."

Idris was 12 kilometers away on a motorcycle with fellow terrorist Ali Imron when he felt, as much as heard, the bomb go off. He recalled, "It's as if it came from underground."

As the subterranean rumble reached him, he did not spare a thought for any of the victims. His thoughts were only for himself. He said, "The feeling of fear dominated. [Ali Imron and I] went to a restaurant. There was rice in front of us. We couldn't finish it, not even a quarter of it. Even water tasted bitter … No one talked. We heard the sirens, ambulance, we felt really afraid."

Idris can only speak now because he is a free man. He escaped conviction for the Bali bombing on a technical legal point when Indonesia's constitutional court ruled he could not be convicted under laws passed after the bombing took place.

He was sentenced to 10 years in jail for a different bombing - the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta in 2003 - which killed 12 people. But after remissions and parole he served just five years. He was released in 2009.

Now he lives with his family and looks after his sick mother, but complains he cannot find work because his past means no one will give him a job.

Idris attended Ngruki, Abu Bakar Bashir's school of jihad in Solo, but his learning did not lead to action until 2002. Then two of Indonesia's most important jihadis, Amrozi and Mukhlas, the top leader of Jemaah Islamiah in Asia, called him to a small house in Solo.

It was a meeting to plan a bomb attack on "America and its allies" in Bali - a place they saw as a center of infidel hedonism.

Idris became the manager of the project. He said, "My role … was to provide logistics and to prepare various things, such as providing a house, car, surveying the target, and also preparing food. Basically anything my friends might need."

Idris says Mukhlas, who was executed in 2008, was the one who gave the orders. To Idris, everything he did can be explained by that fact.

He said, "I couldn't think about if [the attack] was justified or not justified. If the senior commander ordered us to do it, we had to."

What about conscience? Humanity? "I didn't think, I simply followed what Mukhlas said."

Idris does not feel bad about being released from jail. He said, "It is the state who created the law … Whether it was fair or not I cannot say."

When I showed Idris pictures taken in 2002 of maimed and burnt bodies, of the destroyed buildings and the remains of the van that contained the bomb. I asked him how he feels and he paused for thought.

He said, "When I saw the pieces of bodies, I just thought something like, 'Wow,' or 'Oh my God', because I know there isn't any Islamic law about this,'' he says. ''It's like: 'Look how much damage I did'."
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Southeast Asia
Suspects Reveal Terror Plot on Indonesian Parliament
2012-09-09
[An Nahar] Arrested Indonesian terror suspects have revealed plots on the parliament building and to attack police in the name of jihad, a bigwig said Friday.

Two different terror groups planned to attack the country's parliament in Jakarta and plotted bomb and gunfire attacks on police in the central Java city of Solo, the country's counter-terrorism agency's chief Ansyad Mbai said.

"We worked with the anti-terror police squad to intensify hunting for suspects still on the lam and also stepped up security measures to anticipate any possible attacks," he told Agence La Belle France La Belle France.

Bayu Setiono, 22, who was incarcerated
Please don't kill me!
 following a shootout last week in Solo that left two terrorist suspects and an anti-terror officer dead, said his group plotted more attacks.

"Our plan is to break up Solo like what happened in Ambon and Poso. We want to uphold Islamic Sharia and create a Moslem caliphate in Indonesia," he said referring to violence between Moslems and Christians, killing thousands in early 2000.

In an interrogation video released by police on Thursday, Setiono said they targeted police as they were considered as infidels for arresting and killing Islamist hard boys.

Another terror suspect said he surveyed the parliament building three times before he was incarcerated
Please don't kill me!
 by police in July, the senior anti-terror official Mbai told AFP without giving details about what stage the plot had reached.

"There are several small groups which their underground works are not related to each other, but they all came from the Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) and the Jemaah Anshorut Tauhid (JAT)," he added.

JAT, dubbed a terrorist organization by the United States, was founded in 2008 by incarcerated
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
 radical holy man Abu Bakar Bashir
... Leader of the Indonesian Mujahedeen Council and proprietor of the al-Mukmin madrassah in Ngruki. The spriritual head of Jemaah Islamiya, which he denies exists. Bashir was jugged and then released in the wake of the 2002 Bali bombings, which he blamed on a conspiracy among the U.S., Israel, and Australia ...
Moslem-majority Indonesia suffered a series of deadly attacks over the last decade by terror network JI -- blamed for the Bali bombings in 2002 that left 202 dead. There has not been a major incident since 2009 but experts believe small cells are still ready to attack. Police on Thursday launched a manhunt after finding kabooms at a house in Jakarta.
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Southeast Asia
Indonesia arrests suspect in suicide bombings
2011-10-03
JAKARTA - The Indonesian authorities said yesterday that they have captured one of their five most-wanted snuffies in connection with two suicide-kabooms this year.

The suspect, identified as Beni Asri, was tossed in the clink on Friday at his home in the town of Solok in West Sumatra, about 930km from the capital Jakarta, said police front man Anton Bachrul Alam.

Asri was brought to Jakarta to be questioned over a suicide kaboom on a church in the Central Java town of Solo on Sept 25 that injured at least 20 people.

"We have a week to investigate," Mr Alam said.

The 26-year-old is also one of five men wanted for allegedly plotting an April suicide kaboom that injured 30 coppers praying in a mosque in the West Java town of Cirebon.

Police suspect Asri has connections with members of a group founded by Abu Bakar Bashir
... Leader of the Indonesian Mujahedeen Council and proprietor of the al-Mukmin madrassah in Ngruki. The spriritual head of Jemaah Islamiya, which he denies exists. Bashir was jugged and then released in the wake of the 2002 Bali bombings, which he blamed on a conspiracy among the U.S., Israel, and Australia ...
, 73, the spiritual leader behind the 2002 Bali bombings, who was recently nabbed for 15 years for planning attacks against foreigners and moderate Mohammedans, including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Indonesia has been hit by a string of suicide kabooms blamed on the Al Qaeda-linked network Jemaah Islamiyah and its offshoots since 2002, when the Bali bombings killed 202 people.

Subsequent attacks targeting restaurants and hotels have been far less deadly, however, and the last occurred more than two years ago, thanks in large to a security crackdown. But bombings by solo "jihadis" targeting Christians, security officers and Islamic sects deemed blasphemous by hard-liners have continued.

In a sign of the government's struggle to contain militancy, the authorities have blocked 300 Internet sites this year suspected of promoting terrorism and hatred.

Critics say the President, who relies heavily on Islamic parties in Parliament, has remained largely silent as minorities have been attacked by hard-liners or seen their houses of worship torched or closed. Agencies
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Southeast Asia
Abu Bakr Bashir gets 15 years
2011-06-17
[An Nahar] An Indonesian court on Thursday placed in long-term storage radical Islamist holy man Abu Bakar Bashir
... Leader of the Indonesian Mujahedeen Council and proprietor of the al-Mukmin madrassah in Ngruki. The spriritual head of Jemaah Islamiya, which he denies exists. Bashir was jugged and then released in the wake of the 2002 Bali bombings, which he blamed on a conspiracy among the U.S., Israel, and Australia ...
 for 15 years for funding a terrorist group that was planning attacks against Westerners and politicians.

The 72-year-old preacher showed little emotion as Judge Herri Swantoro read out the guilty verdict and sentence at the end of a four-month trial in the South Jakarta district court.

"Abu Bakar Bashir has been proven guilty of planning and misleading other people to fund terror activities ... and is sentenced to 15 years in jail," the judge said, triggering a gasp from the holy man's supporters in the court.

Draped in his customary white robes and skull-cap, the man seen as the spiritual leader of regional terror network Jemaah Islamiyah immediately promised to appeal the sentence, which he called the work of the devil.

"This is haram (forbidden in Islam). I reject this because it is cruel and disregards Islamic sharia law. This ruling is by the friends of the devil and it is haram for me to accept it," he said in response to the judge.

About 500 forces of Evil erupted into shouts of "holy shit! Allahu akbar" (God is great) outside the court as the verdict was read. Some 3,000 police backed by armored vehicles and snipers were on hand in the event of violence.

"This trial was a joke. They haven't looked for the truth, they only want to serve the interests of the current political power," said a front man for Bashir's radical organization, Jemaah Ansharut Tauhid (JAT).

Prosecutors had demanded a 20-year life sentence for Bashir, who was found guilty of channeling about $50,000 to a terrorist cell that was conducting military-style training in Aceh province in 2009.

Police say the so-called al-Qaeda in Aceh group, which was discovered in February last year, was planning liquidations and Mumbai-style attacks by highly trained suicide gunnies.

Bashir had been facing the death penalty for providing illegal weapons to the group but authorities dropped those charges early in the proceedings. The court also acquitted him of a charge of possessing illegal weapons.

He rejects all allegations of materially supporting terrorists, while publicly exhorting his followers to wage jihad or "holy war" against the West and Indonesia's form of secular, democratic government.

For decades the frail but pugnacious preacher has agitated in mosques, Islamic schools and through radical groups such as JAT, which he established in 2008, for the creation of an Islamic state under strict sharia law.

Several JAT members are under arrest and have implicated Bashir in the Aceh cell, which was operationally led by Dulmatin, one of Southeast Asia's most bandidos until he was killed in a police raid in March last year.

Bashir told news hounds before the sentencing session began that he was being framed by Australia and the United States, a claim he has repeated throughout his trial.

"They want me to disappear from Indonesia... The benefit to them? To kill Islam, to kill defenders of Islam, jugged and killed without reason," he said.

Police have tightened security at shopping centers across the sprawling city and deployed extra personnel following threats of kabooms in the event of Bashir's conviction.

Indonesia has been rocked by a series of attacks by Jemaah Islamiyah and its offshoots, including bombings of tourist spots on Bali, the Australian embassy and luxury Jakarta hotels.

Bashir served almost 26 months behind bars over the 2002 Bali bombings but his conviction was overturned after his release in 2006.

Prosecutors have also unsuccessfully charged him with involvement in church bombings in 2000 and an attack on the Marriott hotel in Jakarta in 2003.

Analysts said Bashir's jailing would not reduce the Islamic exemplar threat in Indonesia, the world's most populous Mohammedan-majority country and a key U.S. ally in Southeast Asia.

"A new leader will try to prove he's worthy by launching a big attack of some sort," said University of Indonesia expert Andi Widjajanto.

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