After the bombing in Bali October 2002, Jakarta August 2003 and the top notch bombing on the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, it becomes clear that the terrorist network of the Jamaah Islamiah (JI) had aggressively mount it significant terrorist attack on the people towards instilling the fear and to ensure their message is clearly spoken throughout the action that had been done by the group themselves. This shows the capability of the JI to instill and cause more havoc and destruction in which they themselves call it as a way to send their message throughout the world through their extreme method that deviates away from the proper Islamic methodology. Therefore what is JI themselves? On what term or capabilities do they work on? What are they trying to spread or show? Who are the leader and members? To what extent will they be willing to ensure their message is being given? Therefore in this case study I would like to uncover some of the analysis on the Jemaah Islamiah group to educates and explains what exactly is Jemaah Islamiyah.
Background
Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) an Islamic fundamentalist groups that originates from Indonesia. It deviates from normal Islamic group as it methodology and teaching had become very extreme (extremist) whereby they are willing to use force and destruction in such a way they call it religious to send out their message. JI seeks to establish a Daulah Islamiyah Nusantara incorporating the Southeast Asian country, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Brunei and Singapore. What differentiate JI from other terrorist group such as Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the Southeast Asian region is their transnational aspiration which to bring together the archapelagic continent together through their religious point of view.
After Al-Qaeda launches it propaganda agenda to expatriates and launches it attack on the Americans and the Western country, small terrorist group resurges and the activity done by these group increases multifold. These includes the bombing done by the JI on two of the exclusive nightspots where it was frequently visited by the Australian and European, that is the Padi's Bar and the Sari Club, which had led to a death toll of 202 civilian casualties. The Bali bombing were followed by the bombing of the J.W Marriot Hotel in Jakarta which includes 12 casualties and injured 150 people. And yet 2 days even before the 11 September 2004 anniversary of the devastating attack on the United States Of America, World Trade Centre, which amplifies the global terrorism activity, JI launched its attack on the Australian embassy in Jakarta which killed 9 people and injured 180. Despite being decimated by the counter-terrorist act in the region, JI is still able to mount devastating terrorist attack, as some source quoted that it still have in its hand an ample amount of explosives that had not yet been used. Even though JI activity is declining, but they still lurks around gathering forces and capabilities and recruiting new members which shares the same ideologies to enforce their terrorism activity in the region.
The History Behind Jemaah Islamiyah
JI was established as a loose confederation of several Islamic groups. Sometime around 1969, two men, Abu Bakar Bashir, and Abdullah Sungkar, began an operation to propagate the Darul Islam movement, a conservative strain of Islam.
Darul Islam was almost exterminated back in the 1950s after members belonging to that sect instigated a rebellion in an effort to create an Islamic state in Southeast Asia. Bashir and his friends created a pirated radio outfit to preach to the poor and oppressed in Indonesia. Bashir created a boarding school in Java. The school's motto was, "Death in the way of Allah is our highest aspiration."
Bashir and Sungkar were both imprisoned by Indonesian dictator Suharto's government as part of a crackdown on radical groups such as Komando Jihad, of which both men were members. They spent several years in prison through several sentences.
Bashir and his followers escaped to Malaysia in 1982. He recruited people from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines. The group officially named itself Jemaah Islamiyah around that time period. In the mid and late 80's, many members of JI, including Sungkar and Hambali joined the Mujahideen in the resistance movement against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. They were joined by radical Muslims from terrorist groups worldwide. Many of the connections that define the global network of Islamist groups that exists today, including those between al-Qaeda and JI, were made during the conflict in Afghanistan.
Back in Southeast Asia, the members of JI ranted and distributed pamphlets, but committed relatively few acts. Bashir preached jihad but he would do very little violent action. This changed in the 1990's. Bashir met Riduan Isamuddin, a.k.a. Hambali sometime in the early 1990s at a religious school that Bashir set up. Bashir became the spiritual leader of the organization while Hambali became the military leader.
Hambali wanted a large Islamic caliphate to be established across Southeast Asia, incorporating Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Brunei, and Cambodia. Such a state would have a population of about 420 million (using CIA World Factbook population counts). It would have a strangle-hold over the South China Sea shipping lanes which are a gateway between parts of Asia and the Indian Ocean. It would also have a significant air-space and would potentially affect trade between India, China, Africa, and Australia.
JI first formed itself into a group of terrorist cells that provided financial and logistical support when needed to Al-Qaida operations in Southeast Asia. Hambali formed a front company called Konsojaya to help launder money to such plots, including the Operation Bojinka plot, which was foiled on January 6, 1995.
The leaders of JI went back to Indonesia in 1998, when Suharto's government was toppled. Hambali went underground while Bashir openly preached jihad.
In 2000, Hambali ran a series of bombings of Christian churches. More attention went on the group after the Bali nightclub bombing. Another high profile attack was the bombing of the J.W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta.
Bashir was arrested by the Indonesian police and was given a light sentence for treason. Hambali was arrested in Thailand on August 11, 2003 and is currently in prison in Jordan, according to Haaretz.
A bomb manual published by the Jemaah Islamiyah was used in the 2002 Bali terrorist bombing and the 2003 JW Marriott hotel bombing.
A British-born Australian named Jack Roche confessed to being part of a JI plot to blow up the Israeli Embassy in Canberra, Australia on 28 May 2004. He was sentenced to 9 years in prison on 31 May. The man admitted to meeting figures like Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.
The Jemaah Islamiyah Objectives
Jemaah Islamiyah pursues the aim to establish a pan-Islamic state (Daulah Islamiyah) comprising Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, and governed by Sharia law. Its activities and doctrine are directed against Christians and Western ideologies. Until his death, Sungkar was the ideological leader of JI, he preached that "a non-Islamic political system will contaminate the umma (Muslim Community)." According to his teachings, in order to pursue its objectives, the organisation will need military and spiritual strength, which can only be achieved by recruitment, education, obedience and jihad.
Members and Stucture Of Organization
The numbers of the Jemaah Islamiyah is yet unknown but according to some sources, the number of JI's members is estimated to be more than 500. Other sources cite membership varying from several hundred to a few thousand JI members. JI mainly recruits from pesantrens, Islamic boarding schools led by religious teachers with ties to the Darul Islam or to Pondok Ngruki. It is also known to go abroad to recruit members such as the famously known Azahari and Nordin Mat Top from Malaysia.
The Jemaah Islamiyah group is a very organized terrorist group. At the top of JI sits the amir, a position which had been held first by Abdullah Sungkar, then in 1999, by Abu Bakar Ba'asyir until he was replaced in 2002 by Thoriquddin (alias Abu Rusdan), who was arrested shortly thereafter; his former secretary, Abu Dujana then became the new amir. Beneath the amir are four councils a Governing Council (majelis qiyadah), a regional Advisory Council (majelis syuro) consisting of five members; a fatwa (legal opinion) Council; and a Disciplinary Council (majelis hisbah). The members of all these councils are appointed by the amir and are under his control. The governing council in turn is headed by a central command (qiyadah markaziyah), which controls the leaders of the four mantiqis and the heads of wakalahs. Mantiqi I comprises the mainland Malaysia and Singapore and is responsible for fund-raising. Mantiqi II consists of Java, Sumatra and other islands of Indonesia and is mainly focused on the establishment of a sharia state in Indonesia, as well as pursuing jihad. The Mantiqi III, which is located in the Philippines, Borneo and Sulawesi, is responsible for the training of the JI fighters. Mantiqi IV is based in Australia and responsible for fund-raising. Each Mantiqi is headed by one senior leader, responsible for running the daily activities. However, after the 2002 Bali bombings, where 200 civilians were killed, many members split with the organisation, and Indonesian authorities arrested more than 300 JI militants.
JI was weakened by this loss of members, however, it remains active. Moreover, since then, several factions emerged from the JI. First, there is the most radical faction lead by Malaysian Noordin Top with the main goal to attack Western targets. Second, there is the faction of Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, who was released from jail in June 2006. The third emerging faction is located on Indonesian Sulawesi Island, fighting specifically in the district of Poso. Moreover, after the anti-terror police's Detachment 88 arrested several commanders in 2006, former JI leader Abu Dujana founded the new wing of the Jemaah Islamiyah called the Sariyah, with him as a leader. On 8 April 2007, it became known that Sariyah has apparently formed a new military wing with up to 100 trained operatives in Indonesia. The police forces found charts indicating the structure of Jemaah Islamiyah signed by Abu Dujana. The suspicion that Sariyah is an organised group was confirmed when additional photocopies of the charts were found in raids in Indonesia.
The Jemaah Islamiah Ideology
Ustaz Haji Ali Bin Haji Mohamed a famous Indonesian Ulamak once quoted "The biggest danger of the JI is their Ideology, the misinterpretation of Islam and Quran". From here and based on my analysis I found out that Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) believe in a twisted form of Islamic concepts which form their ideology of hate and terror. They believe that it becomes compulsory for them to establish the Islamic Chaliphate which is an utopian state, in which they had misused some of the Islamic teachings, uniquely interpreted without proper methodological formulation and believes that their interpretation of Islam and Quran is real and unquestionable. Concept such as a al-wala wal bara' became loyalty to all that follows them and hatred to all that opposes them. Jihad then misinterpreted as solely War and through their pledge their will follow and trust their leader (amir) only. They also believe through means of suicide such as bombing will lead them to heaven or promise them heaven. This in turn burns up all the other scholar of Islamic thought and therefore it misguided them from the proper Islamic method and ideology. I also analyzed that most of the JI member had low education of Islam, while they were just getting to know Islam the JI recruiters instill them with the JI ideology thus misguided them and deviates them from the proper way of Islam which never resorts to violence. The JI jihadians, military-jihad believes that the coming of Islam is to execute and kill all non-muslims (kafir).
Support and Funding
Jemaah Islamiyah had gain many support. In Malaysia, JI and KMM (Kumpulan Mujahideen Malaysia) have very close ties as Abu Bakar Ba'asyir is a co-founder of KMM. In turn, KMM has close ties to Laskar Jihad. Moreover, the JI is linked to the al-Qaeda network, nearly all JI members who are or were active on the operational management level of the organisation have been trained in the late 80s/beginning of 90s in Afghanistan, where they created ties to al-Qaeda. These connections have been used for both logistical and operational collaborations.
Jamaah Islamiyah has developed its own funding mechanisms, including charities, front companies, donations, underground banking, gold and gem smuggling, petty crime to support its operations. To date, none of these mechanisms have effectively been shut down. While terrorism is asymmetrical warfare and operations are relatively cheap, maintaining terrorist organizations does cost a significant amount of money. Shutting down terrorist funding is a difficult but not futile task. It is an important investigative tool and gives law enforcement officials a mechanism to deal with institutions, such as charities or remittance firms, rather than individuals. This is important because the primary success in the war on terrorism to date has been the arrest of leading operatives, while the institutions supporting terrorism remain intact. Whereas states have been willing to arrest known operatives, there tends to be less political will to pursue terrorist financing, and enforcement of sanctions and implementation of international agreements tends to be uneven at best.
CONCLUSION
Based on my analysis, I found that Jemaah Islamiyah even though the authorities still countering and trying to cut down the terrorist group harshly, but if the organization fundamentalist and beliefs still lives on it will find it ways to resurface and recurperate with the current global condition. As whereby the only known JI members it their acting forces that had been doing the bombing, we still didn't know to what extent do the members of JI can reach. Some says only hundreds, while other says thousands, but actually it can reach up millions, as the world nowadays is a globalized world with no boundaries, through the media, through the internet, and any other means, it can spread out it beliefs, teachings throughout the entire planet, recruiting more members and in time also gaining more funds, as many people out there may share their same belief and thoughts.
Therefore a more excessive act must been done to cut the terrorist group entirely, such as a trans-national cooperation between the authority to terminate any miniscule living activity of JI in the Southeast Asian region especially. More than to my belief, I must also say that the Indonesian government must be more proactive on terminating this group not only by catching leaders, but also cutting their propaganda activity as this would decrease their members recruiting activity thus shortening the numbers limiting their mount or ability to emphasize terrorism activity and slowly but surely terminating the Jemaah Islamiyah group themselves. With this I thank you.
