{"id":38891,"date":"2018-04-28T08:00:02","date_gmt":"2018-04-27T22:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=38891"},"modified":"2018-04-27T12:39:59","modified_gmt":"2018-04-27T02:39:59","slug":"indonesia-threat-violent-extremism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/indonesia-threat-violent-extremism\/","title":{"rendered":"Indonesia and the threat of violent extremism"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

Bruce Hoffman, a premier terrorism scholar, has suggested that there are around 3,000\u00a0al-Qaeda members in Indonesia. The number of Daesh supporters, sympathisers and followers remains unknown.<\/p>\n

That estimate\u2014it\u2019s unclear how Hoffman arrived at his figure\u2014should raise alarm bells in Canberra and across the region because the presence of a small coterie of violent extremists in Indonesia may indicate that Salafi-jihadists are re-energising and reorganising in the world\u2019s largest Muslim country.<\/p>\n

The 2002 Bali terrorist attack in which 88\u00a0Australian tourists lost their lives led to a revision of Indonesia\u2019s counterterrorism architecture. That included establishing a specialist anti-terror police unit (Detachment\u00a088<\/a>, also known as Densus\u00a088), the National Agency for Combating Terrorism and the Directorate General of Correction. Between 2010 and 2016, Densus\u00a088 foiled 54\u00a0terror plots.<\/p>\n

The unit\u2019s success is attributed to its modus operandi of using clandestine intelligence operations to infiltrate groups. Members of Densus\u00a088 join chat rooms and engage with militants online. In 2017, Turkish authorities had detained<\/a> around 430\u00a0Indonesians for either joining Daesh or for trying to join. It\u2019s also believed that around 20 Indonesians fought in Marawi<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was recently revealed<\/a> that a team of Indonesian researchers who sat in mosques and Quran reading groups to get a sense of what was preached and studied had found that 41\u00a0mosques in 16\u00a0Indonesian provinces are promoting Daesh ideas and recruiting for the group.<\/p>\n

Saiful Muhtorir, known as Abu Gar, is on trial for his involvement in the 2016\u00a0Jakarta bombing. He had also been involved in establishing a Daesh branch in the Moluccas. He recently admitted<\/a> that Iwan Darmawan Munto (also known as Rois)\u2014who\u2019s been on death row in Indonesia for 13\u00a0 years for his involvement in the 2004\u00a0Australian embassy bombing\u2014orchestrated the Jakarta bombing \u00a0from his cell.<\/p>\n

Abu Gar also revealed that Rois has used cell phones that were smuggled into his prison, and that the two communicated via Telegram<\/a>, an online secure messaging application.<\/p>\n

The case highlights both the role of encrypted communication in enabling violent extremism and the state of prisons in Indonesia.<\/p>\n

The prison issue is complex.<\/p>\n

First, Indonesia has 477\u00a0prisons holding more than 254,000\u00a0inmates<\/a>. That\u2019s twice the number of inmates that the prisons are meant to accommodate. The prisons have one officer for every 55\u00a0prisoners.<\/p>\n

Second, while Indonesia has a \u2018prison deradicalisation program\u2019, there\u2019s little coordination between government agencies, as well as a lack of clarity about what the program aims to accomplish.<\/p>\n

Third, prison guards aren\u2019t well paid, and aren\u2019t trained to identify individuals who are being radicalised. \u00a0Radicalisation itself isn\u2019t well understood. Instead, it\u2019s seen as \u2018everything that happens before the bomb goes off<\/a>\u2019.<\/p>\n

Consequently, guards<\/a> don\u2019t know when or how to intervene. For example, Sunakim, who was involved in the 2016\u00a0Jakarta attack, became Aman Abdurrahman\u2019s personal masseur even though both were connected to a terrorist camp in Aceh<\/a>. Sunakim had trained there and Aman had donated money to the camp.<\/p>\n

Fourth, in prison the Islamists aren\u2019t afraid to defy prison authorities and demand that their rights be respected. It\u2019s worth recalling the case of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Zarqawi was imprisoned on terrorism charges in Suwaqah prison. While in prison he elevated his physical standing (he spent a lot of time bulking up) and then compelled other prisoners to accept him as their leader (he engaged in fights). Once he had sufficient support, he was able to provide \u2018carrots\u2019\u2014extra food rations, medical assistance and so on\u2014to other inmates.<\/p>\n

Most importantly, Zarqawi defied prison authorities, including refusing to wear prison clothes and using his followers to create disorder. His continued defiance won him and his cohorts special status within the prison, which attracted more recruits.<\/p>\n

Aman Abdurrahman has also used his incarceration to elevate his own position<\/a> in Salafi-jihadi circles by translating and distributing Daesh\u2019s online publications. As a result, he has been able to circumvent rules despite being in a maximum security prison. In\u00a02014<\/a>, for example, prison guards found six mobile phones, two headsets and a world map in his cell. In 2015, another search of his cell yielded three phone SIM cards, five violent ideology books, a list of phone numbers and more.<\/p>\n

These systemic shortcomings help explain why Abu Bakar Bashir, a dangerous ideologue, has been able to receive hundreds of visitors<\/a> in Gunung Sindur prison.<\/p>\n

The 2002\u00a0bombing encouraged greater Indonesian\u2013Australian cooperation in counterterrorism, a relationship that has blossomed over time. In February\u00a02017, the two countries established the Australia\u2013Indonesia Partnership for Justice \u2013 II<\/a>, a five-year partnership under which Australia has committed $40\u00a0million to \u2018strengthen the rule of law and the security environment in Indonesia\u2019. The program also promotes prison reform and religious tolerance, and aims to counter violent extremism.<\/p>\n

Indonesia has made great strides in challenging violent extremism, but terrorists innovate and imitate\u2014they look to other groups to see what works and what doesn\u2019t. So it\u2019s vital that security services not only remain vigilant, but also adapt.<\/p>\n

The Indonesian security services, just like ours, are facing new challenges as Daesh comes to terms with the loss of its caliphate and al-Qaeda continues its rebuilding program. The memorandum of understanding (MoU<\/a>) on Cooperation to Counter International Terrorism, which was signed during the March 2018 ASEAN\u2013Australia Special Summit, underlies our commitment to work with our regional partners to counter violent extremism and terrorism.<\/p>\n

Pull and push factors remain ambiguous, especially in the post-caliphate period, which is why Indonesia and Australia should devote more attention to research rather than relying on anecdotal evidence to assess Daesh and al-Qaeda, so that we don\u2019t adopt legislation that would be counter-productive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bruce Hoffman, a premier terrorism scholar, has suggested that there are around 3,000\u00a0al-Qaeda members in Indonesia. The number of Daesh supporters, sympathisers and followers remains unknown. That estimate\u2014it\u2019s unclear how Hoffman arrived at his figure\u2014should …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":606,"featured_media":38892,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[273,8],"class_list":["post-38891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-counterterrorism","tag-indonesia"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIndonesia and the threat of violent extremism | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/indonesia-threat-violent-extremism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Indonesia and the threat of violent extremism | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bruce Hoffman, a premier terrorism scholar, has suggested that there are around 3,000\u00a0al-Qaeda members in Indonesia. 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