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Indonesia’s Islamic Vigilantes ‘Turning to Terrorism’
Angela Dewan | January 26, 2012

Noordin M. Top was killed in a raid at this Central Java house, but the threat of terrorism is still very present in Indonesia, says the head of the country Noordin M. Top was killed in a raid at this Central Java house, but the threat of terrorism is still very present in Indonesia, says the head of the country's antiterror unit. (Photo: Ali Lutfi, JG)
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DrDez
3:49pm Jan 28, 2012

rooes yes - and to counter this more mosques and mosque based education and tighter restrictions on clothing, behavior are required... hmmm


roosplace
9:54am Jan 28, 2012

But again, this has nothing to do with islam right? They're just fanatics and islam is a religion of peace and harmony with no verses in the quran that encourage violence. [Insert sarcastic throat-clearing]

Asoegenie
7:17am Jan 28, 2012

Abundant funding from extremists in the Middle East and corrupt mentalities of almost all Indonesian high officials will eventually destroy the Republic of Indonesia.


Normalaatsra
11:21pm Jan 27, 2012

At least 2011 had no attacks. How wonderful news for SBY, who does not do anything anymore.

VinegarJoe
1:39am Jan 27, 2012

So the FPI and their ilk are turning to terrorism? Wow. Now there's a shock.

Tolerance of Islamic vigilantism is helping to breed a new generation of terrorists in Indonesia, the International Crisis Group warned in a report on Thursday.

The report criticized the government and police for lax law enforcement against hardliners, who often claim responsibility for violent anti-vice and sectarian attacks but regularly evade punishment.

“Indonesia: From Vigilantism to Terrorism in Cirebon” described how a group of poor uneducated men in the western Javanese town went from using sticks and stones in morality raids to using bombs and guns.

“What we saw in Cirebon was a group of about 10 people who started out on a path to terrorism by participating in anti-vice campaigns,” ICG analyst Sidney Jones said.

“By using violence in these campaigns, they clearly violated the law but weren’t punished.”

The group went from carrying out anti-vice attacks on TV stations and convenience stores selling alcohol to orchestrating suicide attacks on a police mosque and a church on Java island.

The attacks last year killed only the bombers themselves, but injured scores of others with nails, nuts and bolts spraying from homemade explosives.

“The government’s saving grace is that the groups that have embarked on this path are poorly trained with very low capacity, but it won’t always stay that way. One of these groups will get lucky and have a greater impact,” Jones said.

The radicalization of the Cirebon group was fueled by weekly sermons where spiritual leaders encouraged the bloodshed of Islam’s enemies, which have come to include the Indonesian government and police, the report said.

The threat of vigilantes turning to terrorism follows an effective decade-long crackdown on the country’s most notorious networks, such as the Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah, it added.

Indonesia’s police anti-terror unit, Detachment 88, has in recent years killed some of its most-wanted militants, including Noordin Top, believed to have played a role in every major terrorist attack in the country’s recent history.

The unit also killed Dulmatin, who had a hand in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

Agence France-Presse