Jemaah Islamiyah

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Jemaah Islamiyah
Southeast Asian militant Islamic organization
Years active
1969–present
Known for
Killed hundreds of civilians in the Bali car bombing in October 12, 2002

Jemaah Islamiyah[1] (JI, Arabic phrase meaning "Islamic Group" or "Islamic Community") is a Southeast Asian militant Islamic organization dedicated to the establishment of a Daulah Islamiyah[2] (Islamic State) in Southeast Asia incorporating Indonesia, Malaysia, the southern Philippines, Singapore and Brunei[3]. JI was added to the United Nations 1267 Committee's list of terrorist organizations linked to al-Qaeda or the Taliban on 25 October 2002[4] under UN Security Council Resolution 1267.

JI has its roots in Darul Islam (DI, meaning “House of Islam”), a radical movement in Indonesia in the 1940s. JI was founded on 1 Jan 1993 by DI leaders Abu Bakar Bashir and Abdullah Sungkar[5] while hiding in Malaysia from the persecution[6] of the Suharto Government. After the fall of the Suharto regime in 1998, both men returned to Indonesia.[7] where it gained a terrorist edge when one of its founders, the late Abdullah Sungkar, established contact with Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. [8]


JI’s violent operations began during the communal conflicts in Maluku and Poso.[9]. It shifted its attention to targeting US and Western interests in Indonesia and the wider Southeast Asian region in response to the US-led war on terror. JI’s terror plans in Southeast Asia were exposed when its plot to set off several bombs in Singapore were foiled by the local authorities.

Recruiting, training, indoctrination, financial and terrorist operational links between the JI and other terrorist groups, such as al-Qaeda, the Abu Sayyaf Group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the Misuari Renegade/Breakaway Group (MRG/MBG) and the Philippine Raja Solaiman Movement (RSM) have existed for many years, and continue to this day.[10]

Jemaah Islamiyah is known to have killed hundreds of civilians in the Bali car bombing on October 12, 2002. In the attack, suicide bombers killed 202 people, mostly Australian tourists, and wounded many in two blasts. The first, smaller blast by a suicide bomber using a backpack, killed a small number of persons in a nightclub and drove the survivors into the street, where the vast majority were killed by a massive fertilizer/fuel oil bomb concealed in a parked van. After this attack, the U.S. State Department designated Jemaah Islamiyah as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Jemaah Islamiyah is also strongly suspected of carrying out the 2003 JW Marriott hotel bombing in Kuningan, Jakarta, the 2004 Australian embassy bombing in Jakarta, and the 2005 Bali terrorist bombing. The JI also has been directly and indirectly involved in dozens of bombings in the southern Philippines, usually in league with the ASG.

Contents

[edit] History

The 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 wiped out back in the 1950s after members belonging to that sect instigated a rebellion in an effort to create an Islamic state in parts of Indonesia.

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, that were perceived to undermine the government's control over the Indonesian population. 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 1980's, many members of JI, including Sungkar and Hambali (see below) joined the Mujahideen in the resistance movement against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. They were joined by radical Muslims from extremist 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 distributed pamphlets and propaganda, but committed relatively few acts of terrorism or violence. Bashir preached jihad but he would do very little violent action. This changed in the 1990's.

Hambali, head of Jemaah Islamiyah and leading suspect of Mariott Hotel bombing in Jakarta
Hambali, head of Jemaah Islamiyah and leading suspect of Mariott Hotel bombing in Jakarta

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 and foreign relations 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 publicly promoted jihad.

In January 2000 cleric Hambali, al-Qaeda's key representative in Indonesia, hosted in Malaysia Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid al-Midhar, who would later take part in the September 11, 2001 attacks as hijackers. Unlike the Al-Mau'nah group which was infamous for the 2000 arms heist, Jemaah Islamiah kept a low profile in Malaysia and their existence only became public after the Bali bombings.

[edit] Timeline

  • August 1, 2000 Jemaah Islamiyah attempted to assassinate the Philippine ambassador to Indonesia, Leonides Caday. The bomb detonated as his car entered his official residence in central Jakarta killing two people and injuring 21 including the Ambassador.
  • June 5, 2002 Indonesian authorities arrest Kuwaiti Omar al-Faruq. Handed over to the U.S. authorities, he subsequently confesses he is a senior al-Qaeda operative sent to Southeast Asia to orchestrate attacks against US interests. He reveals to investigators detailed plans of a new terror spree in Southeast Asia.
  • After many warnings by US authorities of a credible terrorist threat in Jakarta, on September 23, 2002 a grenade explodes in a car near the residence of a US embassy official in Jakarta, killing one of the attackers.
  • October 10, 2002 a bomb rips through a bus terminal in the southern Philippine city of Kidapawan, killing six people and injuring 24. On the same day The US ambassador in Jakarta, Ralph Boyce, personally delivers to the Indonesian President a message of growing concern that Americans could become targets of terrorist actions in her country.
  • October 12, 2002 On the second anniversary of the USS Cole bombing in Yemen, a huge car bomb kills more than 202 and injures 300 on the Indonesian resort island of Bali. Most are foreigners, mainly Australian tourists. It is preceded by a blast at the US consulate in nearby Denpasar. The attack known as the 2002 Bali Bombing is the most deadly attack executed by JI to date.
  • Bashir was arrested by the Indonesian police and was given a light sentence for treason.
  • JI are widely suspected of being responsible for the bombing outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta on 9 Sep 2004 which killed 11 Indonesians and wounded over 160 more.
  • 5 August 2006, Al-Qaeda's Al Zawahiri appeared on a recorded video announcing that JI and Al-Qaeda had joined forces and that the two groups will form "one line, facing its enemies."

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Other transliterations and names include Jemaa Islamiyah, Jema'a Islamiyya, Jema'a Islamiyyah, Jema'ah Islamiyah, Jema'ah Islamiyyah, Jemaa Islamiya, Jemaa Islamiyya, Jemaah Islamiyya, Jemaa Islamiyyah, Jemaah Islamiah, Jemaah Islamiyyah, Jemaah Islamiyyah, Jemaah Islamiya, Jamaah Islamiyah, Jamaa Islamiya, Jemaah Islam, Jemahh Islamiyah, Jama'ah Islamiyah, Al-Jama'ah Al Islamiyyah, Islamic Group and Islamic Community.
  2. ^ Elena Pavlova (2006-11-14). From Counter-Society to Counter-State: Jemaah Islamiyah According to PUPJI, p. 11. (PDF). The Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies.
  3. ^ JI is also believed to be linked to the insurgent violence in southern Thailand. "Conspiracy of Silence: Who is Behind the Escalating Insurgency in Southern Thailand?"
  4. ^ UN Press Release SC/7548.
  5. ^ Blake Mobley (2006-08-26). Jemaah Islamiyah Dossier (PDF). Center For Policing Terrorism.
  6. ^ Martin van Bruinessen, ISIM and Utrecht University. Genealogies of Islamic Radicalism in post-Suharto Indonesia.
  7. ^ Sharif Shuja (2005-04-21). Gauging Jemaah Islamiyah's Threat in Southeast Asia. The Jamestown Foundation, Terrorism Monitor, Volume 3, Issue 8.
  8. ^ head clue to Jakarta bomb BBC 2003-08-09
  9. ^ Weakening Indonesia's Mujahidin Networks: Lessons from Maluku and Poso. International Crisis Group, Asia Report N°103 (2005-10-13).
  10. ^ Zachary Abuza (December, 2003). Funding Terrorism in Southeast Asia: The Financial Network of Al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah (PDF). The National Bureau of Asian Research. Retrieved on January 28, 2007.

[edit] See also

[edit] Further reading

  • Abuza, Zachary. Militant Islam in Southeast Asia: Crucible of Terror. Boulder, Colorado, USA: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2003. ISBN 1-58826-237-5.
  • Barton, Greg (2005). Jemaah Islamiyah: radical Islam in Indonesia. Singapore: Singapore University Press. ISBN 9971-69-323-2.
  • Lim, Merlyna. Islamic Radicalism and Anti-Americanism in Indonesia: The Role of the Internet. Washington: East-West Center, 2005. ISBN 978-1-932728-34-7.
  • Reeve, Simon. The New Jackals: Ramzi Yousef, Osama Bin Laden and the Future of Terrorism. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1999. ISBN 1-55553-509-7.
  • Ressa, Maria. Seeds of Terror: An Eyewitness Account of Al-Qaeda's Newest Center of Operations in Southeast Asia. New York: Free Press, 2003. ISBN 0-7432-5133-4.

[edit] External links


Terrorism in Indonesia
Jakarta Stock Exchange bombing – Christmas Eve 2000 bombings – 2002 Bali bombings – 2003 Marriott Hotel bombing – 2004 Jakarta Embassy bombing – 2005 Bali bombings
War on Terrorism
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