First, operationally to dismantle the networks by targeting individual terrorists and their assets. Counter terrorism legislation is gravely needed to empower the police to use direction action to preventively dismantle the terrorist propaganda, recruitment, fund raising, procurement and other support. Ideologically political leaders to build a norm and an ethic in society against politico-religiously inspired and instigated violence. Plus, conflict zones such as Mindanao, Maluku and Poso produced suffering, displacement, refugee flows, formation of extremist ideologies, and production of extremists and terrorists.
But in Asia, if pressed by a central Government like let’s say Indosesia, they can revert to inflaming Maluku and Poso with ethno-religious strife. They can play on the local politics of Mindanao, etc. The pyramid of Jihadism starting with al Qaida internationally, JI nationally and the other regional groups has a panoply of tools to escape Governmental action, which is late, heavy and based on a complex level of political consensus. Thus for example, bin Laden was fast enough two years ago to denounce the United Nations "infidel" aggression in East Timor. This accusation, not understood by the international community, is a message to Indonesia's general nationalist and Muslim public, carried by the Islamists: No more East Timors.
Hence, the Jihadi "Laskars" around the archipelago are projecting themselves as the "protectors" of the territorial unity of "Muslim Indonesia." Hence their action against non-Muslims, including in Poso, the Celebes, etc is projected as "in the interest of the nation." They are trying to emulate Hassan Turabi's strategy in Sudan: the defense of Islam's lands.
From that angle, when al Qaida orders strikes against Western-symbols in the country, for instance Bali I and II, it knows it is playing the Jihadist versus Kafir (infidel) equation. The subcontractors of terror, JI for example are projecting themselves as the sword of the Islamist movement in Indonesia with a legitimate blessing from the international command. The response of the Indonesian state is therefore limited in its scope: an all out war by any Government against the Jihadists (who are claiming the defense of Indonesia's Islamic idencity) is very difficult. At best it is limited. Add to it the uncertainty as to the Salafi influence inside the armed forces, no one really knows its extent. Thus further questions that need to be answered begin with : who wants to confront Jihadism's real roots: the Islamist Salafi ideology? Is there a sufficient political coalition across the country in question which would back an all out campaign? Legislators, members of the cabinet, intellectuals, journalists, officers and political parties that can articulate an anti-Jihadist agenda? Is there a plan regarding the alternatives to the madrassas? These questions need to be answered by the experts so that a geopolitical design can be put together.
Plus of course
the long-term challenge is wherever the jihadists appear, to attract local
populations to a non-violent and tolerant Islamic culture.
which promises
personal fulfillment. The jihadists' social activism must be matched and
exceeded by moderate Islamic clerics, businessmen, and government.
Otherwise, even with good intelligence we will fail unless we have, political will and political capital.
Here are some points:
a) One has to examine how the Jihadists (call them Islamists if you wish) got to the point of vast networks and high influence. How come they have been able to produce leadership that can sustain several suppressive waves and maintain a trend of penetration of the Indonesian layers of power and culture?
If we understand this road, we can begin to understand the possible other alternatives. Why is it that the Islamists have produced their own "leaders" while the national leaders and politicians of Indonesia, although good Muslims, aren't viewed by the experts as visionaries and goal oriented? I may not have all the answers, but at least I would indicate the analytical path we should be exploring.
b) If we agree that at the end of the day, in Asia and around the Muslim world, the networks of madrassas are the chief producer of militants, what can be done to address that issue? Can politicians touch the madrassas without severe consequences? Can reform come from governing bodies, from politicians or courts? Answering this question is crucial. It would show us the real equation not just in Indonesia, but also in the region as a whole.
c) And if I can take the issue to a wider scope, learning from the Indonesian crisis, I'd ask: can Wahabism be reversed? Can Salafism be reversed? And how?
When one asks ‘moderate’ Muslims: what is the alternative, the system you wish establish on the Umma's lands? There were no significant answers. For the simple reason that they hide behind the anti-American paradigm, but can't reveal theirs.
During the 1990s especially in the U.S.A. at the time, there where many recipes for the so-called integration and cooptation of the Salafists and Islamists in the political process in America (Esposito, Entelis, MESA, etc). However, evidence shows that while initiatives were developed to absorb the Islamists into the democratic process, it ended up having the Islamists (Salafists in Indonesia and Arabia and Khomeinists as in Lebanon) penetrating the system and slowly absorbing its energies.
Thus for Asia, but also Iraq, Egypt, etc. international efforts should be focused certainly to fighting terrorism relentlessly, but in parallel, providing open support for new reformists. One example in Asia is Anwar Ibrahim in Malaysia, but there need to be more, also in other countries. Authoritarian leaders that jailed Ibrahim, including now Mubarak and Syria's Bashar al-Assad, warn that political reform will open the door to victory by Islamists. Yet instead of encouraging secular parties that might provide an alternative for voters, they crush them.
The notion that Islamist forces wished to establish a Caliphate from North Africa to Southeast Asia are goals of the more extremist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood or the Al Qaeda type terrorist outfits. But there might have been no need to declare a “war on global terrorism” instead we suggested at the time, to lower the temperature by helping resolve nagging conflicts such as Kashmir, Chechnya, Sudan and flashing points in Asia all listed below. Instead the US and Saudi Arabia have to often supported the Islamic extreme right such as the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in the 1950s, Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran, the ultra-orthodox Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia, and Hamas (the Palestinian offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood), Hezbollah, and so on which will create difficulties in the long run.
In the small town of Gujar Khan, 35 miles (56 kilometers) from Islamabad, Pakistan's capital city we observed pupils seated on the floor and swaying as they recited the Qur'an under the watchful eye of their instructor. The teacher, who threatened to correct any errors by waving a tree branch at them, explained the students' role and his mission: "These are parrots of heaven. We teach our students purely Islamic teachings to make them pure and ideal Muslims who will not hesitate to sacrifice their lives for the cause of Islam."
One Pakistani educator, explained succinctly how madrassas in his country produce militants ready to answer the call to wage jihad. "Most madrassahs," he said, "do not impart military training or education, but they brainwash the students, and that is more dangerous. The habits can be changed, but not the souls. The fairy tales of these students come from the (Muslim) battlefield.
This Pakistan experience is far from unique; it is largely replicated in many Asian countries. Notable exceptions include China and the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, where education is a state monopoly and madrassas, other than the very few specifically and officially approved for preparing clerics, are banned.
The influence of madrassas in propagating Islamic extremism is perhaps best illustrated by the Taliban. Taliban is the Arabic plural of talib (Islamic student). True to the group's name, all of its leaders, along with many of their followers, were trained in Saudi-funded, Wahhabi-controlled madrassas for Afghan Pashtun refugees living in Pakistan during the 1980’s.
While there are many different Islamist groups (Islam is not monolithic) around the world, they share a common belief that the only period of "pure" Islamic life was early in the development of the faith. Islamist groups also share the goals of recovering "authentic" Islam and restoring the characteristics of the faith in its supposed golden age. In that endeavor, the following goals are considered most crucial:
1) eliminating all non-Islamic, especially Christian and Jewish, influences in the Islamic world; 2) recreating a worldwide caliphate, or Islamic state; 3) recovering all the territories that were ever under Islamic occupation (including the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily, Crete, most of the Balkans, and most of India); 4) applying a strict interpretation of Islamic law for all Muslims everywhere; 5) overthrowing governments in Muslim-majority countries that do not accept and apply these conditions; and 6) embarking on a holy war to enforce these goals.
In spite of its modernity, also the Muslim Brotherhood with branches, under various names, in more than 70 countries shares similar ideas, and reject any action or principle that contradicts the Qur'an or Sunna; promoting Islamic government and law; and establishing a caliph ate among Islamic states. Their motto is "Allah is our objective, the messenger is our leader, Qur'an is our law, Jihad is our way, and Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope."
Where almost half of the whole Muslim world population lives in South Asia this Muslim terrorism will now be also closely linked to worldwide terrorism, and will become a major concern for the USA and European countries. The spread of Islamic neo-(I often term it that way because there were earlier fundamentalists that did not intend to ‘globalize’ as happened since the modernist Gamal ad-Din al-Afghani)-fundamentalism. According to al-Afghani (also called the ideological ‘grandfather of bin-Laden’), Muslims should maintain their "prevalence and superiority". (http://www.crvp.org/book/Series04/IVA-13/chapter_xii.htm). And as seen, the indoctrination of potential terrorist recruits-has been greatly facilitated by the operation of the madrassas (madrassahs), in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Indonesia. Often funded by money from Saudi Arabia or other oilrich Persian Gulf states, here boys (in most places girls are not allowed to study)- as young as six years of age are offered a free education. There is little, if any, education in subjects such as history, geography, math, or ‘science’ (for example they often teach that the earth is flat), and the teachers in these madrassas are often themselves poorly educated. But because free public schools do not exist in some South and East Asian countries, and because the madrassas provide room and board, many poor parents feel that these Islamic schools offer the only chance for their sons to receive an education at all.
In Asia, terrorism kills and will continue to do so. It will not come to an end in the foreseeable future. The number of victims of insurgencies, the latter extensively using terrorism, far exceeds the area’s international wars’ deaths’ figures. Wide areas of India, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and even Bhutan now, are prone to terrorist acts.
In the future, new devastating forms of attacks may appear and will cause huge human and environmental damages to the local populations and states. Therefore, studying contemporary terrorism without referring to Asia would be incomplete.
Not unlike Buddhism, Muslims are divided into two major branches-the Sunni and the Shia, or Shiites. The Sunni is by far the larger with 80 percent of Muslims worldwide. Shiites, who added twelve ‘Imams’, make up about 15 percent of Muslims constituting a majority in Iran, Iraq, and Bahrain.
Typical for most sects in their transformation to a religion, on Muhammad's death in 632, the question arose as to who should assume the role of successor. The Sunnis believed that the caliph should be elected by tribal chiefs, the Shiites (the party of Ali), succession should follow the bloodline. Ali was the Prophet's cousin and son-in-law, having married Muhammad's daughter Fatima. (Muhammad himself had no sons who survived to adulthood.)
The Sunni majority
itself is divided into four schools of fiqh, or Islamic jurisprudence:
Hanafi, Shafii, Maliki, and Hanbali. Developed during the eighth and ninth
centuries, they provided legal opinions based on the Qur'an.
Each of these
are recognized as equally legitimate by nearly all Sunni Muslims, with
the notable exception of the Wahhabis, who form the Hanbali school and
are more "orthodox".
AI-Wahab sought to return Islam to its earliest form by cleansing the religion of what he regarded as un-Islamic practices like for example, the Shiites' veneration of the twelve ‘Imams’ or/and the believe in a ‘Mahdi’ a future or present, conqueror that will spread Islam (Ayatollah Khomeini was Shiite, thus he couls issue his own fatwa’s like that against Salmon Rushdie). Wahhabis on the other hand believe that only a literal reading of the Qur'an can provide the basis for Sharia, or Islamic law, with both groups believing in ‘Jihad’ however.
Thus early 1979, capitalizing n popular discontent with the U.S.-backed shah, the Shia cleric Ayatollah uhollah Khomeini led a successful revolution and set up a conservative Islamic theocracy in Iran. And soon after, Iran began trying to export its conservative Islamic revolution to other parts of the Muslim world. And with the latest election results in Iraq (December 17, 2005) a similar Islamic theocracy seems set to be implemented also in Iraq, with the U.S. leaning Kurds, having already established their own semi-separate state.
Though its international reach may not match that of Iran or al-Qaeda, Jemaah Islamiyah (known from the two Bali bombings) is one of the most important international Islamist terrorist organizations. Founded in Malaysia by two Indonesian Salafists of Yemeni origin, JI is a Southeast Asian organization with branches in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Singapore. There are also marginal JI groups in Myanmar, Cambodia, and Australia.
Originating before al-Qaeda, JI has established ties with bin Laden's organization and often serves as al-Qaeda's arm in Southeast Asia. In fact many JI members were trained in al-Qaeda camps and fought in Afghanistan.
I's interpretation of Islam has similarity’s with the communities of Aceh, the northernmost province of Sumatra. Otherwise the Islamic beliefs of many Indonesian Muslims are basically syncretic (incorporating local customs), and a literal interpretation of the Qur'an is restricted to a minority of believers.
Thus JI's goal is to create a caliphate, ruled by Islamic law, in the entire region spanning from Myanmar in the west to the Philippines in the east. The group's members hope this Islamic state will in time become part of the larger caliphate that al-Qaeda and others envision, as governing the worldwide Muslim community.
Occasionally, Islamist terrorist organizations receive help from governments (many, though not all, of these groups operate legally and in the open, through an affiliated non-governmental organization or political party). Sometimes, for political or strategic reasons, Muslim governments support Islamists in neighboring states. For example, Kashmiri separatists have long received assistance and encouragement from a succession of Pakistani governments, both democratic and military, as did the Taliban in Afghanistan before its fall in late 2001. In other cases, the financial help comes from more distant sources-such as the governments and citizens of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states (United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain), or even Shiite Iran. Some Islamist groups fund their terrorist attacks through a variety of criminal activities, including kidnapping for ransom (successfully applied in Iraq the past few years), drug smuggling, theft, bank robbery, and credit card fraud-methods also used by European radical Muslims to finance their own terrorist operations. See details in the attached article that presents an in-depth research about where the money comes from, so at this point then let me proceed with a rundown of the various countries I have been referring to in the introduction so far.
Bangladesh
The militant Islamist groups of Bangladesh are a potentially important political force for several reasons. First, they have ties to the powerful military-which over the course of Bangladesh's brief history has repeatedly intervened in the running of the government. In addition, Bangladesh suffers from extreme poverty, widespread official corruption, and weak rule of law. Under these circumstances, militant Islamic groups may hold considerable attraction. Some analysts fear that Bangladesh, with the fourth largest Muslim population in the world, is being drawn into the whirlpool of Islamist radicalism.
The local Islamist group, Jamaat-e-Islami, has joined the political process. In 2001 the group gained 17 of the 300 seats in Bangladesh's Parliament and became part of the ruling coalition of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Jamaat-e-Islami's leader, Motiur Rahman Nizami, and his colleague Ali Ahsan are members of the cabinet. The party's youth wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir, is part of an international structure of Islamist youth groups, which includes the International Islamic Federation of Student Organizations and the World Assembly of Muslim Youth. The youth group leaders, trained in Deobandi madrassas, are influential at Chittagong University, located in the major Bangladesh city of the same name. Youth members have been involved in the assassinations of secular party activists, such as Gopal Krishna Muhuri, a leading secular humanist and principal of Chittagong's Nazirhat College.
Supporters of Jamaat-e-Islami shout anti-Israel and anti-U.S. slogans during a demonstration in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
But Jamaat-e-Islami is not the only radical Islamist group in Bangladesh. Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (the Party of Islamic Jihad), led by Shawkat Osman (also known by his alias, Sheikh Farid), has strong and well-known ties to Osama bin Laden. The organization, formed in 1992, was one of the groups that forced author Taslima Nasrin, a critic of Islam's treatment of women, into exile by putting a price on her head in 1993. Fazlul Rahman, leader of the Jihad Movement in Bangladesh, was one of the original signatories of Osama bin Laden’s jihad declaration.
When that time President General Bhutto suggested that Pakistan recognize Bangladesh as an independent country (December 1971), the Jamaat-e-Islami led a campaign against the recognition "Bangladesh na-manzoor" (Bangladesh is unacceptable). But where earlier President Kennedy displayed a readiness, to extend America's nuclear umbrella to India in 1963 (because of China), this was not the case of America during the East Pakistan conflict.
For our in depth study about Bangladesh continue here first P.1.
Cambodia
Often referred to as "Khmer Islam", the Cham have practiced a form of Islam noted for its syncretic elements. The Cham clergy, like their Buddhist counterparts, shave their heads and faces. They also dress completely in white and believe in the power of magic and sorcery. After their near destruction during the Khmer Rouge period, many impoverished Cham communities have come under the influence of Saudi-financed Wahhabi preachers. While the Cham and the radical Islamists in their midst still constitute a very small minority, the flow of money in support of a radical Islamist ideology is a trend that bears watching.
Pakistan
Founded specifically for the Indian subcontinent's Muslims, Pakistan remains an overwhelmingly Muslim country (according to a recent estimate, percent of Pakistanis follow Islam). But the Muslim population is dividbetween a Sunni majority and a substantial Shiite minority. More import, however, considerable tensions exist between those who favor a more ular society and government and Islamic fundamentalists who want cistan to follow the Sharia. Pakistan has been a major source of Islamist "orism.
Pakistan ("Land of the Pure" in Urdu, the country's main language) t a substantial amount of territory in the 1971 war that led to the crem of Bangladesh, but it nonetheless retains certain advantages over st other Muslim states. Under British rule, it developed a large and npetent educated class. And Pakistani scientists were able to set up a :cessful nuclear-weapons program; the country detonated its first test nb in 1998, becoming the only Muslim-majority country in the nuclear lb."
Pakistan's Deobandi school of thought is one of the three major wellings of Islamist terrorism today. (The other two are Egypt's Muslim .therhood and the Saudi Wahhabis.) Islamist terrorism in Pakistan has landed in two directions. First, terrorists have targeted the Pakistani 'ernment, which they regard as insufficiently Islamic. At least four ~mpts have been made on the life of President Pervez Musharraf, a genI who came to power as the result of a 1999 military coup. Musharraf ticularly angered Islamist militants by cooperating with the United tes in its "war on terrorism." Suicide bombers have also unsuccessfultargeted Pakistani prime ministers. A 2004 attempt on the life of mkat Aziz, an influential finance minister whom Musharraf promoted the post of prime minister, left at least nine people dead. Second, cistani-based Islamic terrorism has targeted India, especially over the Kashmir issue. Islamic fundamentalists want to separate Muslim-majority Kashmir from India (and, as noted previously, the Pakistani government ; sponsored their efforts). percent of Pakistanis follow Islam). But the Muslim population is dividbetween a Sunni majority and a substantial Shiite minority. More import, however, considerable tensions exist between those who favor a more ular society and government and Islamic fundamentalists who want cistan to follow the Sharia. Pakistan has been a major source of Islamist "orism.
Pakistan ("Land of the Pure" in Urdu, the country's main language) t a substantial amount of territory in the 1971 war that led to the crem of Bangladesh, but it nonetheless retains certain advantages over st other Muslim states. Under British rule, it developed a large and npetent educated class. And Pakistani scientists were able to set up a :cessful nuclear-weapons program; the country detonated its first test nb in 1998, becoming the only Muslim-majority country in the nuclear lb."
Pakistan's Deobandi school of thought is one of the three major wellings of Islamist terrorism today. (The other two are Egypt's Muslim .therhood and the Saudi Wahhabis.) Islamist terrorism in Pakistan has landed in two directions. First, terrorists have targeted the Pakistani 'ernment, which they regard as insufficiently Islamic. Pervez Musharraf, who came to power as the result of a 1999 military coup, recently angered Islamist militants by cooperating with the United States in its "war on terrorism." Islamic fundamentalists want to separate Muslim-majority Kashmir from India and, the Pakistani government sponsored their efforts.
Just when India and Pakistan agreed on an opening of the border of Kashmir to finally, allow help for victims of the 8 October earthquake, Inquilab a previously unknown group targeted two crowded marketplaces and a bus in New Delhi killing more than 70 people. Inquilab, claimed responsibility on Sunday for the explosions saying it was against the acts of security forces in Jammu and Kashmir. In a video apparently taped on Oct. 9, but released Oct. 23, al-Zawahiri now pleads for the Muslim world to speed aid to those affected by the recent earthquake in the Kashmir region. Thus it appears that al Qaeda's access to communication facilities remains uninterrupted. However al-Zawahiri - who now has appeared in six videotapes since the beginning of 2005 - made no mention of Osama bin Laden or his welfare. Two weeks later millions of survivors are facing the threat of a second catastrophe because Pakistan led aid is not reaching many victims trapped in cold mountain areas. Group says Pakistan armee hoards quake aid. In the meantime an MI6/SAS team has joined US Special Forces in earthquake-devastated Balakot to search for Osama Bin Laden....
Asked at the United Nations 2005 World Summit why Pakistan was one of the nations that objected to nonproliferation: "Pakistan is against nonproliferation because it is always accompanied by disarmament." On February 4, 2004, Pakistan's military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, told Pakistan's newspaper editors in Islamabad, "Pakistan has two vital national interests: Being a nuclear state and the Kashmir cause."
For our in-depth
study about Pakistan continue to:
Indonesia
More than 200 million Indonesians follow Islam, giving Indonesia the largest Muslim population in the world. It is also the main focus of Islamist terrorism in Southeast Asia and one of the most important centers for terrorism on the planet. Geography constitutes a major advantage for the terrorists: the country consists of more than 13,000 islands, and it is all but impossible for the government to control the entirety of its far-flung territory.
Like elsewhere,
Islam was introduced to Indonesia both through military conquest,
plus as happened in most other Muslim-majority countries, through
missionary activities that followed traditional trade routes across the
Indian Ocean. Largely for this reason, many aspects of other religions
were included in Indonesian Islamic practice. Some islands, especially
Bali and Irian Jaya, did not even convert to Islam, and some, like the
Maluku and Sulawesi islands, were Christianized by Dutch colonizers. Still
others, especially Sumatra (the Indonesian island closest to the Middle
East), adopted a much stricter form of Islam.
Islamist terrorism
in Indonesia is largely represented by Jemaah Islamiyah (Islamic Society),
or JI. The organization, which has longstanding ties with al-Qaeda, is
also active in neighboring countries, especially Malaysia, the Philippines,
and Singapore, as well as the more distant Thailand and Cambodia. Other
militant organizations in Indonesia include the Front Pembela Islam (Islamic
Defenders Front) and Laskar Jundullah. The Front Pembela Islam was formed
in 1998 and is led by Saudi-educated Habib Muhammad Rizieq Shihab. Many
of its leaders are at least part Arab. Laskar Jundullah, the military wing
of the Indonesian Mujahideen Council, belongs to the Committee for the
Establishment of Shariah Law in Indonesia and may have connections with
JI.
Training in
the JI refers to the Arabic word Dar Al Islam, the term literally
translates as "the abode ofIslam" or "house ofIslam" - a reference to the
Medina community foundedpy prophet Muhammed. Over more than. five decades,
Darul has spawned many offshoots and splinters who committed violent
actsin the name of jihad. In fact, it is impossible tohave a clear and
comprehensive understanding of all jihadist movements without looking
at the development of Darul Islam.
As for Indonesia, Sekarmadji Maridjan Kartosuwirjo started an indigenous Islamic rebellion on August 7, 1949 - just when Indonesia was gaining independence from the Dutch colonial rule. Disappointed with the newly formed Indonesian Republic headed by Sukarno, Kartosuwirjo proclaimed his own Indonesian Islamic State (NIl) in opposition to the Jakarta's central government. Areas of West Java under NIl control were called "Darul Islam." An estimated 15,000 to 20,000 people died during the ensuing thirteen-year rebellion, which was finally crushed in 1962. Kartosuwirjo was captured and executed by a firing squad. But that was far from the end of Darul Islam.
After the overthrow of the Sukarno regime, the fortunes of Darul Islam turned. Virulently opposed to the godless communists, Darul veterans played a strong role in the fight against communism, from the mid -1960s through the 1980s. All Islamic organisations, induding Darul Islam, enthusiastically backed the CIAorchestrated coup (from 1965 to 1966) that installed the Suharto dictatorship and resulted in the massacre of an estimated 500,000 Communist Party members, workers, and sympathisers.
Today, the objective of Darul Islam remains the same as its initial purpose: to establish an Islamic state in Indonesia. But they claim that they would never dream of using violence to achieve the goal. Non-Muslims are not the enemy, they say; rather, the enemy is the state ideology of Pancasila - a mere creation of humans.
On should note however that of the 88 percent of Indonesians who are Muslim today, half if not more, lead secular lives.
For our more detailed background study of Indonesia plus other countries in the region proceed to: Shaping Languages and Nationalities in Indonesia, Pakistan and India.
Malaysia
To a very large extent, Malaysia is a colonial British creation. It was formed from relatively autonomous Muslim polities (including the sultanates of Kelantan and Negri Sembilan). Many of its constituent states are still technically ruled by dynasties. Although Islam is the official state religion, only about 6 in 10 Malaysians are Muslim, according to the government's 2000 census figures.
Malaysia has been less affected by militant Islamism than other countries with Muslim majorities. But that is not to say the country is immune from Islamist extremist groups. The country's foremost terrorist organization, Kumpulan Mujahideen Malaysia (KMM), is believed to have ties with JI. Established in 1995 by an Afghani named Zainon Ismail, KMM is also suspected of coordinating with a radical group based in Indonesia known as Mujahideen Kompak.
A small number of Thai Islamic secessionists are believed to have found safe haven in the Malaysian sultanates close to the Thailand border. Some analysts expect this trend to grow in coming years.
The Philippines
Spain colonized the Philippines in the 16th century, but the Spanish managed to exercise complete control only on Luzon and the other large islands. The United States took possession of the Philippines after defeating Spain in the Spanish-American War of 1898. The islands gained commonwealth status in 1935 and became fully independent in 1946, following World War II.
The Philippines is Asia's only Roman Catholic-majority state. Most Filipinos have Spanish names, speak English as a second language to their native Tagalog, and are practicing Catholics. However, Muslims constitute a large minority on the second-largest island, Mindanao, and its neighboring islands. Alienation is a common experience among this group. Secessionist Muslim movements have been active since the 1980s, first under the leadership of the Moro Liberation Front and now under the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). (A Spanish term originally used to denote a member of the Arab-Berber Muslim people who conquered Spain in the eighth century, Moro, or "Moor," is now used to signify any Filipino Muslim.) The main goal of the Filipino Moros is to separate the Muslim majority islands from the Philippines. While many Muslim activists in the Philippines are not terrorists, there are at least two major Islamist terrorist organizations in the country, Abu Sayyaf (named after the sword of an early Islamic militant), and the local branch of JI. Both of the groups occasionally cooperate with the MILE Abu Sayyaf has long-standing ties with al-Qaeda. Its founder, the late Abdurajak Janjalani (killed in a shoot-out with security forces in 1998), was a veteran of al-Qaeda's terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. Abu Sayyaf specializes in kidnapping foreigners for ransom, and it is especially active on the island of Basilan. Its membership is estimated at a few hundred at most.
Singapore
Its population of about 4.3 million is multiethnic (with a Chinese majority and significant Malay and Indian minorities) and multireligious'(including Buddhists, Muslims, Christians, Taoists, and Sikhs).
Singapore is noted for its tight social control, and currently allows the detention of suspects for up to two years without trial. This has certainly mitigated the risk of terrorist attacks within Singapore's borders.
Nevertheless, Islamist terrorists from other countries in the region have used Singapore as a base in the past; the island offers easy access to nearby areas of Muslim extremist activity (including Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines). In addition, as a hub of business and commercial activity, Singapore itself has a wealth of potential targets for terrorist attacks. Its maritime commercial lines, essential to Singapore's economy, are believed to be particularly vulnerable.
In 2001 Singapore authorities rolled up a Jemaah Islamiyah cell that had been surveying potential targets since 1997. Most of the 15 JI members involved were Singapore residents, and 8 had spent time in al-Qaeda training camps.
In October 2001, JI members assisted two al-Qaeda operatives as they videotaped potential targets in Singapore, including visiting U.S. Navy vessels and personnel; U.S. aircraft and facilities; the embassies of the United States, Israel, the United Kingdom, and Australia; the Singapore Ministry of Defense complex; and office buildings housing U.S. firms. U.S. authorities caught wind of the danger when the videotape of the surveillance mission was found in the rubble of an al-Qaeda house in Afghanistan. In early December 2001, they alerted Singapore of the cell members' activities.
Between December
9 and 24, Singapore authorities made the arrests.
By that point,
the JI members had already stored 3.9 tons of ammonium nitrate, commonly
used in large vehicle bombs, and were lOOKIng LU acquire another 16.7 tons.
Thailand
Thailand is one of the few Asian countries that has never known European colonial rule except for Japan during WWII. As Siam, it ruled over non-Thai areas in what are today Cambodia and Malaysia. The Thais are largely of southern Chinese origin and are overwhelmingly Buddhist. But the country's four southernmost provinces-Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat, and Satun-which were annexed by the Siamese kingdom in the 19th century, are ethnically Malay and Muslim. Islamist activities are largely limited to these provinces, a region conquered but never assimilated by Siam's Buddhist regimes.
Until recently Thailand's "southern problem" was an ethnic one (though the government in Bangkok steadfastly denied the existence of any problem at all). However, it was discovered that JI had first developed the plans for the 2002 Bali bombings during meetings in Thailand earlier that year. And in 2003 JI planned attacks on Western embassies and tourist sites in Thailand, although these were uncovered and prevented.
More recently
however the influx of Islamists accros the border from Mallaysia has delloped
to a real 'insurgency' by today. In October 2005
Gen Panlop
Pinmanee, deputy director of the Internal SeGurityOperations Command criticised
state mechanisms and security forces in charge of tackling violence in
the deep South.
He said some 3,000 key militants scattered in southern villages had been trained in Libya.
"The militants currently use hit-andrun tactics. And if the state continues to send in more troops and put them in particular spots, they will continue to lose, " he told a forum of Isoc executives. "So far we have employed lots of troops to hunt them (militants) down because we fear for the safety of our own men. If it's a one-on-one duel, they can't beat us except when we really run out ofluck. On October 25, 2005, five bombs targeted security officers and government offices in Yala and Pattani and killed a civilian in Narathiwat.
FOR UPDATES CONTINUE TO:
