THE LONG REACH OF ISIS- IN INDONESIA

Posted By on March 28th, 2015

http://blogs.wsj.com/briefly/2015/03/27/isis-in-indonesia-the-short-answer/

Islamic State is providing “fresh oxygen” to extremist groups in Muslim-majority Indonesia, says National Police Inspector-General Tito Karnavian. And that is stirring worries that terrorist attacks, which have fallen off in recent years, could make a resurgence if people going to fight with Islamic State, sometimes referred to as ISIS or ISIL, return home with a hardened sense of militancy and sophisticated combat training. Police say 159 Indonesian citizens that they’ve identified have gone abroad to join the terrorist group–but they believe the actual number is far larger.

Security expert Sidney Jones, director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, says some of these people are taking their families. “It is a serious problem, and it’s getting bigger,” she said. What impact could ISIS have on Indonesia, and how is the government working to curb the danger? Here’s the short answer.

  • Why are more families going?

    One factor is the opportunity to live in an Islamic state where Islamic law is applied in full, said Ms. Jones. That appeal is then combined with a stipend that is often given to families to cover the costs of housing, food and education. Ms. Jones says she noticed a growing number of families heading to Syria in mid-2014, when people started to discuss the benefits they were receiving in Aleppo on Facebook. Economic factors do creative incentives that make it easier to get abroad, said Mr. Karnavian, a former head of Indonesia’s counter-terrorism police. But ideology drives most people. Because they see the territory as the legitimate ground for jihad, he said, they are going to join the ranks – and taking their families with them.

  • How are they getting there?

    ISIS supporters need both financing and connections to an already existing extremist network, say security analysts. To fund their travel, “People are either selling off their own goods,” said Ms. Jones, “or they’re getting contributions or donations from some wealthier members of [their] network.” They have mostly traveled in small groups, said Mr. Karnavian. But the new modus operandi is to go via tour group. In late February, a group of 16 people went missing after breaking away from one such tour.

  • How is the government trying to stop the flow?

    Many analysts and officials say the government doesn’t currently have the legal tools to effectively curb support for ISIS. Supporters cannot be arrested or detained under law, and it’s not illegal for Indonesians to travel overseas for military training. Some officials are pushing for stronger regulations. In the meantime, police say they’re working to intensify monitoring and intelligence operations. In the past week, authorities said they have arrested several people suspected of having links to ISIS, including a man who allegedly helped with recruitment. Concerns about online recruitment peaked earlier this month when a video appeared showing young, gun-toting boys being trained for combat. The Ministry of Information and Communications Technology says it is working to patrol websites and social media and shut down those it considers to contain radical content. In addition, the Foreign Ministry has asked its overseas embassies to stay in touch with its nationals and inform them of the danger of joining radical groups, ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir said recently.

  • How much danger could 159 Indonesian radicals pose to Indonesia?

    Ms. Jones says it is important to look at how much havoc radicals returning from Afghanistan were able to wreak in the early 2000s. Nearly 200 Indonesians trained in al Qaeda-linked camps in Afghanistan the 1980s and ‘90s, Mr. Karnavian said. Many of them later linked up with extremist networks and waged terror attacks back in Indonesia. In a much shorter space of time, more Indonesians are going to join ISIS than ever went to Afghanistan, Ms. Jones said. The question to ask then, she said, is what is the consequence globally when all of these people who have made contacts with each other don’t have anything to do?

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