The largest regional terror groups
are detailed in the map above:
Notes: 1. Jemaah Islamiyah is one of
the most influential Southeast Asian Islamist terrorist group, which is dedicated to
the establishment of a Daulah Islamiyah (regional Islamic caliphate) in
Southeast Asia. 2. Laskar Jihad is an Islamist and anti –
Christian Indonesian militia which has more than 10,000 members. 3.
Islamic Defenders Front was founded in 1998, with its members all over 22
Indonesian provinces. The majority of its leadership are of Arabic descent. 4.
Abu Sayyaf is a small and violent group based in Philippines. It aims at
regional independence. 5. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front is the biggest
terrorist group in Philippines. It has more than 35,000 members and is funded
by Islamic extremist groups in Malaysia, Pakistan and Middle East.
The terror attacks in Jakarta earlier this month have returned ISIS and
other Islamic extremist groups to the forefront of world attention. The bloody
strike in the capital’s downtown district on Jan. 14 left eight dead, including
four civilians and four militants.
Indonesian police say they received
warning of the ISIS attack as far back as November. Anton Charliyan, a
police spokesman, said the warning indicated the danger of a concerted terror
attack on Indonesian soil.
Not long ago, the Indonesian
security forces initiated a nationwide investigation and arrested a militant
known as Santoso, He headed an extremist group that pledged loyalty to ISIS. He
was collared along with several ISIS supporters who were planning local terror
strikes.
However, looking around in Southeast
Asia, Santoso was only one of a large number of “overseas jihadists” that had
pledged loyalty to ISIS. Indonesia alone houses at least seven Islamist
extremist groups that support ISIS.
Some analysts suggest that ISIS
wants to establish satellite cities in Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia,
which houses the world’s largest Muslim population.
Right now ISIS has not created
branches in Southeast Asian countries, where there is a large Muslim
population. Only a few hundred fighters from Southeast Asia have made their way
to areas in Syria and Iraq that are now under ISIS’ control.
Nonetheless, ISIS has crafted a
beneficial recruitment strategy in the region, especially in Indonesia. They
cooperate with local extremist groups to recruit and train fighters, and then
send them to Syria or Iraq, or keep them on call in the region.
Since local terror groups are very
adept at mobilizing their forces, some worry that ISIS-trained fighters from
Southeast Asia will return from the Middle East to organize extremist
supporters in the region. This will allow them to mobilize large numbers of
fighters to launch attacks.
New
Southeast Asian terror front?
A report from USAID says that ISIS
is yet to pose a significant security threat in Southeast Asia. But once ISIS
loses momentum in Middle East (as appears to be the case), it could easily turn
to Southeast Asia and the aforementioned countries to create a new front for
its terror activities.
The most likely situation at this
time is that some ISIS-trained extremists will be unable to reach the Middle
East due to stepped up border security in that region. Stuck nearer to home,
they could then carry out attacks on local governments, foreigners and
civilians.
Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of
al-Qaeda, recently issued a series of recordings, in the newest of which he
claimed that jihadists in Southeast Asia were ready for revival.
It now seems that the world’s two
main terror groups — ISIS and al-Qaeda — have come to the same conclusion that
Southeast Asia is a key strategic region, and this region could well
become the next front line in the fight against global terror.
This
article was first published in Chinese on Jan. 14, 2015 by The Initium Media, a
Hong Kong-based digital media company. Asia Times has translated it with
permission with editing for brevity and clarity. By Song Ningyu and Nadiya, Initium Media
Translated for Asia
Times by Jiawen Guo
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