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GLOBAL JIHAD in SOUTHEAST ASIA Examining the Expansion of the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda

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GLOBAL JIHAD in SOUTHEAST ASIA Examining the Expansion of the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda GLOBAL JIHAD IN SOUTHEAST ASIA – GLOBAL DIIS · Danish Institute for International Studies Southeast Asia has been called a second front for Islamic State following the The Danish Institute for International Studies is a leading recent pushback in Syria and Iraq. It is a new theatre for the Islamic State (IS) public institute for independent research and analysis of movement, whereas al-Qaeda (AQ) has been present in the region since the Examining the expansion of Islamic State and al-Qaeda international affairs. We conduct and communicate turn of the century. Through four studies, this book specifically zooms in on multidisciplinary research on globalisation, security, the presence of IS and AQ activity in selected countries in Southeast Asia, development and foreign policy. DIIS aims to use our namely the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. research results to influence the agenda in research, policy and public debate, and we put great effort into Looking into the four cases it appears that this region has the potential to informing policymakers and the public of our results and teach us something about how local insurgencies, democratic transitions, their possible applications. nationalist struggles, and polarised debates about the state and religion all Defence and Security Studies at DIIS matter for explaining the occurrence of transnational jihad. Most interestingly, This publication is part of the Defence and Security the book raises the question of why some local conflicts in the region escalate Studies at DIIS. The aim of these studies is to provide and are redefined as part of a global ideological battle, while others maintain multidisciplinary in-depth knowledge on topics that are a local focal point. central for Danish defence and security policy, both current and long-term. The design and the conclusions Based on field trips, interviews as well as secondary materials, the four of the research under the Defence and Security Studies authors contribute to an understanding of why transnational jihadist are entirely independent. Conclusions do not reflect the movements like al-Qaeda and IS, with their regional and global agendas, find views of the ministries or any other government agency space in the local milieus of the Southeast Asian states. Most importantly, involved, nor do they constitute an official DIIS position. the volume seeks to contribute comparative insight into the question of why Additional information about DIIS and our Defence and GLOBAL JIHAD Islamic State and al-Qaeda can gain a foothold in new places, and what Security Studies can be found at www.diis.dk exactly the global-local dynamics are. One of the points that this volume makes is that while strategic decision-making and expansionist ambitions IN SOUTHEAST ASIA from their core leadership have a role to play, local contexts and conflicts are Examining the expansion of the Islamic State and al-Qaeda also important for the appeal of transnational jihadist movements. 9 788776 059736 DIIS· DANISH INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES Østbanegade 117 DK-2100 Copenhagen Denmark www.diis.dk Edited by Mona Kanwal Sheikh GLOBAL JIHAD IN SOUTHEAST ASIA Examining the expansion of the Islamic State and al-Qaeda Mona Kanwal Sheikh Lars Erslev Andersen Nicholas Chan Hara Shintaro Table of contents The traction of transnational jihad in Southeast Asia 7 Mona Kanwal Sheikh Transnational jihadism in the Philippines 19 Lars Erslev Andersen Islamic State and al-Qaeda in a thriving Indonesian democracy 39 Mona Kanwal Sheikh From Jemaah Islamiyah to Islamic State in Malaysia 59 Nicholas Chan The risks of transnational jihadism in Thailand 81 Hara Shintaro Biographies 97 This book is published by DIIS as part of the Defence and Security Studies DIIS · Danish Institute for International Studies Østbanegade 117, DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark Tel: +45 32 69 87 87 E-mail: [email protected] www.diis.dk Layout: Lone Ravnkilde Printed in Denmark by Tarm Bogtryk a/s ISBN 978-87-7605-973-6 (print) ISBN 978-87-7605-975-0 (pdf) DIIS publications can be downloaded free of charge or ordered from www.diis.dk © Copenhagen 2019, the authors and DIIS THAILAND THE TRACTION OF TRANSNATIONAL JIHAD IN SOUTHEAST ASIA o By Mona Kanwal Sheikh K Lr K MALAYSIA rta In 2019, five years after the caliphate was declared, the Islamic State movement INDONESIA was driven out of the last pocket of land it held in the Syrian desert. This does not mean that the Islamic State and its supporters have disappeared from Syria and Iraq, but it has taken away their territorial privilege. While one of the defining traits of Manila contemporary jihadism is that it is a transnational and global ideology that attracts foreign fighters, not only from neighbouring countries, but also across regions, it also represents a conflict that has in itself proven an extraordinary ability to travel across borders, regions and continents. One of the concerns that this raises is PHILIPPINES whether IS has the ability to establish itself and control areas on new battlefields – as it has already tried to do in the Philippines and Libya to a certain extent – besides continuing to fight in Iraq and Syria. A recent UN report states that despite the defeat of the so-called caliphate, the Islamic State ‘has continued its evolution into a mainly covert network’.1 This is true not only in the Middle East but also in Africa, the Arab peninsula and Asia. The Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka of 21 April 2019 shook the world, as they not only displayed the appalling spread of IS ideology, but also that local jihadi movements and actors may embrace the IS brand and carry out attacks in unexpected places. The bombings targeted at churches and luxury hotels in three cities and seven locations in Sri Lanka were conducted by two local groups: National Tawheed Jamath (NTJ) and Jammiyathul Millathu Ibrahim (JMI). Some of the suicide bombers had travelled to Syria, while others involved were believed to have studied IS methods before the attacks. However, investigations revealed that the core leadership in Syria/ Iraq did not direct or facilitate the attacks, nor did it know about them in advance.2 6 GLOBAL JIHAD IN SOUTHEAST ASIA GLOBAL JIHAD IN SOUTHEAST ASIA 7 In order to understand these types of dynamics behind transnational jihadism, this SOUTHEAST ASIA CALLING FOR ATTENTION volume zooms in on the presence of IS and AQ activity in selected countries in Southeast Asia, namely the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. The Recent IS and AQ activity is obviously not only limited to Southeast Asia, but appears overall question that the chapters seek to illuminate is why transnational jihadist in other regions as well, which also deserve attention. The case of Southeast Asia is, movements like AQ and the Islamic State, with their regional and global agendas. however, intriguing, not least because it provides some special contextual features find space in the local milieus of Southeast Asian states? The authors of the as compared to the Middle East such as: non-Arab culture and language, Muslim chapters also reflect on the degree to which IS/AQ presence is orchestrated the minority countries (in this volume the cases of the Philippines and Thailand), in central leadership of the movements. some instances conflictual relations between Buddhists and Muslims, and a political tradition of accommodating Islamist parties.5 The volume is a continuation of earlier research conducted at DIIS on the dynamics behind IS/AQ expansion (Sheikh 2018) and the relationship between AQ, IS and At the same time the region calls for more attention since not much has been local jihadist movements (Crone 2016).3 It seeks to mediate the cleavages in the written comparatively about IS/AQ in Southeast Asia outside regional think tank academic and think tank literature that either stresses the importance of the reports.6 Recent developments and news reports point to the risk that Southeast strategy and ideology of the central leadership of AQ and IS, or alternatively the Asia is becoming the new theatre for IS as it has already been for AQ for some defining significance of understanding the local context in explaining why trans- decades. Some observers have even called Southeast Asia the ‘second front’ for IS, national jihadist ideas find resonance and recruits.4 The development undoubtedly arguing that Islamic State have strategically eyed Southeast Asia as their new depends on the local context: its history, political tensions, local conflicts, grievances hotspot since the pushback in Syria and Iraq.7 and cleavages. But strategic decision-making from the core leadership also seems to matter. Reports from 2018 indicate that IS have formally added a new Southeast Asian province to their landscape of IS provinces: Wilayat Sharq Asiyya.8 From an IS The chapters of this volume do not set out theoretical contributions to the larger perspective the self-declared province spans Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, academic debate on foreign fighters, terrorist motivations, transnationalisation or Philippines, Southern Thailand and Myanmar.9 Before this IS had allegedly also conflict extension, but should be read as ‘raw’ empirical contributions that can declared two ‘local’ provinces in the southern Philippines, one known as Wilayat certainly inform theory-making. The chapters are based on field trips, interviews and Filipines, and the other as East Asia Wilayat.10 The first militants from the region secondary materials. Most importantly the volume seeks to inject comparative declared their pledge of allegiance in mid-2014 (for example Isnilon Hapilon of insight into the question of why Islamic State and al-Qaeda can gain a foothold in the Philippine-based Abu Sayyaf Group, and Santoso of the Eastern Indonesia new places, and what the global-local dynamics are. Each of the four chapters also Mujahideen [MIT]).
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