Indonesian Radicals Teaming Up, Experts Warn

Security analysts warned on Wednesday of growing alliances between hard-line Muslim groups and fundamentalists with close ties to terrorist cells, as the nation is gripped by a string of religiously motivated violence. Sidney Jones of the International Crisis Group said fundamentalist groups like Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid, led by firebrand cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, and Mujahidin Kompak usually did not see eye to eye with groups like the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) and the Islamic People’s Forum (FUI), which Jones described as “moralist thugs.”

“There used to be a division and clear lines between the jihadis and the moralist thugs who have a more local agenda,” Jones told a discussion hosted by the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club in Jakarta on Wednesday.

The stated goal of JAT, which has links to convicted terrorists, is to implement Shariah law across the archipelago, while Mujahidin Kompak was linked to sectarian violence in Ambon in Maluku and Poso in Central Sulawesi.

However, Jones said there now appeared to be a merging of extremist agendas against Muslim sects deemed deviant, such as the Ahmadiyah, and so-called Christianization.

The senior researcher said an absence of clear leadership among fundamentalists and the success of the morally conservative in pushing for Shariah-inspired bylaws and regulations such as the Anti-Pornography Law and the anti-Ahmadiyah decree had led the two factions to cooperate.

Elements within the JAT are known to have collaborated with milder organizations like the FPI, the FUI, the Indonesian Islamic Propagation Council (DDII) and the Islamic Youth Movement (GPI) in forming the anti-apostasy movements under various names that have been advocating the disbandment of churches.

In September, hard-liners stabbed and assaulted two church leaders in Bekasi after the formation of the Bekasi Anti-Apostasy Forum, an umbrella group for various radical organizations.

The FUI is also showing support for Bashir, now on trial at the South Jakarta District Court for supporting an alleged terrorist training camp in Aceh last year.

“The [fundamentalists] are using less militant groups as a source of potential recruits,” terrorism analyst Noor Huda Ismail told the discussion. “The FPI and FUI are using JAT’s vast international connections for funding.”

The issues of Ahmadiyah and Christianization, Ismail said, are being politicized to bring the two factions together.

“These groups would not normally form a coalition because of the huge ideological and tactical differences between them, but these issues are glue that binds them together,” he said.

Fundamentalists may have a more sinister plan in forming coalitions with the morally conservative. Fundamentalists are looking to create another war zone in the hopes that more people will be drawn toward jihad. Jakarta Globe