Religious leaders are warning that the National Police’s plan to monitor sermons during Ramadan to prevent the spread of extremism will offend and anger Muslims, and be viewed as a repeat of tactics employed during the Suharto regime.
The plan could also further increase tensions between security forces and the public after some local airports recently began conducting extra security checks of passengers wearing Muslim robes and veils.
The National Police announced on Friday that it planned special surveillance of religious speeches during Ramadan to prevent hard-line Islamist groups from using the fasting month ceremonies to spread radical views and provoke congregations into carrying out terrorist acts.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has said he wants to tackle the root causes of Islamic extremism following deadly attacks on two luxury hotels in Jakarta last month. The bombings shattered a four-year lull in attacks and came after the world's most populous Muslim country appeared to be tackling the problem of extremism by arresting hundreds of suspects and launching a de-radicalisation programme.
Here are some questions and answers on what policies Indonesia could pursue.
WHAT ABOUT INDONESIAN LAWS TO TACKLE RADICALISM?
Some officials and analysts have said Indonesia needs tougher laws to fight extremism. Neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore still have colonial-era internal security acts in place that allow for lengthy detention without trial. While many observers do not favour such draconian measures, some think Indonesia needs greater powers to hold suspects.
"There needs to be a legal umbrella to give enough time for de-radicalisation to work," said Ansyaad Mbai, the head of the counter-terrorism desk at the security ministry, who labels Indonesia's laws among the softest in the world. The detention period without charge is seven days in Indonesia, while terrorism offences can mean the death penalty. But executing militants does risk making them into martyrs, with last year's execution of the Bali bombers attracting a big turnout of radical Islamists for their funerals.
WHAT ABOUT THE INFRASTRUCTURE OF RADICALISM?
"There's a huge capacity of terrorist regeneration in Indonesia because the ideological and supporting infrastructure of the terrorist network has not been dismantled," said Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert based in Singapore. There are concerns extremist magazines, books and websites endorsing violence have been allowed to flourish, and radical preachers given too free a hand. There are also worries, that despite some progress, lax controls in some prisons allow militants to recruit other inmates
WHAT ABOUT ISLAMIC SCHOOLS?
Some analysts say Indonesia should pay more attention to a few Islamic schools known to be centres of communication for militants. Officials say militants use some schools for "talent-spotting", although most analysts think closing them would be counter-productive and politically unpalatable. Noor Huda Ismail, a security consultant who previously attended the Al-Mukmin school linked to militant network Jemaah Islamiah (JI), said it was better to keep schools open so they can be monitored, likening them to "aquariums with fish".
IS INDONESIA'S REHABILITATION PROGRAMME WORKING?
Indonesia has a rehabilitation programme where authorities have tried to help former militants re-integrate. Sidney Jones of the International Crisis Group said the programme had been "reasonably successful" as far as it goes. "I think that it's important to underscore that the 'de-radicalisation' programmes are very much more economic co-optation than they are dealing with the ideology of jihadism and Islamic radicalism per se," she said. To have an even bigger impact, she said authorities needed to look beyond law enforcement and the prisons and examine carefully how and why new members are being recruited. The police investigation into the hotel bombings show the two suicide bombers were new recruits unknown to police. But there are also examples of militants returning to their old ways.
WHAT ARE SOME LEARNING POINTS FOR AUTHORITIES?
Fighting terrorism in Muslim majority but officially secular Indonesia is politically sensitive since it can be portrayed as fighting Islam. So far, de-radicalisation has been mainly a police effort, but analysts say mainstream Islamic political parties, schools and other bodies need to do more. President Yudhoyono has also said that the military should have a bigger role in fighting militants, although this has raised concerns given previous charges of human rights violations and atrocities when the army got involved in policing.
There have also been concerns different security agencies end up in turf battles. In addition, too much attention may be paid to the elite U.S.-trained Detachment 88 anti-terrorism unit, when more basic policing can be lacking. Some analysts say community policing needs to be developed so people will want to report suspicious behaviour, as local police are still widely distrusted and viewed as corrupt by many Indonesians.
By Olivia Rondonuwu
THE Indonesian Special Forces (Kopassus) has been brought in to provide tighter security for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, following revelations that Malaysian terrorist mastermind Noordin Top had made him the target of a bomb plot.
Renewed calls for the pervasive territorial military structure to be mobilised to look out for suspicious activity suggest the military will in future also play a discreetly larger role in the struggle to contain Indonesia's home-grown radicals. Dr Yudhoyono is normally under the protection of the Presidential Guard, a battalion-size unit equipped with armoured cars. But recent changes to his security detail suggest more specialised help is now needed in the face of threats from Islamic militants.
Well-placed sources say the terrorist group planned to detonate a truck bomb as the President's motorcade passed by on one of the narrow roads leading to his walled Cikeas home at the edge of Bogor, south of Jakarta, where he spends most of his down time.
The arrest of militant Amir Abdillah in North Jakarta on Aug 5 triggered a raid on a house in Jakarta's western suburb of Bekasi in which the two would-be bombers were killed - just a fortnight before the operation targeting the President was due to be launched. Police investigators claim to have found a small truck, reportedly rigged with about 500kg of explosives, only a 12-minute drive away from Dr Yudhoyono's sprawling private residence.
The assassination plot and last month's blasts at Jakarta's JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels would have required about 20 people to pull off, an indication that Noordin has more people at his disposal than was previously thought. Analysts say the failure to capture or kill the Malaysian should not be used to question the effectiveness of the police, who have performed admirably in arresting more than 430 militants over the past nine years.
But the military has been privately critical of the prolonged Aug 8 police siege of the farmhouse in Central Java where Noordin was believed to have been hiding. They say better tactics should have been used to capture Ibrohim, the sole occupant who had acted as field commander for the hotel bombings.
Ibrohim, Abdillah and Saifuddin Jaelani - the Poso veteran who recruited the suicide bombers - are all related, underlining the way family ties provide the glue for the terrorist network. It later transpired that Noordin had left two days before the raid. But what concerns Dr Yudhoyono and his security advisers is that the militants had used the isolated Temanggung house for four years without detection. They believe that may not have been the case if the military's territorial structure, which has roots going down to the village level, had been more actively engaged in looking out for suspicious activities. In a teleconference with the country's 33 provincial governors five days after the hotel blasts, Dr Yudhoyono said he was appalled that regional civilian officials were unaware that they were also constitutionally obliged to take part in territorial awareness programmes.
While the military's previous 'dual function' role has been formally discarded, officials say it is still bound to the principle of being a people's defence force and of remaining sensitive to the prevailing socio-cultural environment.
Says Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono: 'While the police, true to the precepts of democratic accountability, are good at investigating events after the fact, the army has the anticipatory capacity to fend off or deter terrorist activities.' Dr Yudhoyono made a similar mobilisation call following the 2005 Bali bombing and also quietly attached 20 Kopassus intelligence specialists to the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) to help familiarise civilian operatives with various surveillance techniques. He has, however, been careful to keep Kopassus away from active involvement in the anti-terrorist effort, no doubt mindful of its poor image and the fact that it is now headed by his brother-in-law, Major-General Pramono Edhie Wibowo.
Maj-Gen Wibowo has spent much of his career in the special forces, at one time serving as head of Detachment 81, the counter-terrorism unit that would be called on to tackle any operation, such as an aircraft hijacking, that is beyond police capabilities. Meanwhile, the hunt for Noordin is likely to continue focusing on Central Java and also Banten at the western end of the island, one of the main stomping grounds for the radical Darul Islam movement of the 1950s. While he may have broken away from the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) organisation in 2004, there are still JI malcontents and a string of radical Muslim boarding schools in both areas that would be prepared to provide him refuge. Analysts say his source of funding for the latest attacks has important implications, particularly if the money trail leads overseas. If it does, then his eventual death is unlikely to bring an early end to the bombings.
The Malaysian follows an Al-Qaeda fatwa which states that in addition to Western governments, taxpayers and businessmen are fair game because they are seen to be financing the persecution of Muslims around the world. His terror group also considered bombing the Indonesian Supreme Court building in retaliation for the conviction of the 2002 Bali bombers.
But while targeting government institutions is nothing new, this is the first time the Indonesian President himself has been in the cross-hairs of a terrorist group.
The Straits Times (Singapore)
John McBeth, Senior Writer
PATTANI, Thailand. Four people involved in counterinsurgency efforts have been killed in southern Thailand. Three security volunteers in Yala province were killed Saturday in a roadside bombing believed to have been carried out by Muslim militants. Two other volunteers and two Interior Ministry officials were wounded. Another bomb in the province Saturday wounded two paramilitary rangers.
Separately, a Muslim informant was shot dead as he traveled by motorcycle in
Narathiwat province with his wife and two children.
More than 3,700 people have been killed in Thailand's three southernmost provinces since an Islamic separatist insurgency flared in January 2004.
And, they say Indonesia is unsafe?
The Web site is a step by China's secretive armed forces to give outsiders a peek at their operations.
The weapon was the Defense Ministry’s new Web site, its sharp home page topped by a photograph of a winding Great Wall and studded below with links to military news, video and photographs.
The site, which has Chinese and English versions, is another step by China’s famously secretive armed forces to give outsiders a peek at their operations, or at least the view they want to offer. The ministry named a press spokesman only last year; last month the People’s Liberation Army, or P.L.A., bused journalists to a base near Beijing for an afternoon of watching soldiers fire mortars and conduct mock counterterrorism operations.
A notice about the Web site said it was intended to give outsiders a better understanding of China’s defense policies, improve cooperation with foreigners and “display before the world the fine image of the P.L.A. as a mighty, civilized and peaceful force.”
The contents range from ordinary news (“Chinese Navy fights pirates”) to background material (“Thirty years of reform and development”) to carefully phrased opinion (“Sino-foreign military exchange and co-op boosts regional stability”).
Part of the site seemed to be a work in progress. Late Thursday, there was a lot of blank space at the top of the home page, and what looked like a photo gallery was evidently not functioning. It had no pictures, only blank boxes containing the word “undefined.”
In style and tone, the site is not radically different from some Internet offerings by the Pentagon. But while many foreign militaries have openly, if grudgingly, accepted public scrutiny in recent decades, much in China remains tightly held, from strategic doctrine to weapons development.
Excerpt from NY Times
Origins of Ramadan
The name "Ramaḍāma" had been the name of the ninth month in the Arab world long before the arrival of Islam; the word itself derived from an Arabic root rmḍ, as in words like "ramiḍa" or "ar-ramaḍ" denoting intense heat[2], scorched ground and shortness of rations. In the Qu'ran, God proclaims that "fasting has been written down (as obligatory) upon you, as it was upon those before you". According to the earliest hadith, this refers to the Jewish practice of fasting on Yom Kippur.[3][4]
Laylat al-Qadr, considered the most holy night of the year, is the night in which the Qur'an was revealed to Muhammad, the "Night of the Power".[5] Muslims believe it to have occurred on an odd-numbered night during the last 10 days of Ramaḍān, either the night of the 21st, 23rd, 25th, 27th or 29th (in Sunni thought) or the 19th, 21st or 23rd (in Shi'a thought). Ramaḍān ends with Eid ul-Fitr on the 1 of Shawwal, with much celebration and feasts. During the month following Ramaḍān, called Shawwal, Muslims are encouraged to fast for a further six days, known as as-Sitta al-Bīḍ, or "the white six." When fasting is over, Muslims go to Mosques in new clothes to pray the first Eid prayer. They give out presents to the young ones and greet their friends and families. They then thank God for what He has given them.
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Read the full report at: http://groups.google.com/group/joyonews/browse_thread/thread/18c9d55ceee4d0ab#
