The success of militants in Iraq may be
inspiring radicals in Southeast Asia.
The
threat of Islamic militants deploying terror tactics across Southeast Asia is
making an unwelcome comeback. Driven in part by the relentless drive into Iraq
by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the threat has already emerged in Malaysia, Cambodia,
Thailand and the Philippines.
Authorities
in these countries fear home-grown Islamic militants in league with Baghdadi
and his Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) will return and plot their own
caliphate, not unlike Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) did when It launched its own terror campaign in league with
al-Qaeda more than a decade ago.
Arrests
have been made in Malaysia amid reports that four new terrorist groups have
emerged to stake a claim over much of mainland Southeast Asia. All are Sunni
Muslims with Shi’ites in their sights. Police are also looking for another five Malaysian men who fled to the
Philippines where they are believed to be in hiding with the Abu Sattaf.
The
arrests followed the release of a video from ISIS senior clerics, titled There
Is No Life Without Jihad.
In the
video, Abu Muthanna al Yemeni from Britain boasts about the many countries that
have supplied ISIS mercenaries, adding: “We have brothers from Bangladesh, from
Iraq, from Cambodia, Australia, UK.”
Muslim
leaders in Cambodia rejected the claims although diplomats says hundreds of
foreign nationals, including Khmers, are fighting with ISIS. Among them are
those who studied in madrassas in the Middle East.
In
recent days ISIS has changed its name to simply the Islamic State, after
more than 15,000 militiamen loyal to Baghdadi extended the civil war in Syria
southwards into Iraq, reaching as far as the northern outskirts of Baghdad. It
insists a caliphate has been established across both countries and has released a map outlining its territorial ambitions,
stretching from the Atlantic coast of Spain and Morocco to the western border
of Myanmar.
In
Malaysia, and elsewhere in Southeast Asia, recruitment for ISIS and its
vitriolic anti-Shia campaign is occurring through social media outlets,
including Facebook. One analyst pointed to Lotfi Ariffin, who
has 24,796 followers and was a member of Malaysia’s hardline Islamic party PAS.
“It is
worrisome, yes,” said Shahriman Lockman, a senior foreign policy analyst at
Malaysia’s Institute of Strategic & International Studies.
“If
they wanted a safe haven for their training and operations, they could easily
go to the numerous failed states in Africa. But they chose to operate from
Malaysia, where the risk of being under surveillance is much higher.”
Among
them was 26-year-old Ahmad Tarmimi Maliki, said to be Malaysia’s first suicide
bomber after he reportedly drove a military vehicle ladened with explosives into
an Iraqi military post, killing 25 soldiers, six weeks ago. Details of the
attack were published on the ISIS website under the headline “Mujahidin
Malaysia Syahid Dalam Operasi Martyrdom.”
Malaysian
police have also arrested 19 people over the last two months in a
counterterrorism operation the authorities hope will end any plans by jihadists
of establishing recruitment and training centers in the Southeast Asian
country. Meanwhile, the Royal Malaysian Navy is conducting background checks on
staff after an officer was arrested for harboring militants plotting attacks in
Iraq and Syria.
Analysts
said ISIS leader, Baghdadi, is attracting support and filling a void left by
the killing of Osama bin Laden, with promises of an Islamic state and his
ruthless approach to jihad.
“ISIS’s
priority has to be to sustain and consolidate its present campaign in Syria and
Iraq rather than dissipate resources and personnel in non-core areas for the
movement such as Southeast Asia,” said Gavin Greenwood, a regional security
analyst with Hong Kong-based Allan & Associates.
“However,
ISIS’s success to date has and no doubt will continue to attract recruits to
the movement with any survivors to what may be years of fighting from countries
such as Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand representing a threat
based on their skills and experience.”
The
New Straits Times reported the four terror groups were independent of
each other and subscribed to the similar ideologies of JI, al-Qaeda and ISIS.
Like their predecessors, they held links to militants in the Southern
Philippines, in particular the Abu Sayyaf.
Intelligence
sources cited by the newspaper did not name the groups, although a fifth outfit
based in West Malaysia on Borneo was named as Darul Islam Sabah, which it said
police were monitoring.
Members
of all these groups have apparently undergone weapons training and have been
armed with the financial backing of Malaysian businessmen.
Greenwood
also drew comparisons with Soviet-occupied Afghanistan in the 1980s when the
U.S. and other Western countries supported the Mujahideen, which included the
likes of bin Laden, saying the current dynamics are “analogous to those who
fought” there, back then.
In the
first decade of this century, hundreds of lives were lost through JI’s bombing
campaigns, mainly in Indonesia. Thousands more have been killed by Islamic
militancy in the Southern Philippines and Southern Thailand, although fighting
in both countries has its roots in ethnic groups demanding a homeland as
opposed to jihad and its modern day ideology, which was honed by the Wahabis of
Saudi Arabia.
“The
other factor that will concern the security services in Southeast Asia and
elsewhere is the example ISIS has given, despite its model of a small but well
armed and financed insurgent force overwhelming far larger military formations
having no likely parallels in the region,” Greenwood said.
“Overall
ISIS’s main impact on the region is to serve as an inspiration for Islamic
radicals rather than a movement that poses a direct threat to any Southeast
Asian countries.”
This is
the same philosophy that was spun by bin Laden and followed resolutely by JI,
leading to a breathtakingly cruel bombing campaign that brought widespread
death and lasted more than a decade.
Luke Hunt
Business & Investment Opportunities
Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd (SBC) is incorporated
in Singapore since 1994.
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