Jemaah Islamiyah
Jemaah Islamiyah ( JI ; Arabic الجماعة الإسلامية, DMG al-Ǧamāʿa al-Islāmiya 'Islamic Community') is an Islamist terrorist organization that has its origins in Indonesia . The organization first became known to the public when it claimed responsibility for the attacks in Bali on several nightclubs in Kuta in October 2002, in which 202 people were killed.
Origin and background
The Jemaah Islamiyah was founded in 1993 by Abdullah Sungkar and Abu Bakar Bashir while they were in exile in Malaysia. Abu Bakar Bashir and Abdullah Sungkar first met through their commitment to fundamentalist Islamic groups ( Darul Islam and Masyumi ) and began working together in 1963. They founded a radio station that spread conservative Islamist teachings and spoke out against the Suharto regime at the time . This was closed by the government. They also founded an Islamic school in a village called Ngruki - Jemaah Islamiyah therefore also operates in part as the Ngruki network . Since the beginning of their collaboration, Abdullah Sungkar and Abu Bakar Bashir have been arrested several times for hostility to the regime, and in 1979 they were sentenced to nine years' imprisonment for attempting to boycott the election. In 1982, however, they were released on appeal. In 1985 the Indonesian Supreme Court revoked the appeal, which is why Abu Bakar Bashir and Abdullah Sungkar fled into exile in Malaysia. There they called for resistance to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and recruited around 200 men who they sent into jihad . In 1993 they first appeared officially under the name Jemaah Islamiyah. After Suharto was replaced by President Megawati Sukarnoputri , Abdullah Sungkar and Abu Bakar Bashir returned to Indonesia in 1999, where they founded more Islamic schools and called for jihad in Indonesian, Malay and Filipino regions. In the same year, Abdullah Sungkar died and Abu Bakar Bashir became the ideological leader of the JI. The group is also said to have contacts with Abu Sajaf , an Islamist militant underground organization in the Muslim south of the Philippines.
Cooperation with the al-Qaida terror network has been partially confirmed.
ideology
The organization's program is known from a brochure that the Indonesian security forces found on members of the Jemaah Islamiyah in Solo in December 2002 . This booklet, entitled “General Guide to the Struggle of Jemaah Islamiyah” ( Pedoman Umum Perjuangan Jama'ah Islamiyah ) was authorized in May 1996 by the Jemaah Islamiyah Central Leadership Council, which included Abdullah Sungkar and Abubakar Bashir. The booklet contains four chapters, the first and second describing the “dynamic method of establishing religion”, the third devoted to “the practical method” and the fourth containing “the basic order” of the Jemaah Islamiyah. The aim of the organization is named in Art. 4, Paragraph 2 “the establishment of an Islamic state as the basis for the caliphate according to the teachings of the Prophet”.
In a paper written by Abdullah Sungkar and Abu Bakar Bashir with the title “The latest crisis in Indonesia: causes and their solutions”, social grievances such as B. poverty, unemployment, crop failures etc. on the moral decline such. B. alcohol consumption, loose sexual morality, etc. and to be seen as God's punishment for disregarding his religion. “True Muslims” therefore only have two options: living in an Islamic state or using your own life to achieve an Islamic state.
Chronicle of the most famous terrorist attacks
From 2000 onwards, there were a number of terrorist attacks with numerous dead and injured, to which the Jemaah Islamiyah claimed responsibility. Here are the most famous:
- December 24, 2000: Bomb attacks at Christmas 2000 in Indonesia : coordinated series of bombings in the churches of eight Indonesian cities, in cooperation with al-Qaeda → 18 dead, several injured. Abu Bakar Bashir was charged but acquitted.
- October 12, 2002: Bali attack 2002 : A large car bomb exploded in front of a discotheque on the Indonesian island of Bali → 202 dead, more than 209 injured. Abu Bakar Bashir was sentenced to a small prison term for high treason and the three main masterminds were executed on November 8, 2008.
- August 5, 2003: Attack on the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta : car bomb by a suicide bomber explodes in front of the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta → 12 dead, 150 injured. Abu Bakar Bashir is sentenced to two and a half years in prison.
- October 1, 2005: Bali attack in 2005 : Bombs from suicide bombers explode in two Balinese cities ( Jimbaran , Kuta ) → 20 dead, many injured, the trials against the perpetrators are not yet over.
See also
literature
- Nina Florack: Transnational Criminal and Terrorist Networks. A comparison of the network structures of the Albanian Mafia with the Jemaah Islamiyah. Berlin, Verlag Dr. Köster 2010, ISBN 978-3-89574-740-3
- Ken Conboy: The Second Front: Inside Asia's Most Dangerous Terrorist Network . Equinox Publishing, Indonesia, Oct. 2005.
- Bilveer Singh: The Talibanization of Southeast Asia. Losing the War on Terror to Islamic Extremists . Westport, Connecticut 2007.