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JI split over terrorist attacks
This looks to be a debate about whether to go the nihilist route through violence in hopes of riding the jihad to revolution or employing a more Hizb-ut-Tahrir methodology to incorporating Indonesia into the caliphate.An internal split inside the Jemaah Islamiyah terror group has given rise to a radical fringe intent on stirring religious hatred inside the worldâs largest Muslim nation - providing fertile ground and potential recruits for al-Qaeda. The ICG report said that within the organisationâs Indonesian chapter, most members no longer favour high-profile attacks against Western targets, preferring instead to focus on a long-term strategy of setting up an Islamic state by 2025 through religious indoctrination and building up a base throughout the country. "Jemaah Islamiyahâs majority faction, however, will continue to constitute a longer-term threat to Indonesia," the document warned. "This is (because) the religious indoctrination and recruitment efforts they are engaged in are likely to produce at least some cadres more hotheaded than their teachers, who look beyond Indonesia to a more international agenda." It said radicals impatient with the majorityâs long-term strategy have set up militia gangs in the district of Poso, in central Sulawesi, which have already carried out small-scale attacks against the Christian minority there in an apparent attempt to re-ignite a religious war. That seems to be the strategy in southern Thailand as well ... "It remains important to keep the threat of terrorism in perspective - Indonesia is not about to be overrun by jihadists," said Sidney Jones, who heads the International Crisis Groupâs office in Jakarta. "They remain the radical fringe of a radical fringe. Their capacity to do damage, however, continues to be cause for serious concern," she said. Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-02-05 |
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