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Expert: Indonesian terror threat more local
The threat to Indonesia from terrorism remains high, with police and government bodies deemed to have transgressed against Islamic teaching now the main targets, an expert warned on Tuesday.Sidney Jones, a senior adviser with the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, said it would be "difficult to reduce the level of radicalism and terrorism in Indonesia." She said, "The numbers [of victims of terrorism] have indeed fallen, but the number of [terrorist] groups continues to rise," she said at a public discussion on the links between terrorism, politics and Islam in Aceh. Jones said the evidence that terror cells were flourishing did not point to failure by the police or government, but rather demonstrated the strength of the radical ideology behind those groups. She said, "Fortunately their capacity is still low. For instance, in recent acts of terrorism, the only fatalities have been the suicide bombers. Nevertheless, over time they will become more effective." She also said that their targets were also changing. In the past Western citizens and interests were the usual target for terrorists, this had now switched to police stations and government offices in areas where the authorities were not considered to be supportive of Islamic doctrine. Jones said, "Their number one enemy is the police and thaghut [infidel] government officials. Any public official who doesnt back Shariah law is seen as an infidel, while their motivation for attacking the police is out of revenge for their colleagues who have been killed or arrested by police." Jones continued, "Theres now a sort of changing of tactics, where terrorists realize that the bigger their organization, the easier it is for the authorities to detect. So theyre going with small cells. And theres no need for any coordination between these cells because theyre all working for the same aims and vision." She added, "People who used to take part in rallies against the Ahmadiyah minority sect have now gone on to become members of these cells." Posted by: ryuge 2011-11-30 |
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