The changing nature of Jemaah Islamiyah

Abstract

Of all the Islamic terrorist organisations known to be operating in Southeast Asia, Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) is probably the best known. But when attempting to combat it and its violence against civilians, security forces need to be aware of its current nature. This article seeks to show from the history of JI that it is a constantly changing, complex and highly flexible organisation; that while its roots lie deep in Indonesian history, it recruits from and adapts to the other countries in which it is operative. Consequently, JI seems to be a different organisation depending on the country from which it is viewed. The article shows that security forces need to be fully aware of both its Protean character and its history if effective measures are to be taken against it.

Notes

1. The primary contacts appear to have been established in Afghanistan in the late 1980s with Abdul Fatah, a religious teacher now running a school in Narathiwat and in Karachi in 1999–2000. Before the Bali bombing, JI stored funds with a group called Jemaah Salafiya in Yala.

2. The figure of 175 comes from Abbas (2004). His figures for trainees are as follows: 1994, 60 MILF; 1995, 240 MILF and 5–6 Malaysian JI; 1996, 200 MILF and 5 Malaysian JI; 1997, 5–6 Malaysian JI; 1998, 50 JI; 1999, 23 JI; 2000, 43 JI; 2001, 15 JI; 2002, 35 JI. These figures do not include Indonesians from groups other than JI who by and large trained separately.