Revival of Jihad

LEYAKET ALI MOHAMED OMAR

History of Religion Part 2- Prof Bernard Adeney- Risakotta and Prof Margana
Readings from: K.S Nathan & Mohammad Kamali- Islam In Southeast Asia & Bernard Adeney- Risakotta- The Impact of September 11 on Islam In Southeast Asia


Noorhaidi Hasan account defines the role that the Islamic militancy in the post-new order Indonesia. It is illustrated that basically there is no way these radical Islamic militants are ready for a diplomatic dialogues; it seems that they tends to have an idea of supremacy in their doctrine, it goes like ‘It is either you are with us or you are against us’. As a result of the principle that they grip and hold on tightly, they tend make a total shut off to any other theories or interpretation and hence in order to seek knowledge from another sources is not in their dictionary at all.

The 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States constituted the single most important new development in the international security environment around the globe. On the other hand in Indonesia changes are taken place almost immediately after that significant event and Jihad has no longer been anything new to Indonesia political sphere. It has been long awaited since after the New Order.
We know that long before the new order it has always been a subject that kept its leader on guard; its roots in Darul Islam, a radical movement in Indonesia in the 1940s. Example is Jemaah Islamiah which was formally founded on 1 January 1993 by JI leaders, Abu Bakar Bashir and Abdullah Sungkar while hiding in Malaysia from the persecution of the Suharto Government. After the fall of the Suharto regime in 1998, both men returned to Indonesia where JI gained a terrorist edge when one of its founders, the late Abdullah Sungkar established contact with Osama Bin Laden’s- al-Qaeda network.

Time bomb as I may call it but the fact, it is a time bomb, the only new thing is that they have a new focus violent operations that previously began as the communal conflicts in Maluku and Poso. It shifted its attention to targeting US and Western interests in Indonesia and the wider Southeast Asian region since the start of the US-led war on terror. The question I may want to ask is that, is it true that the reason behind this is the faith? Or it’s the marginalized Muslims that are frustrated due to economical factors? Well, I believed it’s the second one and religion became its tools to work on the ‘enemy’. The revival of Jihad are developed by the certain radical group who are against the West with an understanding that they are responsible for the marginalized as Hasan mentions ‘ Abu Bakar Baasyir, for instance, points out ‘Violence in the framework of Jihad is allowed to resist against belligerent unbelievers attacking Muslims”(p.313)