Foreign fighters from Asia joining Islamic jihad

From the Asian Pacific Post (Sep 23): Foreign fighters from Asia joining Islamic jihad

The threat of ISIS in Southeast Asia is looming large and in the last few months, the Islamic State has started to move into the region to make it part of its caliphate, several intelligence agencies have warned.

The group which is behind the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) is bent on attacking people in places deemed to be un-Islamic or not extreme enough. 

ISIS members had confessed that the group was planning to launch attacks on several nightspots in Kuala Lumpur and the Carlsberg factory in Petaling Jaya, and on Malaysia’s administrative capital Putrajaya. 

Already groups in southern Philippines and Indonesia have rallied behind ISIS, say experts and for this reason, Asean should come together to fight the spread of ISIS influence and to stop their plan to make Southeast Asia part of their caliphate, they said.

ISIS is the latest reincarnation of fighters from at least 2 al-Qaeda-linked groups that had become so brutal that, at one point, al-Qaeda’s leader Ayman al-Zawahiri distanced al-Qaeda from them.

The group traces its roots to al-Qaeda in Iraq, led by the ruthless Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who tried to ignite a sectarian war between Sunni and Shiite – and nearly succeeded.

ISIS is much better organised in that it has a military approach in spreading its influence with an over-arching set of strategies and a strong centralised leadership. Al-Qaeda has more of the attack-and-run style, and the groups affiliated with it seem to be operating relatively independent. ISIS has also used social media to the fullest, and has a steady source of funds. 

More than 12,000 Muslim extremists have travelled to Syria to fight in just 3 years, according to a report by the Soufan Group, a private security company.

That’s more than the 10,000 estimated to have fought in Afghanistan in the late 80s, the conflict that spawned al-Qaeda.

“That’s why so much of the world is today focused on Iraq,” said US Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg, who for 3 years, was Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Intelligence and Research.

 

“And why this has been a very troubling moment as ISIS, which went up into Syria to fight jihad there, are returning to Iraq to their roots with many foreign fighters in tow – including those who may be there from East Asia or other places in the world, including the United States," he told Rappler in an interview on Tuesday, June 17.

Intelligence sources disclosed that about 200 Australians, 50 Indonesians and about 20 Malaysians have gone to fight the jihad in Syria. Singapore said it’s investigating one Singaporean, while a Filipino intelligence source said at least one Filipino linked to Abu Sayyaf has gone to Syria.

On June 9, the day ISIS began its march to capture Baghdad, a video of Indonesian men in Syria was posted on YouTube.

In a little more than 11 minutes, hooded men holding their Kalashnikovs, speak in Bahasa Indonesia with snippets of Arabic. They urge their countrymen to join ISIS: “Let us fight in the path of Allah because it is our duty to do jihad in the path of Allah.”

 

Indonesia, the country with the world's largest Muslim population, was the base of Jemaah Islamiyah or JI, once al-Qaeda’s arm in Southeast Asia. 

The fear now is that Syria is functioning much like Afghanistan did in the late 80s.

Goldberg explained: “It’s a situation where Syria became a central focal point for these groups and for international jihadists. People just want to get to a fight – some of them not even understanding exactly what it is.”

That includes Southeast Asia and Australia, the countries where cells of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) were discovered after 9/11.

On Friday, June 13, Malaysian police arrested 3 Malaysians, including a Royal Malaysian Navy officer, in an operation led by its Special Branch Counter-Terrorism Division in Sandakan on the east coast of Sabah.

Police said they were members of a group linked to ISIS in Iraq and the Abu Sayyaf, a notorious group in the southern Philippines that has swung back and forth from its al-Qaeda roots to crime.

Malaysian authorities said they have arrested 15 other members of the same group since April 28.

The men, according to a Special Branch source, were planning to fight in Syria and then “launch suicide bombings in Iraq.”

They allegedly trained in the southern Philippines, where Southeast Asia's most wanted, JI leaders Malaysian Marwan and Singaporean Muawiyah, have found shelter and continue to train fighters.

Intelligence sources in the Philippines told Rappler that may well be true. Although curtailed significantly in the past decade and dampened by a signed peace agreement between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, once JI's main partner in the Philippines, training still continues.

The more extremist BIFF, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), continues to train and shelter members of JI, a charge the group denies.

If history repeats itself, according to the Soufan report, then “the Syrian war is likely to be an incubator for a new generation of terrorists.” 

The Philippine’s former top spy said that the influence and reach of the Islamic State in the country was evident as early as 2006.

Former Philippine National Police Intelligence director Chief Supt Rodolfo “Boogie” Mendoza said that eight years ago, the ISIS, led by its supreme religious leader Aby Bakr Al-Baghdadi, sent a communiqué to the Jemaah Islamiya and Khalifa in Mindanao, which both had links with Al-Qaeda.

Mendoza said the ISIS was established in the country after the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and the Abu Sayyaf Group agreed to join forces under the banner of the international terrorist group.

Mendoza added that the ISIS continues to recruit militants in Mindanao in exchange for money, adding that he also received reports that some Egyptians and Arabs were in Mindanao since 2012 to conduct military and training to build explosives among the recruits.

 Las week, a confidential 2-page-memo obtained from sources in Camp Crame headquarters of the Philippine National Police by the Inquirer contained reports of possible recruitment by jihadist to Filipinos.

The same memo also said “100 Filipinos who traveled to Iran had undergone military training and were deployed to Syria”, and that there is an increasing number of terrorist groups operating in Malaysia, Indonesia, Xinjiang in China, Thailand, and in Mindanao.

ISIS in Southeast Asia

Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the largest Muslim rebel group in the Philippines, has condemned extremist jihadists in Iraq and Syria, and vowed to stop the spread of their “virus” into the Southeast Asian nation.

Another Philippine rebel group Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) claims Sunni preachers have been conducting recruitment for ISIS members.

Earlier reports say Malaysian women are offering sexual jihad or Jihad Al-Nikah to ISIS members. Malaysia denies claims.

There were two postings on ‘JIM-Jamaah ISIS Malaysia’ Facebook page calling for the beheading of Dayaks because they were non-Muslims. Dayaks are a people group in Sarawak.

Malaysian Ahmad Tarmimi Maliki, 26, is said to be the first ISIS martyr. He reportedly drove a military vehicle carrying explosives into Iraq’s special forces headquarters in Anbar, killing 25 soldiers and himself on May 26, 2014.

The Malaysian police arrested 15 men for their alleged links to ISIS. One of them was a 30-year-old naval officer who had been in service for 10 years.

The Singapore government said that a handful of Singaporeans had gone to fight in Syria.

There may be at least 500 Indonesians who have joined ISIS. One 19-year-old fighter identified as Wildan Mukahallad died in a suicide attack in Baghdad.

About 30 Malaysians are said to be in ISIS in Syria, out of which 15 were killed.

“Mujahidin” groups have been recruiting Malaysians using social media and usrah (family) sessions. Mujahidin means those doing jihad.

With 20 million rupiah (about US$ 2,000), these young jihadists can fly to Syria and get real combat experience, compared to just a hiking session they get in Indonesia.

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