From the Geopolitical Monitor (Mar 10):
“Jihadi John” & the Threat of Radicalization in Southeast Asia
He has been at
the forefront of Islamic State’s (ISIS) brutal execution videos in recent
months. The masked man behind the decapitation of several high-profile hostages
including US
journalist James Foley, British aid worker David Haines, American aid worker
Peter Kassig, as well as Japanese journalist Kenji Goto has now been identified
as Mohammad Emwazi, a Kuwaiti-born British man.
Reports from both
the Washington Post and the BBC said the man in his mid-20s, more
commonly known as ‘Jihadi John,’ is from west London
and had been put on a terror watch list and banned from leaving the UK. Scotland
Yard has refused to comment citing an ongoing investigation.
The revelation of
Jihadi John was just one of many stories of radicalization among those living
not only in the Western world, but across the globe. It is not a new phenomenon
and there have been many similar stories in the past where citizens from one
country slipped through their national borders and joined an armed struggle
abroad.
The troubling
development of the past few years however is that the rise of ISIS comes amid a
rapid growth of social networking sites, which can reach millions worldwide –
including those in Southeast Asia.
Evidently, legal
options by national governments have been limited in curtailing potential
jihadists. The same can be said of surveillance by intelligence agencies
engaged in the difficult task of monitoring each individual who has the
tendency to become radicalized. From the Sydney
café siege to the shooting at the Cultural Centre in Copenhagen, all of these events have simply
highlighted that the process of radicalization knows no boundaries and can
transpire even from the comfortable seat of a person’s home.
The presence of
the internet might not be the sole factor that radicalizes a person, but it has
definitely created more opportunities for one to access materials related to
their extremist beliefs. A report titled “Radicalisation in the Digital Era” by
Rand Corporation published in 2013 highlighted that while radicalization is
very unlikely to occur without some forms of physical contact with the
organization itself, it however can act as an ‘echo chamber’ that confirms
one’s radical beliefs.
For ISIS, the
internet is an opportunity for it to reach out to those who would join its
cause and establish a caliphate in the Middle East.
In many parts of Southeast Asia, this online campaign has already gained
traction; countries such as Indonesia,
Malaysia, and the Philippines
where there is a significant Muslim population. Southeast Asia itself is no
stranger to global terror with groups such as Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and later
Jemaah Ansharut Tauhid (JAT), as well as Abu Sayyaf that remain active in
countries like Indonesia and
the Philippines.
These groups are believed to have pledged allegiance to ISIS
recently.
While ISIS has a
priority in consolidating its control over territories in Iraq and Syria, it is also interested in
intensifying its global recruitment campaign by attracting extremists worldwide
to be part of the jihadist movement. Through propaganda videos that glorify the
leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and the role of foreign fighters, ISIS has undoubtedly ‘conquered’ social media by
capitalizing on its borderless nature to recruit and gain financial support.
Any analysis of ISIS videos reveals that the
organizations PR machine is highly sophisticated and most of the time targeted
at a specific audience.
For example, ISIS
supporters had in September last year released a video on YouTube that modified
top videogame franchise, Grand Theft Auto V by allowing players to play as a
militant, killing police officers and blowing up military trucks. Egyptian
media said the video was aimed at raising the morale of Mujahedeen and
attracting young teenagers to fight the West.
The case of
Jihadi John stands out as a foreign fighter from the West who has been
radicalized by the group, and at the same time able to instil fear into
millions by executing Western hostages on air. It is worth noting that the name
“Jihadi John” was given by the British press rather than ISIS itself.
Despite this, the
name has already gained notoriety in the British public in its suggestion that
the person next door, regardless of education or financial background, could
become radicalized. According to various media reports, Emwazi lived a largely
normal student file until 2009 when he traveled to Tanzania,
reportedly attempting to join al-Shabaab in Somalia. He was refused entry in Dar Es Salaam. Upon
returning to the United
Kingdom, Emwazi claimed that he had been
“harassed” by intelligence officials numerous times until his sudden
disappearance in early 2013.
There have been
significant debates concerning the process of radicalization among academics
and policymakers alike, though none has been able to provide a conclusive
explanation beyond some general observations.
Some have claimed
that radicalization can take place particularly among those from a lower or
lower-middle class socio-economic background – people who live in relatively
bad neighborhoods and are frustrated with the present system and their position
in the society. But isolation and alienation are not necessarily a
precondition, as seen in some cases where those from well-off families join the
jihadist movement. A conclusion provided by a 2008 research report entitled
“Radicalisation, Recruitment and the EU Counter-radicalisation Strategy” stated
that radicalization is not a result of independent factors but instead a
complex interaction of external factors, namely the political, economic, or
cultural conditions that shape an individual’s behavior.
Radicalization
in the Southeast Asian Context
In Southeast
Asia, radicalization by ISIS presents a
two-fold security challenge to governments in the region. With extremist groups
such as those in southern Philippines
and southern Thailand claim
that their people have often been discriminated due to ethnicity, ISIS’ propaganda is a further conviction that those who
want “to do something” should take up arms and fight their governments. These
groups such as the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and Abu Sayyaf
rebels in southern Philippines
that quickly pledged allegiance to ISIS are also riding on its growing
popularity in the Middle East as a way to
inspire locals to be part of their own causes.
Apart from local
groups, ISIS is also keen to recruit fighters from this region to join its
cause in the Middle East. It is estimated that
as many as 200 Indonesians and 40 Malaysians have gone to fight in Iraq and
Syria with another report in September last year pointing out that ISIS has
formed a Malay-speaking unit among its ranks. In May 2014, Ahmad Tarmimi Maliki
became the first Malaysian suicide bomber for ISIS
after he drove his SUV laden with explosives into the Iraqi SWAT headquarters
in Anbar.
Numerous reports
have also claimed that Malaysia
has been used as a transit point for militants from Indonesia
before joining ISIS in Syria.
Local newspaper The Star reported that ISIS has issued a warning in
early January for recruiters to avoid using Malaysia as a transit point amidst
a heavy police crackdown there.
The challenge of
returning fighters is equally daunting as trying to prevent someone from
heading to the Middle East. This is because
once returned, they might bring back their armed struggle and ideology,
starting local divisions of ISIS and waging a
war against governments in the region. Such an attempt was seen last year when
the Malaysian police detained 19 suspected militants who planned to bomb a
Carlsberg factory in the outskirts of the capital, Kuala Lumpur.
All these have
presented challenges to regional security services that are keen to prevent
more bloodshed amidst the rise of Islamic fundamentalism over the past decade. ISIS is a dynamic group and this means the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) governments need to take more proactive
measures through increased co-operation so that its rise can be curbed.
http://www.geopoliticalmonitor.com/jihadi-john-the-threat-of-radicalization-in-southeast-asia/
