[5th SERIES] THE THREAT IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

[ARTIKEL] ISLAMIC STATE’S GLOBAL EXPANSION: A RENEWED THREAT TO ASIA?

[5th  SERIES] THE THREAT IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

BY: ROHAN GUNARATNA

Global Asia Vol. 14, No. 3, September 2019

Saudi Arabia also offered scholarships to Southeast Asians to study in Saudi and Saudi-funded schools in Yemen, Pakistan and indonesia, with negative results. For example, the Saudi-funded lembaga ilmu Pengetahuan islam dan Arab (liPiA) in Jakarta produced Aman Abdurrahman, an IS leader; Rizieq Syihab, the leader of the radical islamic Defenders Front; and Jafar Umar thalib, leader of the violent laskar Jihad militia. While Al Qaeda created the terrorist infrastructure in Southeast Asia, most of the al Qaedacentric groups have transformed into IS. Osama bin laden’s brother-in-law, MJK, operated in the Philippines, building the terrorist infrastructure. he established the international islamic Relief Organization (iiRO) in Manila and he infiltrated 200 NGOs in the Philippines and indonesia. In Marawi in 1989, MJK established Darul Imam, the institute to radicalize a new generation of recruits and built a training camp led by an egyptian commando, Abu Ubaidah.

Among those recruited by MJK in the Philippines were a dozen other leaders, ideologues, instructors and managers of terrorist operations. he also funded the first World trade Center bomber, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, who developed the prototype for the 9/11 attacks. After 9/11, Philippine forces arrested Arabs in Zamboanga and Cotabato. Among the prominent Arabs arrested was Mohammed Sabri Salamat, director of a Koranic school in Cotabato, and another associate of MJK. He had married a Filipina convert. After MJK left the Philippines, his properties were managed by Mahmoud Afif from Jordan, who arrived in the late 1980s and worked with MJK in co-ordinating the Arabs in the Philippines. When ASG needed funds, MJK recommended that the group contact Mahmoud.

In January 2001, when an ASG representative contacted MJK for funding, MJK introduced Mahmoud as a source. At that time, MJK was in Sudan and Mahmoud was in Zamboanga. The ASG representative contacted Mahmoud at the Santa Barbara mosque in Zamboanga. the Southeast Asian region was used extensively by the Saudi networks in the lead-up to 9/11. Several Saudi 9/11 operatives, including hijackers, travelled to thailand, Malaysia, indonesia and the Philippines. The 9/11 summit was held in Malaysia in January 2000. The first two hijackers to enter the US, Nawāf al-Ḥāzmī and Khālid al-Miḥḍār, both of whom were Saudi, entered the US from Southeast Asia.