Globalization and Its Counter-forces in Southeast Asia

11. Radical Islam and Political Terrorism in Southeast Asia

256 256 Carlyle A. Thayer 11 RADICAL ISLAM AND POLITICAL TERRORISM IN SOUTHEAST ASIA Carlyle A. Thayer INTRODUCTION: THE CONVENTIONAL VIEW OF ISLAM The term “globalization” has many meanings. To some it is the spread of trade and production on a global scale. Proponents of this view differ over whether globalization is a recent phenomenon or a process that has been underway for centuries.1 To others, the chief characteristic of globalization is the spread of communications technology that compresses time and space, particularly in the speed of processing information and commercial transactions. A third view maintains that globalization is the spread of Western, particularly American, culture and values. This latter view is myopic because it overlooks the spread of Islam and Islamic values as part of the globalization process.2 This chapter is concerned with the relationship between radical Islam and political terrorism in Southeast Asia. There can be no doubt that the spread of communications technology assisted in the mobilization of Muslim volunteers to join the global jihadist cause and a growing sense of identity among radical Muslims in Southeast Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. Globalization, in this sense, has facilitated the emergence of political terrorism in Southeast Asia. But globalization alone does not fully explain this development. Political terrorism in Southeast Asia has historical roots in indigenous society and its emergence can be traced, in part, to state repression 256 11 G&CForces Ch 11 1/28/08, 12:28 PM 256 257 Political Terrorism in Southeast Asia 257 of Islam. It is the combination of global and domestic forces that explains the appearance of radical Islam and political terrorism in the 1990s. Prior to the Bali bombings of 12 October 2002, the conventional view of Islam in Southeast Asia, and Islam in Indonesia in particular, was that it differed from Islam in the Arab Middle East and Pakistan.3 Islam in Southeast Asia was viewed not only as moderate but inward looking and tolerant. The conventional view also held that radical Islam represented a tiny minority and was not influential politically either domestically or in regional affairs. The vast majority of Southeast Asia’s Muslims are Sunni.4 Islam came to Southeast Asia in the twelfth century with the spread of Arab trade and commercial interests. The bearers of Islam spread their views peacefully and not by force of arms. They adapted to local customs and conditions. Although Islam in Southeast Asia accommodated to pre-existing religious and cultural values, it has also been continually influenced by intellectual influences emanating from the Middle East and the Muslim world more generally. A broad historical overview also reveals that a tiny minority of Muslims have been drawn to more puritanical or extremist variants of the faith. The Bali bombings challenged this conventional view. The causes of terrorism were now widely perceived as closely linked to Islamic politics. The bombings exposed an extensive terrorist network in Indonesia that had wellestablished links with militant groups not only throughout Southeast Asia but internationally to al-Qaeda. The reluctance of the Indonesian government to declare Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) a terrorist group was perhaps an indication that radical Islam had more political influence than previously assumed. The discovery of a regional terrorist network centred on peninsula Malaysia and Singapore also challenged conventional wisdom that political violence associated with radical Islamic groups was an internal domestic issue in states with Muslim minorities. Traditionally such groups were viewed as insurgents who advocated either autonomy or separatism. Now the picture was more alarming: radical Islamic groups were seen as advocates of a pan-regional movement to create an Islamic caliphate in Southeast Asia and beyond. Some international terrorism experts have painted a more alarmist picture. They argue that Muslims in Southeast Asia had been radicalized by the spread of Wahhabi puritanical doctrine and jihadi extremism. They view Southeast Asia as the second front if not the global epicentre of international terrorism.5 Islam in contemporary Southeast Asia undoubtedly has been influenced by global Islamic political currents shaped by modern communications and technology. As a result of video recording technology, compact discs, mobile phones, satellite television, and the Internet, the Muslim world has shrunk. 11 G&CForces Ch 11 1/28/08, 12:28 PM 257 258 258 Carlyle A. Thayer Muslims in Southeast Asia have become instantly aware of the plight of their religious brothers in Palestine, Bosnia and Chechnya. These external factors have...