Alarm as more I'nesians join Islamic State

Newly appointed BNPT chief Commander General Saud Usman Nasution said that recruitment of IS fighters from Indonesia had jumped by more than three times in just a few months.

“In June 2014, the number of IS followers embarking from Indonesia was 86. The number soared to 264 in October,” Saud said on the sidelines of a recent meeting of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the nation’s largest Muslim organisation.

Saud said the most recent IS recruits were a whole family living in Tangerang, Banten.

“The family has sold their house and all assets to move to Syria to join the IS,” said Saud, refusing to elaborate further.

In total, an estimated 514 Indonesians have gone to Syria and Iraq to fight with the IS, with around half of them consisting of Indonesian citizens who were already residing in nearby countries as students or migrant workers prior to the rise of the IS, according to Saud.

Given that figure, Indonesia is probably the region’s biggest supplier of IS fighters. In comparison, around 40 Malaysians, 200 Filipinos and 60 Australians have joined the IS in Syria and Iraq, according to several media reports.

“Because Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population, the country will always be at the centre of recruitment,” Saud said.

“It’s time for other stakeholders to bolster their efforts to prevent the proliferation of IS ideology as it will pose a risk to our security once the IS fighters return home,” he said.

Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict director Sidney Jones said that in comparison with earlier generations of mujahideen, the number of Indonesians who went to fight in Afghanistan from 1985 to 1994 did not exceed 300.

“We can’t assume that everyone coming back from Syria is going to want to conduct violent attacks. Many went to help fight [Syria President Bashar] Assad and have no intention of waging jihad at home,” she said. “But there will be some and the concern is that these people will now have combat experience, tactical skills, weapons knowledge, deeper ideological commitment and international connections. Even if it’s just a handful of people, they could provide leadership for the tiny extremist movement here.”

The government has declared the IS an illegal organisation and ideology as they are opposed to Pancasila (Indonesia’s philosophical foundation). But the prohibition has no force of law. 

Unlike in Malaysia and Singapore, where IS supporters can be charged and detained upon their departure to the combat zone, local authorities still have no legal basis to do so. While the government has repeatedly emphasised the danger of IS ideology, only the BNPT and the National Police have been actively involved in prevention measures. The Religious Affairs Ministry and the education ministries, among the biggest recipients of taxpayer money, have yet to come up with concrete actions to help fight the IS.

The BNPT said that local IS master recruiters could easily round up men between the age of 17 and 25 years to be sent to Syria via Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.