Church attack reveals Indonesia’s radical problem

Failure to anticipate similar attacks may stretch religious harmony and the state’s commitment to protect religious minorities to the limit.

First and foremost, police must capture the people who reportedly ordered the 17-year-old suspect to commit the attack. The police investigation has revealed that the suspect was inspired by the slaughter of a Catholic priest at Rouen Cathedral in France last month and was offered 10 million rupiah (Bt26, 000) by someone to perpetrate the attack. 

Those two important findings will not only help to explain the circumstances of the assault in Medan, a hotspot of sectarian riots in the early 2000s along with Ambon in Maluku and Poso in Central Sulawesi, but also serve as an impetus to improve counter-terrorism policies, especially the much-debated deradicalisation programme.

As outlined by Indonesian scholar Noor Huda Ismail in a scene from the film-documentary “Jihad Selfie”, the country’s deradicalisation programme is facing an uphill challenge steeper than policymakers ever imagined. 

The film shows a father who runs an Islamic boarding school in West Java deliberately preparing his small child as well as his followers to go to war in the Middle East with IS. With the IS battlefields now spreading across the globe, there is a risk that IS adherents will wage what they see as a holy war in Indonesia.

There is no data about how far radical ideas have become entrenched in the minds of our youth and Indonesian society in general, but several surveys have revealed a growing level of intolerance in our society. That finding alone should prompt an overhaul of the deradicalisation programme. 

House of Representatives lawmaker and member of the Pancasila caucus Eva Kusuma Sundari has suggested that deradicalisation be focused on the fight against hate speech, given indications that, as in the Medan incident, perpetrators are victims of agitation if not brainwashing.

Arrests, and oftentimes killings, of terror suspects alone will not stop acts of terrorism as long as certain people feel free to spread their hatred and slander against others, either directly or indirectly, including through the social media. 

Inspired by scenes he watched online, the Medan teenager reportedly tried to copy the French priest killing and assembled explosives that he would detonate in the church.

It goes without saying that amendments to the Terrorism Law address the role of the social media as an effective tool to broaden the IS network and teachings and spread hate speech to justify attacks. Such anti-terrorism measures also pose a challenge to open society as they curb freedom of speech. Indonesia must guard against terrorism, but also against those who would use it as a pretext to impose authoritarian rule.