Abstract: On 22 June 2018, Aman Abdurrahman, the head of the pro-Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) network Jamaah Ansharud Daulah (JAD), was sentenced to death for his role in inciting terror attacks in Indonesia in 2016 and 2017.1 The attacks for which he was found guilty included the January 2016 gun and bomb attack in Jakarta’s Thamrin business district and the November 2016 attack on children playing in front of a church in Samarinda, East Kalimantan.2 In the first attack, a traffic police post and a branch of Starbucks were targeted, and in the second one a two-year-old girl was killed and five other children were injured. Other attacks committed by Islamists affiliated with JAD included the May 2017 Kampung Melayu ... Read More Keywords: Terrorism; Islamic fundamentalism; Jihad; Ethnic conflict; Islam; Christianity and other religions; Nationalism; Suicide bombings PubDate: 2019-04-27T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Today, the strongest and most influential Jihadi–Salafi network in Indonesia is Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). With an estimated membership of 2,000,1 it is recruiting among professionals and on college campuses.2 It has learned from the mistakes of its founding generation and continues to eschew violence in favour of dakwah (Islamic propagation). Ever prioritizing opportunities for training, it sent members to Syria for three- to six-month training programmes with the then Al Qaeda affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra. However, JI continues to hold fast to the principle that Indonesia, at least under current conditions, is not an appropriate venue for amaliyat (attacks or actions) or for jihad. While some members, disgruntled by ... Read More Keywords: Terrorism; Islamic fundamentalism; Jihad; Ethnic conflict; Islam; Christianity and other religions; Nationalism; Suicide bombings PubDate: 2019-04-27T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: On 24 December 1998, an argument between a Muslim and a Christian youth over a screwdriver followed by the stabbing of a Muslim youth by a Christian later that evening triggered communal conflict in Poso, Central Sulawesi.1 Three weeks later, on 19 January 1999, a dispute between two Muslim youths and a Christian city transport driver over a bus fare ignited communal conflict in Ambon, Maluku.2 Both conflicts were rooted in socio-economic and political competition between Christians and Muslims. In both areas, local power-sharing arrangements had been undermined by three decades of President Suharto’s centralization and migration policies. Both conflicts resulted in a lacklustre response from the Indonesian ... Read More Keywords: Terrorism; Islamic fundamentalism; Jihad; Ethnic conflict; Islam; Christianity and other religions; Nationalism; Suicide bombings PubDate: 2019-04-27T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: On 13 May 2018, Dita Oepriarto, his wife, and their four children, killed themselves in three suicide bombings targeting churches in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second biggest city. Dita’s two sons, aged 16 and 18, exploded the first bomb while riding up to a Catholic church on a motorcycle. Shortly afterwards, his wife and their nine and 12-year-old daughters, detonated bombs strapped to their bodies at a Protestant church, badly injuring but not killing members of the congregation. A few minutes later, Dita drove his car into a carpark belonging to a Pentacostal church and triggered a bomb in his vehicle, killing three people. Apart from the six family members, another three people died in the attacks and dozens more ... Read More Keywords: Terrorism; Islamic fundamentalism; Jihad; Ethnic conflict; Islam; Christianity and other religions; Nationalism; Suicide bombings PubDate: 2019-04-27T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: The emergence of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and the declaration of the formation of its “Caliphate” in 2014, reverberated across the world. Thousands flocked to Syria and Iraq from all corners of the globe to fight under ISIS’s black standards, and to start new lives in their purported “authentic” Islamic state. Included among their numbers were Malaysians. Indeed, at its peak, more than a hundred Malaysians were believed to have relocated to Syria and Iraq with their families in tow.1 Of course, not all who sympathized with ISIS managed to relocate to the Middle East. Many remained in Southeast Asia: some acted as “keyboard warriors” to lionize the terrorist organization, while others heeded the ... Read More Keywords: Terrorism; Islamic fundamentalism; Jihad; Ethnic conflict; Islam; Christianity and other religions; Nationalism; Suicide bombings PubDate: 2019-04-27T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: In a historic step forward in the peace process in the Southern Philippines, a plebiscite held on 21 January 2019 saw voters overwhelmingly ratify a law to create the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), providing for deeper and wider autonomy in the area than ever before. The law promises “genuine and meaningful self-governance” and financial autonomy through an automatic annual block grant from the national government equivalent to five per cent of the national internal revenue tax collection.1 The success of BARMM, and the peace process as a whole, is central not only to uplifting Muslim Mindanao — one of the poorest areas of Southeast Asia — but also to countering violent extremist groups ... Read More Keywords: Terrorism; Islamic fundamentalism; Jihad; Ethnic conflict; Islam; Christianity and other religions; Nationalism; Suicide bombings PubDate: 2019-04-27T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: The outcome of over a decade of in-depth research, Vannessa Hearman’s remarkable book, Unmarked Graves, makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the mass violence which took place in Indonesia in 1965 and specifically in East Java. Hearman’s book leads the reader through this period of catastrophic violence and its long aftermath by using testimonial accounts, mainly given by survivors. These survivors — their actions, recollections and reflections — are companions throughout the book, and their testimonies give us a better understanding of this period as well as a sense of the experiences of those who lived through it. Hearman tells the story of the massacres in East Java with sensitivity and a ... Read More Keywords: Terrorism; Islamic fundamentalism; Jihad; Ethnic conflict; Islam; Christianity and other religions; Nationalism; Suicide bombings PubDate: 2019-04-27T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Humphrey Hawksley’s book, Asian Waters: The Struggle Over the South China Sea & the Strategy of Chinese Expansion, does not add much that is new to the already extensive literature on the South China Sea dispute. However, it does provide a rich and readable overview of the various dynamics that factor into the re-emergence of China as the dominant power in Asia, and the anxiety this power shift has generated among countries across the Indo-Pacific region in general and Southeast Asia in particular.The book aims to trace the broad strategic contours of the Indo-Pacific — with the South China Sea at the epicentre — where tectonic shifts are occurring due to China’s drive to reclaim its status as Asia’s paramount ... Read More Keywords: Terrorism; Islamic fundamentalism; Jihad; Ethnic conflict; Islam; Christianity and other religions; Nationalism; Suicide bombings PubDate: 2019-04-27T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Although Myanmar scholarship languished for many years due to lack of either interest or opportunity, since the opening of Myanmar in 2011 both have burgeoned as scholars from many disciplines have become keen to uncover the transformations taking place and assess the prospects for further change. In this edited volume, the contributors draw on their considerable experience of Myanmar, often stretching back to the period of absolutist military rule.This collection is in fact the third in a series of books on Myanmar edited by Melissa Crouch, a Myanmar legal scholar at the University of New South Wales.1 It brings together scholars from several disciplines: Southeast Asian area studies; politics and public policy; ... Read More Keywords: Terrorism; Islamic fundamentalism; Jihad; Ethnic conflict; Islam; Christianity and other religions; Nationalism; Suicide bombings PubDate: 2019-04-27T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Explaining China, its role in the region and the world, and the appropriate responses to its rising power, has been a cottage industry for scholars for at least the last three or four decades. This book adds to the genre, and does so usefully in part but less so in others.This is really two books in one. The first part is a discussion of balancing as a concept, and its relationship to the rise of China and the effects of that rise on the region. The second part is a series of country case-study chapters that explain the approach towards China taken by the selected countries in terms of their balancing behaviour. The second part is stronger and more interesting than the first, although the absence of chapters on ... Read More Keywords: Terrorism; Islamic fundamentalism; Jihad; Ethnic conflict; Islam; Christianity and other religions; Nationalism; Suicide bombings PubDate: 2019-04-27T00:00:00-05:00
Abstract: Popularly described as the lifeblood that courses through mainland Southeast Asia, the Mekong River has constantly been under threat — whether from the forces of unbridled modernization, human encroachment or the increasingly visible effects of climate change. In addition to sustaining over 60 million people within the basin, the Mekong also serves to nourish a complex ecosystem that underpins the region’s unique biodiversity. Given the river’s centrality to Southeast Asia’s natural environment and socioeconomic development, one might expect a flurry of cooperation between the riparian governments and other stakeholders to protect the river and its resources. And yet, the challenges which the Mekong now faces are ... Read More Keywords: Terrorism; Islamic fundamentalism; Jihad; Ethnic conflict; Islam; Christianity and other religions; Nationalism; Suicide bombings PubDate: 2019-04-27T00:00:00-05:00
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