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“Tens of thousands” of Muslims in Southeast Asia support the Islamic State

Aug 16, 2015 3:25 pm By Robert Spencer

ISIS in the Far EastWhat accounts for this extensive outbreak of misunderstanding of Islam? The significant support that the Islamic State enjoys in Southeast Asia demonstrates the falsity and fatuity of the mainstream Western narrative regarding Islam and jihad.

“The terrifying rise of ISIS in East: Terror horde recruits tens of thousands to its sick cause in south-east Asia,” by Jay Akbar, Mailonline, August 13, 2015 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):

ISIS issued a rallying cry to the Muslims of Indonesia last week by sharing a disturbing picture of a baby lying next to an AK47 and hand grenade.

A note beside the sleeping toddler, signed off with ‘Indonesia’, read: ‘Uncles and aunts come and fight in Syria for jihad wherever you are.’

While the terror group continues its battle for superiority in Iraq and Syria, Islamic State’s ideology and propaganda videos are drawing in Muslim supporters from as far as south-east Asia.

Thousands from countries such as Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand the Philippines and Malaysia have joined ISIS on the battlefield in the Middle East. And the terror group has ‘tens of thousands’ of supporters and sympathisers in those countries.

Counter-terrorism experts told MailOnline these ISIS-trained fighters could now return home to execute lone wolf attacks, recruit more extremists and extend Islamic State’s caliphate even further around the world.

Radical hate preachers wield dangerous influence even from inside prisons where they radicalise other militants and ‘oath-taking ceremonies’ to ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi take place freely.

They also warn that ISIS could start recruiting the Muslim Rohingya people who are fiercely persecuted in their home country of Burma and refused asylum by neighbouring Asian nations.

At least three violent and active militant groups in the region have already pledged allegiance to ISIS.

They are the Indonesian group Jemma Islamiyah which was responsible for the 2012 Bali Bombings, the Filipino group Abu Sayyaf which beheaded a village official this year and the Bangsomoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, also from the Philippines, who regularly clash with police forces.

‘ISIS poses a real threat to south-east Asia,’ a counter-terrorism expert at the RAND think-tank told MailOnline.

Dr Colin Clarke added that after seizing land in the Middle East, and causing havoc in north Africa, ‘south-east Asia is the logical next spot for ISIS to occupy’.

He said: ‘In countries like Indonesia and the Philippines, there are scores of aggrieved Muslims who previously – or currently – sympathized with groups like Jemma Islamiyah and Abu Sayyaf Group.’

More than 500 Indonesians have joined Islamic State on the battlefield in Iraq and Syria and experts believe the country, home to 200 million Muslims, is a ‘ripe location’ for further recruitment.

A worrying survey conducted by the Pew Research Centre discovered 72 per cent of Muslim Indonesians want shariah law to be implemented in the country.

Some, like Muhammad Al-Indunisy, died in the Middle East. The teenage jihadi reportedly blew himself up in Syria in 2013. But around 200 of these battle-hardened militants are thought to have returned home.

Its last government was so worried about the rise of extremism that it banned verbal support for ISIS, clamped down on overseas travel to support terror groups and revoked citizenship of those suspected of doing so.

Experts say that under the new Prime Minister Joko Widodo, who came to power in October 2014, extremism has flourished on the streets and inside the country’s prisons where radical hate preachers spread ISIS propaganda and recruit new extremists.

Indonesian prisons have become ‘a central hub for terrorist recruitment,’ a terrorism expert who works as a senior analyst at the RAND think-tank said….

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Filed Under: Featured, Indonesia, Islamic State (aka ISIS, ISIL, Daesh), Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand Tagged With: Rohingya


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Comments

  1. Thomas says

    Aug 16, 2015 at 3:29 pm

    Is anybody really surprised? This is what Muslims want, an Islamic world. We better start waking up or we are dead!

    • Jaladhi says

      Aug 16, 2015 at 4:51 pm

      Crusades, anyone??

      • mortimer says

        Aug 16, 2015 at 6:38 pm

        An ideological crusade is what is needed, first, to explain the jihad doctrine to 90% of Westerners, to convince them of the danger, and to convince them to confront Muslims with the absurdity of their amoral Death Cult at each and every opportunity.

        Muslims can be deprogrammed, but governments must be involved in this deprogramming in a big way.

        • tamimisledus says

          Aug 28, 2015 at 3:40 am

          muslims can be deprogrammed. Where did you get this fanciful idea from. Some muslims have been deprogrammed but that does not mean muslims in general can be deprogrammed.

  2. cs says

    Aug 16, 2015 at 3:55 pm

    This looks like serious business, global jihad really approaching maturity.

  3. Zimriel says

    Aug 16, 2015 at 4:15 pm

    Indonesia has islands – lots of islands. A few hundred jihadis on a boat could take over one of the smaller ones and use it as a base for widescale piracy.

    • gravenimage says

      Aug 16, 2015 at 5:20 pm

      This is already happening, Zimriel:

      “Piracy in South-East Asia, a Growing Threat”

      http://www.idaratmaritime.com/wordpress/?tag=islamic-terrorist-groups

      • Davegreybeard says

        Aug 16, 2015 at 7:55 pm

        Interesting article, graven, where do you find this stuff?

  4. somehistory says

    Aug 16, 2015 at 4:22 pm

    They are told that they are superior to everyone who does not think like or worship as they do. They are told that in order to prove their loyalty to the beast and the desert murderer, they must support the killers, and also be killers, of those to whom they are superior. This is pounded into their heads daily.

    Along comes a guy with a group that seems to be winning against all who are inferior, and anyone who already believes he/she should wage jihad is going to be inclined to join the “winner.”
    This “joining the winner” is the only thing logical about the whole business of islam. Joining up when it looks like they will, at last, get to experience everyone else abiding by their wishes and obeying their demands and orders. And if they blow themselves to smithereens, they get their “reward.”

    Prisons have large numbers of psychopaths among the incarcerated population. Psychopaths have no empathy, can not see the “logical” outcome of actions, and think only of “me, me, me” when contemplating future behavior. Many are expert manipulators.
    This growth of isis supporters is only going to increase world-wide. And the “lone wolf” scenario is really not applicable any longer. Wolf pack, or hyena pack is more like it.

    • tamimisledus says

      Aug 28, 2015 at 4:29 am

      A good insight into the muslim mindset – if you can call it a mind!

  5. nicu says

    Aug 16, 2015 at 4:36 pm

    Seems I must change my mind to live there

    Only Japan is cancer – free !

    • gravenimage says

      Aug 16, 2015 at 5:24 pm

      “Fraid not, Nicu. The idea that Japan is free of Islam–or even has banned it–is an urban myth.

      Japan has fewer foreigners in general, and is far from most centers of Islam, so this scourge is less of a problem there. But Japan does have a growing number of Mosques, as well as a small but growing problem of loser “reverts”. And Japan has had Jihad terror scares.

    • CacaAkbar says

      Aug 16, 2015 at 5:31 pm

      “Only Japan is cancer – free””—

      Nah https://youtu.be/nku91rSCSdM

  6. Jaladhi says

    Aug 16, 2015 at 4:50 pm

    Hey don’t these Muslim youths learn anything from our Prez and Kerry that ISIS has nothing to do with Islam. I guess our government not trying hard to spread their message!!1LOL…

  7. gravenimage says

    Aug 16, 2015 at 5:17 pm

    “Tens of thousands” of Muslims in Southeast Asia support the Islamic State
    ……………….

    Why should this surprise? Pious Muslims all over the world support ISIS–in the Middle East, in sub-Sharan Africa, in the West. And why not? The Islamic State is pure Islam in action.

    • Matthieu Baudin says

      Aug 17, 2015 at 8:49 am

      Couldn’t agree more Gravenimage, thanks for the comments. Islam has created its own forms of piety which elevate the base human desires for conquest and submission of outsiders. It’s a difficult idea for Christians or Secular Humanists to get their heads around. Differing religions are frequently not operating from shared values, the differences and distinctions are important and shouldn’t be overlooked if we are to recognise aggression and respond appropriately.

  8. Angemon says

    Aug 16, 2015 at 7:02 pm

    A worrying survey conducted by the Pew Research Centre discovered 72 per cent of Muslim Indonesians want shariah law to be implemented in the country.

    This reminds me of a joke I heard once. It goes like this: moderate Indonesia.

  9. Voytek Gagalka says

    Aug 16, 2015 at 7:09 pm

    Obama administration will of course tell us that all those supporters has no real knowledge of how wonderfully “peaceful” Islam is, and that they are ill informed. But they will NEVER EVER blame that “misinformation” on the only possible source of knowledge in those Islamic communities: their Mosques!

  10. Davegreybeard says

    Aug 16, 2015 at 8:05 pm

    So we sit on our hands and watch as the forces of Evil grow stronger and coalesce, forming bonds with each other, plotting, planning…

    We will one day pay for the foolishness of choosing evil and corrupt men to lead us.

    There’s a storm coming…

  11. Philip says

    Aug 17, 2015 at 6:59 am

    Of the 1.8 billion Moslems in the world about 10% live in Indonesia. Now say ‘only’ 10% of those 180 million become either Jihadists or supporters. That means 18 million Indonesian Moslems ready to be recruited for Jihad. In WW2 the SU total military mobilization was about 15 million. And the US about 10 million. And that was for 4 years. Jihad can last generations. 1st Jihad (Arab) from 660Ad-1450 (loss of Spain to Christians; the Reconquista);800 years. 2nd Jihad (Ottoman) 1200-1680 (Siege of Vienna); 500 years. So about 1000-1300 years of Jihad. Then a 300 year break from 1680 to 1974/9 (74; YK war; oil blackmail; West submitted to Islam economically: 79 Islamic Revolution; beginning of pol-military religious Jihad from Iran). Only 36 years from that and where are we now? in full Jihad mode everywhere…

  12. Albion says

    Aug 19, 2015 at 12:23 pm

    Our corrupt western govts are to blame for allowing this murdering filth to settle! Islam should be banned and all mosques closed! Our treacherous politicians are complicit in all Muslim atrocities!! They are not fools, they know exactly what’s going on!!
    Only by ridding ourselves of these traitors can we begin to cleanse our countries of the insidious evil that is Islam!

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