Laskar Jihad
Encyclopedia
Laskar Jihad was an Islamist
and anti-Christian Indonesia
n militia
, which was founded and led by Jafar Umar Thalib. At present, the militia is believed to have disbanded.
i madrasah
s and who had fought together with the mujahadeen in Afghanistan
. The primary cause for the creation of Laskar Jihad was the outbreak of sectarian violence in the Indonesian provinces of Maluku and North Maluku
where clashes between Muslim
s and Christian
s erupted in 1999. Soon after its creation, Laskar Jihad opened recruitment centers in various parts of Indonesia. Muslims joining the militia came from Java
, Sumatra
, South Sulawesi
and Kalimantan
. Many of them were unemployed, some were university students.
Laskar Jihad arrived in Ambon
in May 2000 and then in other of the Maluku Islands
(also known as the Moluccas) where the Islamist militia joined Maluku Muslims in the fighting with Christian groups, thereby exacerbating the ongoing violence. The intervention of Laskar Jihad soon gave Muslims the upper hand in the conflict, with the Islamists burning down churches and houses of the indigenous Melanesia
n communities in Ambon and other Moluccan islands. In the following two years, an estimated 9,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands had to flee their towns. Forced conversion
s and forced circumcision
s of Christians took place in Maluku, while, according to witness accounts, present duty military and police personnel did not interfere. A Laskar Jihad member later recalled being welcomed by Indonesian soldiers who supplied the Islamist militia with standard military equipment.
Additionally, attacks were launched against Christian communities in Sulawesi
. Laskar Jihad also sent militants to West Papua and Aceh
, at opposite ends of the country.
In February 2002, the Malino II Accord
between Muslims and Christians was signed, which demanded among other things the withdrawal of Laskar Jihad from the Maluku Islands. The militia, however, refused to oblige and continued activities in the region under the pretext of "humanitarian work". Eventually, the peace agreement was followed by a decrease in violence in Maluku, though incidents continued through mid- and late 2002.
After the Bali bombings in October 2002, Laskar Jihad announced its alleged disbandment, but soon made a new appearance when it established an office in Sorong in the province of West Papua. Laskar Jihad has also been held responsible for attacks on Papuans. In May 2003, reports smuggled out of Papua claimed arson
and machete
s had been used to destroy ten townships, their food gardens and livestock, sending the surviving women and children into jungle hiding from their pursuers.
Laskar Jihad's operations in Maluku and West Papua have been actively supported by parts of the Indonesian military. Much of the funding for the militia has come from within the military. Laskar Jihad fighters have been trained by the Indonesian military elite force Kopassus
in a training camp near Bogor
in West Java
. Laskar Jihad members even received military escorts while travelling from West Java to Surabaya
. The behaviour of the military in Maluku was similarly biased. Although at first a newly created military unit, the Joint Battalion, took action against Laskar Jihad in Maluku, it was replaced in mid-2001 by Kopassus, which was more sympathetic towards the militia.
Like the extremist Islamic Defenders Front, Laskar Jihad has also carried out attacks on bars, brothels and discothèques, which were perceived to be un-Islamic.
At present, Laskar Jihad is believed to have disbanded, although several scholars warn that the threat of a resurrection of the militia "still bubbles just below the surface in Indonesia."
in Indonesia. Members of his group have called for the introduction of the Sharia
. They also resented the 2001 appointment of Megawati Sukarnoputri
as President of Indonesia
, stating that the appointment of a female president was a sin. In Laskar Jihad camps, women are required to wear burqa
s, and television is banned.
Thalib has met with Osama bin Laden
, but allegedly turned down offers of funding support because of doubts about bin Laden's piety. However, other members of his militia have accepted al-Qaeda
support. Thalib, when asked by Jessica Stern
whether he promotes Wahhabism
in Indonesia, tried to distance himself from Wahhabism, stating that its literature would relie too heavily on weak hadith
"that may not be the word of Allah
." However, scholars have noted that fatwa
s issued by Salafi
mufti
s from the Arab Peninsula played a significant role in the formation of Laskar Jihad. It has also been argued that Thalib's efforts to distance himself from al-Qaeda and anything related to it were made in the context of the September 11 terror attacks when the Indonesian government exerted strong pressure on Laskar Jihad not to exploit anti-American sentiment.
For its violent campaign in Maluku, Laskar Jihad put forward two reasons: first, the defence of fellow Muslims; and second, the fight against separatism
. To justify the latter cause, Laskar Jihad even alleged a Zionist
-Christian conspiracy trying to undermine the national unity of Indonesia.
Islamism
Islamism also , lit., "Political Islam" is set of ideologies holding that Islam is not only a religion but also a political system. Islamism is a controversial term, and definitions of it sometimes vary...
and anti-Christian Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
n militia
Militia
The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...
, which was founded and led by Jafar Umar Thalib. At present, the militia is believed to have disbanded.
History
Laskar Jihad was founded in 2000 by Thalib, an Indonesian who had been trained in PakistanPakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
i madrasah
Madrasah
Madrasah is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, whether secular or religious...
s and who had fought together with the mujahadeen in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
. The primary cause for the creation of Laskar Jihad was the outbreak of sectarian violence in the Indonesian provinces of Maluku and North Maluku
North Maluku
North Maluku is a province of northeastern Indonesia. It covers the northern part of the Maluku Islands, which are split between it and the province of Maluku. Maluku province used to cover the entire group...
where clashes between Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
s and Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
s erupted in 1999. Soon after its creation, Laskar Jihad opened recruitment centers in various parts of Indonesia. Muslims joining the militia came from Java
Java
Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...
, Sumatra
Sumatra
Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...
, South Sulawesi
South Sulawesi
South Sulawesi is a province of Indonesia, located on the western southern peninsula of Sulawesi Island. The province is bordered by Central Sulawesi province to the north, South East Sulawesi province to the east and West Sulawesi province to the west...
and Kalimantan
Kalimantan
In English, the term Kalimantan refers to the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo, while in Indonesian, the term "Kalimantan" refers to the whole island of Borneo....
. Many of them were unemployed, some were university students.
Laskar Jihad arrived in Ambon
Ambon Island
Ambon Island is part of the Maluku Islands of Indonesia. The island has an area of , and is mountainous, well watered, and fertile. Ambon Island consists of 2 territories: The main city and seaport is Ambon , which is also the capital of Maluku province and Maluku Tengah Ambon Island is part of the...
in May 2000 and then in other of the Maluku Islands
Maluku Islands
The Maluku Islands are an archipelago that is part of Indonesia, and part of the larger Maritime Southeast Asia region. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone...
(also known as the Moluccas) where the Islamist militia joined Maluku Muslims in the fighting with Christian groups, thereby exacerbating the ongoing violence. The intervention of Laskar Jihad soon gave Muslims the upper hand in the conflict, with the Islamists burning down churches and houses of the indigenous Melanesia
Melanesia
Melanesia is a subregion of Oceania extending from the western end of the Pacific Ocean to the Arafura Sea, and eastward to Fiji. The region comprises most of the islands immediately north and northeast of Australia...
n communities in Ambon and other Moluccan islands. In the following two years, an estimated 9,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands had to flee their towns. Forced conversion
Forced conversion
A forced conversion is the religious conversion or acceptance of a philosophy against the will of the subject, often with the threatened consequence of earthly penalties or harm. These consequences range from job loss and social isolation to incarceration, torture or death...
s and forced circumcision
Forced circumcision
Forced circumcision most commonly refers to the circumcision of a male who has not given his consent. In a biblical context the term is used especially in relation to Paul the Apostle and his polemics against the forced circumcision of gentile Christians...
s of Christians took place in Maluku, while, according to witness accounts, present duty military and police personnel did not interfere. A Laskar Jihad member later recalled being welcomed by Indonesian soldiers who supplied the Islamist militia with standard military equipment.
Additionally, attacks were launched against Christian communities in Sulawesi
Sulawesi
Sulawesi is one of the four larger Sunda Islands of Indonesia and is situated between Borneo and the Maluku Islands. In Indonesia, only Sumatra, Borneo, and Papua are larger in territory, and only Java and Sumatra have larger Indonesian populations.- Etymology :The Portuguese were the first to...
. Laskar Jihad also sent militants to West Papua and Aceh
Aceh
Aceh is a special region of Indonesia, located on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra. Its full name is Daerah Istimewa Aceh , Nanggroë Aceh Darussalam and Aceh . Past spellings of its name include Acheh, Atjeh and Achin...
, at opposite ends of the country.
In February 2002, the Malino II Accord
Malino II Accord
The Malino II Accord was signed on 13 February 2002 as a settlement between warring parties in the Maluku sectarian conflict that commenced in 1999 in the Maluku Islands of Indonesia. ....
between Muslims and Christians was signed, which demanded among other things the withdrawal of Laskar Jihad from the Maluku Islands. The militia, however, refused to oblige and continued activities in the region under the pretext of "humanitarian work". Eventually, the peace agreement was followed by a decrease in violence in Maluku, though incidents continued through mid- and late 2002.
After the Bali bombings in October 2002, Laskar Jihad announced its alleged disbandment, but soon made a new appearance when it established an office in Sorong in the province of West Papua. Laskar Jihad has also been held responsible for attacks on Papuans. In May 2003, reports smuggled out of Papua claimed arson
Arson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
and machete
Machete
The machete is a large cleaver-like cutting tool. The blade is typically long and usually under thick. In the English language, an equivalent term is matchet, though it is less commonly known...
s had been used to destroy ten townships, their food gardens and livestock, sending the surviving women and children into jungle hiding from their pursuers.
Laskar Jihad's operations in Maluku and West Papua have been actively supported by parts of the Indonesian military. Much of the funding for the militia has come from within the military. Laskar Jihad fighters have been trained by the Indonesian military elite force Kopassus
Kopassus
Kopassus is an Indonesian Army special forces group that conducts special operations missions for the Indonesian government, such as direct action, unconventional warfare, sabotage, counter-insurgency, counter-terrorism, and intelligence gathering.Kopassus was founded on April 16, 1952...
in a training camp near Bogor
Bogor
Bogor is a city on the island of Java in the West Java province of Indonesia. The city is located in the center of the Bogor Regency , 60 kilometers south of the Indonesian capital Jakarta...
in West Java
West Java
West Java , with a population of over 43 million, is the most populous and most densely populated province of Indonesia. Located on the island of Java, it is slightly smaller in area than densely populated Taiwan, but with nearly double the population...
. Laskar Jihad members even received military escorts while travelling from West Java to Surabaya
Surabaya
Surabaya is Indonesia's second-largest city with a population of over 2.7 million , and the capital of the province of East Java...
. The behaviour of the military in Maluku was similarly biased. Although at first a newly created military unit, the Joint Battalion, took action against Laskar Jihad in Maluku, it was replaced in mid-2001 by Kopassus, which was more sympathetic towards the militia.
Like the extremist Islamic Defenders Front, Laskar Jihad has also carried out attacks on bars, brothels and discothèques, which were perceived to be un-Islamic.
At present, Laskar Jihad is believed to have disbanded, although several scholars warn that the threat of a resurrection of the militia "still bubbles just below the surface in Indonesia."
Ideology
Laskar Jihad leader Jafar Umar Thalib has voiced public support for the establishment of an Islamic theocracyTheocracy
Theocracy is a form of organization in which the official policy is to be governed by immediate divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided, or simply pursuant to the doctrine of a particular religious sect or religion....
in Indonesia. Members of his group have called for the introduction of the Sharia
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
. They also resented the 2001 appointment of Megawati Sukarnoputri
Megawati Sukarnoputri
In this Indonesian name, the name "Sukarnoputri" is a patronymic, not a family name, and the person should be referred to by the given name "Megawati"....
as President of Indonesia
President of Indonesia
The President of the Republic of Indonesia is the head of state and the head of government of the Republic of Indonesia.The first president was Sukarno and the current president is Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.- Sukarno era :...
, stating that the appointment of a female president was a sin. In Laskar Jihad camps, women are required to wear burqa
Burqa
A burqa is an enveloping outer garment worn by women in some Islamic religion to cover their bodies in public places. The burqa is usually understood to be the woman's loose body-covering , plus the head-covering , plus the face-veil .-Etymology:A speculative and unattested etymology...
s, and television is banned.
Thalib has met with Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
, but allegedly turned down offers of funding support because of doubts about bin Laden's piety. However, other members of his militia have accepted al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
support. Thalib, when asked by Jessica Stern
Jessica Stern
Jessica Stern is an American policy consultant on terrorism. Stern is a lecturer at Harvard University and a faculty affiliate of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. She serves on the Hoover Institution Task Force on National Security and Law. In 2001, she was featured in Time...
whether he promotes Wahhabism
Wahhabism
Wahhabism is a religious movement or a branch of Islam. It was developed by an 18th century Muslim theologian from Najd, Saudi Arabia. Ibn Abdul Al-Wahhab advocated purging Islam of what he considered to be impurities and innovations...
in Indonesia, tried to distance himself from Wahhabism, stating that its literature would relie too heavily on weak hadith
Hadith
The term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....
"that may not be the word of Allah
Allah
Allah is a word for God used in the context of Islam. In Arabic, the word means simply "God". It is used primarily by Muslims and Bahá'ís, and often, albeit not exclusively, used by Arabic-speaking Eastern Catholic Christians, Maltese Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Mizrahi Jews and...
." However, scholars have noted that fatwa
Fatwa
A fatwā in the Islamic faith is a juristic ruling concerning Islamic law issued by an Islamic scholar. In Sunni Islam any fatwā is non-binding, whereas in Shia Islam it could be considered by an individual as binding, depending on his or her relation to the scholar. The person who issues a fatwā...
s issued by Salafi
Salafi
A Salafi come from Sunni Islam is a follower of an Islamic movement, Salafiyyah, that is supposed to take the Salaf who lived during the patristic period of early Islam as model examples...
mufti
Mufti
A mufti is a Sunni Islamic scholar who is an interpreter or expounder of Islamic law . In religious administrative terms, a mufti is roughly equivalent to a deacon to a Sunni population...
s from the Arab Peninsula played a significant role in the formation of Laskar Jihad. It has also been argued that Thalib's efforts to distance himself from al-Qaeda and anything related to it were made in the context of the September 11 terror attacks when the Indonesian government exerted strong pressure on Laskar Jihad not to exploit anti-American sentiment.
For its violent campaign in Maluku, Laskar Jihad put forward two reasons: first, the defence of fellow Muslims; and second, the fight against separatism
Separatism
Separatism is the advocacy of a state of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, governmental or gender separation from the larger group. While it often refers to full political secession, separatist groups may seek nothing more than greater autonomy...
. To justify the latter cause, Laskar Jihad even alleged a Zionist
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
-Christian conspiracy trying to undermine the national unity of Indonesia.