WHY SALAFISM AND TERRORISM MOSTLY DON'T MIX
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
One result of the "war on terror" in
been increased attention to the country's links with
religious institutions in the
puritanical form of Islam known as salafism.
Particularly outside observers but some Indonesians
as well tend to assume that salafism is alien to
Indonesian Islam, is growing by leaps and bounds,
and is dangerous, because it promotes violence. All
three notions are misleading. This report, the first
comprehensive analysis of the phenomenon in
organisations like Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the group
responsible for the
and almost certainly the Australian embassy bombing
of September 2004, anathema. Salafism may be
more of a barrier to the expansion of jihadist
activities than a facilitator.
The term salafism describes a movement that seeks to
return to what its adherents see as the purest form of
Islam, that practiced by the Prophet Mohammed and
the two generations that followed him. In practice,
this means the rejection of unwarranted innovations
(bid'ah) brought to the religion in later years.
The strictest salafis in
are religious, not political activists;
eschew political or organisational allegiances
because they divide the Muslim community
and divert attention from study of the faith and
propagation of salafi principles;
reject oath-taking to a leader -- central to the
organisational structure of groups like JI;
believe it is not permissible to revolt against a
Muslim government, no matter how oppressive
or unjust, and are opposed to JI and the Darul
Islam movement because in their view they
actively promote rebellion against the Indonesian
state; and
tend to see the concept of jihad in defensive
terms -- aiding Muslims under attack, rather
than waging war against symbolic targets that
may include innocent civilians.
While some involved in terrorism in
such as Aly Gufron alias Mukhlas, a
claim to be salafis, the radical fringe that Mukhlas
represents (sometimes called "salafi jihadism") is
not representative of the movement more broadly.
The report examines the rise of salafism in
noting that far from being alien to Indonesian Islam,
it is only the most recent in a long history of
puritanical movements, and looks at the role of Saudi
funding in its expansion in the 1980s and 1990s. As
important as funding is the close communication
between Indonesian salafis and their Middle Eastern
mentors, most but not all of them Saudis.
Indonesian salafi leaders rarely decide issues of
doctrine or practice without consulting their teachers.
Laskar Jihad, the militia established to wage jihad
in
Saudi scholar concluded it had strayed from its
original purpose. The fact that the Saudi sheikhs
most frequently consulted by Indonesian salafis are
themselves close to the Saudi government is another
brake on any attraction within the movement to
Osama bin Laden.
ICG
A major split within Indonesian salafism is between
"purists", who reject any association with groups or
individuals willing to compromise religious purity
for political goals, and more tolerant and inclusive
groups willing to acknowledge some good even in
deviant teachings. The "purists" categorically reject
the Muslim Brotherhood and its Indonesian offshoot,
the political party PKS, as well as organisations like
Hizb ut-Tahrir, Jemaah Tabligh, and Darul Islam.
Not only will they not interact with them, but they
also reject funding from any source that has deviant
organisations among its grantees.
Ironically, this means that the most "radical" of the
salafis are the most immune to jihadist teachings,
and the more "moderate", those more open to other
streams of thought, may provide slightly more
fertile recruiting grounds for the jihadis.
That said, ICG's information suggests that most salafi
jihadis are not recruited from salafi schools but rather
from schools linked to Darul Islam or JI itself; urban
mosques; and areas with a history of communal
conflict. The report examines the few concrete cases
known of salafis who have crossed into or out of JI.
Drawing on their own writings, it looks in depth at the
difference between salafis and salafi jihadis.
More than ever, there is need for an empirical study
of the educational backgrounds of known JImembers,
but ICG concludes that salafism in
portrayed. It may come across to outsiders as
intolerant or reactionary, but for the most part it is
not prone to terrorism, in part because it is so
inwardly focused on faith.
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