South East Asia’s rising tide of global jihad

Since 911, the global situation was totally in favor of the United States. Its wars against Afghanistan, Iraq and its support to Israel against the Palestinians as well its arm twisting of Muslim nations to join the war against terror helped the US grab the pole position in world leadership.

Map shows southern Thailand

The leaders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), when interviewed for the online news agency Islam Online did not deny that part of their struggle was to establish a Muslim state in the SEA region. This was when the MILF was headed by the bereaved leader of the Muslims of the Philippines Selamat Haschim. Things may have changed with the new leadership of the MILF but the roots of the organization is well entrenched in a non-nationalistic struggle for Islam.

The Malaysian government and the Singapore authorities insisted that the ‘terrorists’ arrested were part of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and they were training and moving weapons across borders to establish a “Dauliah Islamiyah’ or an Islamic nation in the SEA region. The authorities in Malaysia and Singapore even went further in detailing the plans of the JI, stating that the group wanted to include South Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Southern Philippines in this plan.

It was also revealed in the course of the investigations that there were also plans to drag the Gerakan Acheh Merdeka (GAM) in the plans to enlarge the geographical territories of the ‘Dauliah Islamiyah’. This meant that parts of Indonesia, namely the Acheh province, were to be made to join this vast Islamic belt in the region. These plans were discussed with the bereaved Selamat Haschim by Kazi Mahmood and Haschim said his movement would surely support the creation of an enlarged Islamic Emirate in the region. He also added that he would not dismiss the GAM as a partner in this strategy to ensure that Islam and the Muslims would be in control of their destiny in Asia.

All these plans were sabotaged by the arrests of the hundreds of people in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei and even in Thailand. However, these arrests did not quell the thirst for the need to establish this new Islamic state in the midst of existing ‘legitimate’ states. These people were not terrorists, certainly not like those who carried out the 911 job, as their plans were simply to unite the Muslims under the banner of Islam.

Since 911, the global situation was totally in favor of the United States. Its wars against Afghanistan, Iraq and its support to Israel against the Palestinians as well its arm twisting of Muslim nations to join the war against terror helped the US grab the pole position in world leadership. However, with the George W. Bush Jr administration coming to an end the influence of the U.S. in the different spheres of influence in the world is also vanishing. A vacuum has started to exist since the U.S. lost the ground battle in Iraq and this vacuum is now being filled by the FAI and its likely successors or copy cats.

Since 2006, the situation has reversed with the infiltration of Lebanon by the former fighters of the anti-American forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia and this at a rapid pace> This new breed of fighters, having trained in Iraq where they elected their camps, are also present in Gaza and the West Bank. They are waiting for the collapse of the Hamas-Fatah coalition to roar into the launch of yet another anti-Israeli intifada in the territories but this time it will be more bloody for he Israelis since they will face hardened fighters who felled several American-Western and Nato marines, army seals and soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

They are also said to be moving men and weapons as well as their intelligentsia across continents. They are in Somalia where they are giving a hard time to the Ethiopians and the Africa Union forces. They are also infiltrating Darfur and had scuffles with the Tchad military only recently. They are said to be in Northern Africa, Morocco-Tunisia-Algeria and has taken different names like the Al-Qaeda of North Africa and so on.

The main point is that these new breed of Islamic fighters have seen it all in Iraq and have lived it in Afghanistan. They stood against the might of America and the Nato and they did not lose. Little doubts there is that they must have infiltrated groups like the Abu Sayyaf, the MILF and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) or the RKK in Thailand and the GAM in Aceh. This is still to be verified but the assumption is that – based on certain events in the recent weeks – there has been either contacts made with such groups or pure infiltration of the Muslim independence movements in South East Asia by the experienced fighters that has formed the FAI in Lebanon.

One of their intrinsic capabilities is that they are well trained, are able to maneuver militarily and they are not weary of being killed. Based on what the FAI has done in Lebanon, these fighters are also capable of playing the political cards and they will surely attempt at infiltrating the military, the political institutions and the masses in other countries where they will be posted.

Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan, Egypt, Pakistan and why not Indonesia and India in the process; will be wooed to join the global jihad. Indeed they are not interested in the current regimes in place in these countries mentioned here. They are interested in the Islamic movements, in their struggles and in the people of the countries they might be getting involved in. It is a matter of time and sooner or later it will be discovered that these fighters may have left Iraq only to enlarge their base of operations by penetrating the Islamic militant movements in major Muslim nations.

It will be a massive political coup by the global jihad movement if that was to happen. Yet nothing is predicting a situation where this will not happen. The Americans and their lackeys are offering their flanks to such penetration thanks to their continued mistreatment of Muslims and their misconstrued views of Islam. The Islamic forces that are determined to undo the West have nothing to lose in attempting a world wide upheaval of Muslims.

South Thailand is becoming the strong focal point with growing militarization of the smaller groups of insurgents in South Thailand. There is also further cooperation among separatist and independence groups in SEA. All this leads to a pattern that shows the inevitable rise in global jihad. The lack of understanding of the needs of Muslim movements in the region as well as the suppression of their needs and demands will only lead to more people subscribing to the idea of global jihad and they will have no options but to join forces with the main promoters of the idea.

The situation is not critical at the moment since the global jihad groups are yet to be seen in South East Asia but then again, the growing discontent against secular regimes in Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines are indicative that such movements are taking roots in this part of the world.

Clamping down on them will only increase their face value among the populations of Muslims who are seeing their fundamental rights reduced to ashes. The Moro Muslims are under constant attack by the Philippines army, joined by U.S. soldiers in yearly military exercises. In the Southern Thai region, the daily harassment of the Muslims by the Thai police and military is also an added impetus that will orb into support for global jihad.

The situation is different in Indonesia but Java could become the main center point where global jihad may spread like wild fires in the event of the launch of a revolt against the central government based in Jakarta. The regime of Susilo Bambang Yudhyono’s unpopularity is growing while its clamp down on Muslim movements in their struggle against the actions of foreign missionaries could backfire.

The influence exerted by Australia, the U.S. and Switzerland in Indonesia is not well seen by Islamic fundamentalists in Indonesia. This too may become part of the bone of contention that will shake the establishments of secularism in the largest Muslim populated nation on earth.

Aceh is not out of the picture since the massive financial and economic aid that was amassed in the aftermath of the Tsunami in December 2005 did not materialize into concrete support for the local populace. Poso in Sulawesi is also bad news for the regime of SBY and the massive corruption noted and reported in almost all the provinces of the Republic will play against the current government and future secular regimes in Indonesia.

Most of the Jihad groups considers Malaysia as impenetrable, hence the chances that the largely Muslim dominated country will not fall into the grip of global jihad is strong. However, rising racial tensions and the failure by the current and past governments to prevent Malay-Muslims from abandoning the practice of Islam is seen as a serious matter.

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