(Straits Times-Singapore) Zakir Hussain, Nur Asyiqin, and Mohamad Salleh - Individuals from Singapore who joined ISIS, together with an estimated 50 Malaysians, 100 Indonesians, and 100 from the Philippines, have become a pressing concern for security agencies in the region. Jemaah Islamiah (JI) members who got battle experience in Afghanistan two decades ago, then returned home to plan terror attacks like the 2002 Bali bombing that killed 202 people. "ISIS gained traction in the region precisely because previous extremist movements like JI have spread radical Islamist ideology in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore," said Navhat Nuraniyah of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore. The Darul Islam group in West Java, for instance, has been trying to set up an Islamic state in Indonesia since the 1940s. "If one has an ideological affinity for the idea of an uncompromising, puritanical, jihadi Islamic State, then there is no group that has more successfully tried to realize that fantasy than ISIS," said Dr. Fanar Haddad of the National University of Singapore.
2014-10-13 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive