Terrorism in Indonesia and the Perceived Oppression of Muslims Worldwide

Summary

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

• • Various motivations underlying terrorism uncovered by recent scholarship include the radicals’ desire for Muslim unity, political interest, yearning to correct social and economic deprivation in the Muslim world, and simply anti-Westernism.

• • This article focuses on the radicals’ call for Muslim solidarity and how this tends towards becoming their primary motivation for perpetrating terrorism. It discusses how radical groups and individuals exaggerate the perceived oppression of Muslims worldwide and how this encourages their sympathizers in planning, fundraising and/or executing terrorist attacks.

• • The so-called ummah solidarity discourse is coupled with the prevalence of the dogma that Muslims are targets of Western or foreign oppression. This has legitimized jihadist terrorists’ use of violence and facilitated the recruitment of new terrorists.

• • Besides regular crackdowns on terrorists and putting limitations on access to radical websites and other Internet sources, this article contends that the Indonesian security apparatuses and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs must work with the embassies from India, China and Myanmar based in Jakarta to nullify any likelihood of terror attacks on their embassy compounds or their citizens.