Page 38 - Conflict, Terrorism, and the Media In Asia

Struggle for moderate Islam in Malaysia 27
Laden’s messages that are released through al Jazeera are reported at length in the
mainstream Malaysian media. In highlighting the links between the KMM, JI and
al Qaeda (Malay Mail 2002c,d,f), the media explicitly identifies Malaysians as
a target audience for bin Laden’s and Ba’asyir’s messages. Despite this, there is
little analysis of what threat this might pose to Malaysian security.
The most extensive report of the role of Malaysians in JI came in 2004 when
TV-3 broadcast an interview with four Malaysian JI members who were being
held in Indonesian custody. The interview was also widely reported throughout
the mainstream print media. The four explained that killing Americans, robbing
financial institutions, and creating an Islamic nation through violence were objec-
tives of JI. They cited a ‘fatwa’issued by bin Laden, which stated that all Muslims
should take revenge on Americans:

This is because the Americans have victimised or have killed civilians
everywhere, and so we can reciprocate by killing American civilians anywhere,
irrespective of whether or not they are armed, whether they are soldiers or
civilians, women, men or children.

The impact of publicizing this message was negated by the fact that all four
expressed remorse and asked forgiveness from society for their involvement in JI.
They stated that JI had deviated from true Islamic teachings and called on their
colleagues to leave the group and return to the true path (Bernama 2004). It is an
interesting question as to whether this interview would have been broadcast if the
four had not recanted in this way.
Some elements of the media however, have tried to play down the links
between JI and al Qaeda. Of the four Malaysian members of JI who were inter-
viewed by TV-3 in April 2004 the New Straits Times indicated that only one of
them had been an Afghan war veteran and that the others had no direct affiliation
or contact with al Qaeda but rather had been influenced by bin Laden’s messages
(New Straits Times 2004).
The direct significance of the media for recruitment to the KMM and JI is
probably quite limited. For militant groups that operate within Muslim commu-
nities, religious schools and Mosques are traditional places for recruiting and
indoctrinating militants. Much of the networks of Indonesian terrorists are linked
to pesantren (religious schools), which indoctrinate their students in militancy.
The pesantren are akin to Malaysia’s sekolah pondok, which are communal set-
tlements where students live together and pursue religious education. Abu Bakar
Ba’asyir, the alleged spiritual leader of JI, and Hambali, the alleged former
operations chief of JI, are both known to have participated in the union between
pesantren and sekolah pondok (New Straits Times 2003c).
The role of educational establishments was confirmed by the TV-3 interview in
2004, in which the four suspects indicated that recruitment was made directly
through Madrassas and Universities. The government has now shut down the
al-Tarbiyyah al-Islamiyaah Luqmanul Hakiem madrassa in Johor, which was
identified as being run by JI and the KMM, and several of the teachers were