Terrorism Interview - A Look Into Jemmah Islamiyah

I am currently in Lhoksemawe, about 6 hours away from Banda Aceh.  I left yesterday morning on an L300 - basically, a minivan that people hire out to take them places.  It works like a bus would, with a ticket and everything.  I was thinking about hiring a car, but that would be way too expensive.  The L300 was only about $6.  The driver was an angry looking fellow named Akbar who had a strong taste for Nuu Milds and would honk at things for no apparent reason.  We did stop for lunch, and during that hour, I got to chat with a high school girl who was another passenger on the L300.  She wasn't wearing a jilbab and was wearing short sleeves, and I asked her why.  She evaded the question by talking how good Sharia law is, but finally let me know that since she was traveling and it was hot that it wasn't such a big deal.  I learned an important cultural lesson from her though - to always give and accept with your right hand.  I felt stupid, because this was something that I had always known but often forgot.  I paid the lady at the warung with my left hand without even thinking, and the girl told me not to do that.  "That's very rude!" she said.  Needless to say, I was very embarrassed and have been good about remembering to do exchanges with my right hand since yesterday.  I don't think it will be something that slips my mind again, either.

Rahma, who is one of the researchers at ARTI that was on Jesse's team that interviewed the pesantren, gave me the contact details of a friend of hers who lives here - Cut.  So I don't have to pay for a hotel either, thank God.  Cut is a very nice lady.  She's pretty, young, and extremely forward in her thinking.  She is currently a professor here in Lhoksemawe and used to do research for ARTI.  I am very grateful that she is letting me stay in her home for a few days.  We've arranged for her nephew Noval, an endearingly awkward 14 year old, to help take me around to wherever I need to be.  I'll be paying him about Rp.200,000 (about $20) for renting him out.  Glad it's vacation time for high school students.

Today I scheduled my interview with Pak Al Chaidar to be at 2.00.  In the morning, Noval took me around Lhoksemawe and we saw the beach.  Lhoksemawe isn't too different from Banda Aceh, the only major differences are that it's smaller, and instead of cows crowding the streets it's goats.  When we were coming back from the beach, we had to take a pretty hefty detour into the kampung because we saw that they were having razia operations on the street that we needed to go down.  Not to worry, I was dressed completely appropriately, but wasn't wearing a helmet.  It was nice going through the kampung though, despite the super rocky dirt roads (I almost fell off the motorcycle).  The scenery was beautiful - palm trees and rice paddies as far as the eye could see.

My interview with Pak Al Chaidar later was very interesting.  He is a fascinating man.  He has been following Jemmah Islamiyah since 1991 - before they became a terrorist organizations and were still a Darul Islam group.  He's seen how they train, understands their ideologies, and still keeps in contact with them.  He's been able to do very extensive interviews and research on them, it's crazy.  He obviously does not agree with them whatsoever, but has very thorough research on them.  He knows how they operate, to say the least.  I mentioned reading a couple of articles that say that since Jemmah Islamiyah has factioned off into 2 groups - one that wants to commit acts of terrorism, the other that just wants to do dawa - that they aren't a big threat anymore.  I asked Al Chaidar his opinion on this, and he disagrees.  He seems to think that they do remain a very big threat.  He said that despite factioning off, if the leaders say to do something (like set off a bomb), they will follow their leader's orders.

I then asked him about the strategies of Jemmah Islamiyah.  I learned that terrorist organizations are very strategic in their actions, and that they won't bomb a building "just because".  There will always be some kind of political motivation behind it.  I found his response on this to be pretty funny.  He said that those in JI "aren't very smart", and lack an intelligence division.  "They are still naive".  He also mentioned that those who join JI come from modest economic backgrounds, and are at the wealthiest, middle class.  This is very interesting to me, since I learned that in terrorist organizations, participants tend to be wealthy and highly educated.  However, in Jemmah Islamiyah's case, this doesn't seem to hold up.

When I asked him why terrorism can exist in Java (where much of JI is based) but not in Aceh, he said that it was a cultural difference.

"There are cultural differences in Aceh and Java...the character of Aceh is unique.  The Acehnese are very proud people, egalitarian, somewhat xenophobic, and don't like to take orders from anybody else.  It was the Acehnese who brought Islam to Java, so when Javanese came to Aceh and tried to recruit people into Jemmah Islamiyah, it wasn't accepted.  People thought of them as 'those stupid Arab people'..Islam in Aceh is very different from that in Java.  In Java, there are strong geneological and family ties that people are loyal to.  In Aceh, people are more critical and don't just act upon something that an ulammah says to do."

  He made an amusing comparison of these two cultures, saying:

"Islam in Java is like a Molotov cocktail; it's easy to set off and very explosive.  Islam in Aceh is more like a petroleum bomb; there is a very long process it has to go through before it can explode."

Jemmah Islamiyah had been in Aceh since 2005, doing charity work to help tsunami victims.  But from 2005-2009, they were only able to recruit 20 people.  I think that this is incredible data, especially considering how easily they were able to recruit in Java.  But 20 members in 4 years?  Wow.  I love this, because it just goes to further show how the vast majority of Muslims do not condone terrorism.  They thought that because Aceh operates under Sharia law that the people would be sympathetic to them and want to join arms with them.  What they didn't prepare for was assimilating into Acehnese society and becoming people that the Acehnese could easily trust.  Al Chaidar said that their biggest downfall was appearing so foreign, with their long beards and Javanese customs.  The Acehnese simply refused to accept it.  

After the interview, Al Chaidar said that he may be able to get me in touch with current Jemmah Islamiyah members in Jakarta.  I would love to take this opportunity if they agree to see me.  He said that it might be interesting to talk with the wives of these fellows, and I agree.  He isn't able to because of the fact that he is a man, but because of our gender, he thinks that I might be able to learn some interesting information from them.  Hopefully it goes through, this would be an incredible opportunity.  Al Chaidar said that it would be completely safe and that there would be nothing to worry about.  Since I am Muslim and half Indonesian, he said that they would be fine with the fact that I am also an American.  He just advised me not to badtalk Osama bin Laden in front of them.

I will be going to Pesantren Darul Mujahiddin tomorrow after jumatan (Friday prayers).  Al Chaidar said that it's no problem that I'm going without an appointment and that the Acehnese are very gracious and accepting of guests.  I was able to record our interview today, so that will definitely be something interesting to listen over later.  I probably won't be posting it because it was about an hour and a half long, but I'm glad to have had this opportunity to talk with him.  It was a great interview, he really didn't hold anything back.