Dutch and Indonesian terrorism compared

 Beatrice de Graaf (b. 1976) is a Dutch scholar on the history of terrorism. Recently she published a book with the title: Radicale Verlossing: wat terroristen geloven (2021, Prometheus Amsterdam, 383 pages). The title can be translated as: Radical Redemption. What terrorists believe. On page 14 she identifies what she does not accept as methodological guidelines: 1) "Islam is a peaceful religion. Muslim terrorists therefore cannot be accepted as Muslims." 2) "Religion in general and more specifically Islam invites its believers to be violent." Both position are rejected by De Graaf. Instead she takes as her methodology, that the actual modern terrorists often claim that they have religious motivations and this must be taken serious. Not the basic religious texts, not theology, but the actual motivation of terrorists must be taken as a starting point.

In many life stories, she found that terrorists were seeking some kind of redemption from personal sin, from a lost life, frustrations and negative feelings. Quite many of them were as teenager small criminals, who sought a radical redemption in a turn towards 'Islam', whatever they may have understood about it.

De Graaf was born in de Dutch village of Putten, known for its orthodox Protestant population, went as a child twice to church services on Sundays and still holds a good memory of the pious environment in which she grew up. For her research De Graaf interviewed 18 young men put in jail because of terrorist acts in the Netherlands. One of these was of Dutch offspring and was member of a small group that tried to set a mosque in fire in the town of Enschede. All 17 other young men originated from Muslim families, most of them from Morocco, some from Iran or Turkey. They had been jailed for terrorist actions and De Graaf could interview them in prison. All of them had no thorough knowledge of classical Islam and most of them had a history of contact with the police for drug addicts, thefts. De Graaf's method is called by her as thick description and micro history. Narratives fill about 70% of her book and she moves then to 'grounded theory', or a general theory grounded in facts rather than theoretical models or reasoning from sacred texts.

She also included five Indonesians in her research and took interviews in Jakarta from  24-27 February 2020 (with good help from the side of the Dutch Embassy in Jakarta and BNPT or Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Terorisme: the National Counter Insurgency of Indonesia).The five ex-terrorists were Sofyan Tsauri, Kurnia Widodo, 'Ramli' (a self-chosen name of a terrorist), Syarafina Nailah (member of a large family, whose father and uncle are still in prison), Farihin.  She gives a very positive impression of the way BNPT works to de-radicalize terrorists. A difference with Dutch terrorists is also that some of the older terrorists of Indonesia have a history of parents or even a grand-father, going back to the 1950s like Darul Islam in West Java. Also the debate about the Jakarta Charter and the introduction of shari'a is typical Indonesian. Common ground is found in the positive attitude to the war in Afghanistan and the rise of IS in Syria and Iraq. And most of all in the individual quest for Radical Redemption.

Sofyan Tsauri was born in 1976 in Depok. His father was a police officer, the family seldom went to the mosque and prayed at irregular times. At secondary school Sofyan became a petty criminal and was arrested several times. At the age of 18 a friend suggested him to read books by Sayyid Qutb and Shaikh Azzam. He realized 'that I had to change my life. I should cleanse my soul from all evil acts. ... I should not only think about myself, but spend my energy and agression in favour of others.' He started dreaming of the desert of Afghanistan, 'we were hiding in caves and we had grenades and guns who always hit the target. And my ammunition never was finished.'[88] But he would never make it to Afghanistan. After secondary school he went to a pesantren, a religious school, besides studying at the police academy. In the pesantren he met some teachers who had fought in Afghanistan and the book by Shaykh Azzan, Ayaturrahman fi JihadilAfghan became his favourite. He left the circle of Muslim Brothers, because they were only talking, had no actions and became in 2007 member of Jemaah Islamiyah, more or less the Indonesian branch of Al-Qaida, With his friend Dulmatin he went to Aceh to start a training camp. He did not tell to his police department, where he had worked for several years that he left his job. Also to his father he did not say anything. He was active in the camp in Aceh, in processes of securing weapons from corrupt police fellows, until the camp was arrested on 6 March 2010, put in jail for six years (after a first verdict of ten years). Already before his arrest he concluded from readings from Usama bin Laden, that it is not allowed to kill fellow Muslims. De Graaf only gives very short and incomplete life stories: she only uses the cases as illustrations for her major thesis aboutthe Radical Redemption.

The most interesting  story resulted from the interview with Syarafina Nailah, member of a great family. Her father worked in Batam as government official in a quite good position. But she, and even more her younger sister Nur Dhania were not happy in Batam: life without meaning (151-6). Nailah was at university for her study of computer science, Dhania still at high school. The two girls  listened to stories of a brother of her mother, a devout Muslim who had heard stories about life in the Islamic State as a truly Muslim paradise. Thisuncle had problems with his business and so the three dreamt of going to Syria in order to become a citizen of the new caliphate. Moreand moremembers of the family became happy with the idea of a new life: the father sold the family house in Jakarta and in August 2015 the extended family, 18 members left for Turkey (6 more members could in the end not follow themajority). Already in the first weeks they saw that the Caliphate was not a good place: everything dirty, even the hospital, strict separation between men and women and the obligationfor men to join the fighting. The Caliphate was a disastrous utopia. Communication with people of the caliphate was very difficult and it took them two years before they could reach Turkey, where the Indonesian government facilitated the return to Indonesia. (Something the Dutch government is quite reluctant to provide!) The grandmother of the family had died in hospital and put in a anonymous grave before the members could perform the burial rituals. The father and theuncle were sentenced to four years of prison because they had become member of a terrorist organization. The female members of the party had to attend de-radicalization programmes and a re-integration course.

In general this is a quite interesting book, but it remains difficult to formulate general qualifications for the 18 Dutch and 5 Indonesian terrorists from the short andsomewhat defective life stories.

Indonesia: colonialism and decolonisation according to David Van Reybrouck

The Belgian historian, general journalist, and literator, David Van Reybrouck, is best known through his great book on Congo (2010). It was partly written on documentation, but for more than 50% based on interviews with living people: oral history, anecdotes and small personal stories picture the colonial history of the country which began in the 1880s. Van Reybrouck also was the co-author of the two books by Morocco-Belgian Mohamed El Bachiri, whose wife was killed by an attack by Muslim terrorists in Brussels on 22 March 2016 (A Jihad of Love; The Odyssee of Mohamed).
After five years of research he now has published a book of 600 pages which concentrates on the rise and development of the colonialism in Indonesia from 1600-1942 and the difficult process of the revolutionary war between 1945-1949 after which the Netherlands finally gave up its colonial rule. The period 1945-1949 fills about half the book. Reybrouck is quite rude about the Dutch personnel during the VOC period, during the colonial state, and also about the present opinions of Dutch people. Only six percent of the population now is negative about the colonial past and 26% would prefer to 'own' overseas parts in the country. This is much higher than found among citizens of France or the UK, the two largest former colonial states. The Dutch were crude, severe, had a wrong understanding of the Indonesians, especially their wish to follow the national aspirations of Sukarno and his movement since the 1920s. After the Japanese rule there were ample occasions for a smooth transition of power and end a war that cost about 200.000 lives on the side of the Indonesians, but the Dutch were obstinate and only American interventions and threat to stop economic cooperation made an end to their efforts in 1949.

Although the title of the book only refers to the period 1945-1949, it has a much broader picture of Indonesian history. About the subject of revolution, Van Reybrouck stresses that the global role of Indonesia was important, even leading. It was the first Asian country to claim and reach independence, even before India and Pakistan. In 1955 it became the leader (at the Bandung Conference) of the Third World Movement. As to the earlier history it is clear that the Dutch presence in the VOC never was a peaceful trading company: it brought an army with it, and used it. Through the genocide of the population of the Banda Islands and the implementation of the monopoly on spices in the hongi inspections, where all clove trees outside the island of Ambon were cut. After 1700 the cooking in France and many European countries changed: from pepper and other eastern spices to European ones and so the export of food changed to coffee, tea, cacao, sugar, while indigo became important for the colour of clothes. In this way economy and colonial policy changed too. I am still in the first chapters of the book, but this new presentation of colonialism and its end, extremely well written in a lively style, will be important for the general attitude towards Indonesian and Dutch colonial history.

CMR volume 16: Indonesia in the 19th century

 

CMR, the great series on the bibliographical history of Christan-Muslim Relations has now published volume 16: 825 pages on  North America (54 entries, 430 pages! Islam is a global religion!), interesting articles on China, Japan, some on Australia and 16 on Southeast Asia. - I wrote here five articles, one on L.W./C. van den Berg, further three on colonial conflicts with religious implications (Paderi wars, Aceh, Banjar 1859- and one on Ahmed Ripangi. I write here short remarks on more authors who were important for Indonesia.

1. Ismail Hakki Göksoy from Isparta, Turkey, found in the Ottoman archives in Istanbul a rich documentation of the correspondance between the sultanate of Aceh and the Ottomans in Mecca and Istanbul between 1849 and 1873. The Acehnese sultan wanted to put Aceh as part of the Ottoman empire and asked for protection, especially warships: 'For if we do not expell them from the Muslim lands, we fear all the people of the island will apostasise and leave Islam once and for all' (583). The Ottoman government did not act positively in favour of Aceh.

2.  Thomas Stamford Raffles wrote 1807 in private letters very positive about Islam: 'Mohamed's mission does not invalidate our Saviour's. One [= Islam] has secured happiness to the Eastern and one [= Christianity] to the Western world, and both deserve our veneration.' (526). But at the end of his career in Asia, in 1823, has was very negative about the role of Islam.

3. Nico Kaptein wrote about Sayyid Uthman, the most prominent Arab scholar in the Dutch East Indies between 1850 until his death in 1914.  He defended the position that the Dutch rule gave safety and protection to the Muslims and therefore it was illegal to steal from them or take their property in any means. (550). Kaptein adds that also 'traditional fiqh might provide arguments in favour of harmonious Christian-Muslim relations. (550). Kaptein also wrote about the mufti of Mecca, Ahmad ibn Zayni Dahlan (1816-1886), who issued several fatawa in the same line, that Muslims should obey the infidel colonial rulers in everything and that also the appoinments of mosque leaders are legal (565).

4. A very interesting person is Abdullah Abdulkadir, usually called Abdullah Munshi, of mixed Arab (Hadramaut) and Tamil ancestry. He was born in Malacca and fluent in languages, teacher of missionaries and colonial officials. Although he received his salary from the British and Americans, he remained critical and independent and in translating the gospels: he defended his Muslim confession, although he also admired the dedication of the colonial administration. Finally, through this contact 'Malay Islam became more defensive due to the mossionary presence.' (535).

The project has also some missing issues: the Java War of 1825-1830 and the position and writings of Prince Dipanagara are not discussed here, but in such a work always some deficiences are left to be corrected by others later.

Is Islam a dangerous religion?

After the fall of Communism in 1989 the Western world needed a new enemy, at least for its NATO defence system. NATO Secretary General Willy Claes in the early 1990s already defined Islam/Muslim terrorism as the new enemy. This increased to worldwide impact after the 9/11 attacks in the USA of 2001. GWOT, the Global War against terrorism became a new emblem for a coalition under leadership of the USA. "It is argued that the US is an informal military-political empire which makes false and exaggerated claims about the threat of Islamic terrorism to justify US intervention in Muslim countries."
BKI, the journal Bijdragen with a very long name, 2020, issue 2/3 (quote her from page 211) has an interesting contribution about 'Security, Islam, and Indonesia' by Aria Nakissa with an 'Anthropological Analysis of Indonesia's Counterterrorism Agency'. Free access through KITLV/Publications.

Nakissa was between 2014-9 repeatedly in Indonesia to study BNPT, Badan Nasional Penanggulangan Terorism, the National Counterterrorism Agency. In contrast to Densus, the armed police squad fighting terrorists, the BNPT is quite open about its structure, strategy and goals. The researcher could talk to former terrorists, was inside several of the most important buildings of BNPT and could write extensively about its threefold programme of protection, counter-radicalization and deradicalization.

Until the bombing in Kuta, Bali, 8 October 2002, the Indonesia police and military were not too keen on Muslim terrorism, but since that attack, which caused 202 deaths, there was an urgent reason for building a national infrastructure, partly following major goals of GWOT. In this article the author is quite critical about elements of this goal: terrorism causes comparatively few deaths. In the 16 years following the Bali bombings it has caused some 20 deaths per year in Indonesia, while AIDS has caused rougly 30,000 deaths per year and smoking 200,000 per year in Indonesia alone! (218).
While Densus has  a hard approach, BNPT, according to Nakissa represents a quite soft approach. It has a Pusat Media Damai, promoting liberal Islam and also attention for local Indonesian rather than Arab-style Islam. It cooperates with NGOs in this field. It supports young Indonesians working as bloggers, has a network of websites and social media accounts.
For those found guilty of terrorist actions it has developed a fourfold programme of 'deradicalization',  starting with identification, going to rehabilitation, re-education and reintegration.
Former terrorists can join these programmes (but only if they survive the hard treatment of Densus which caused at least 121 individuals death in prison between 2007 and 2016).
This detailed study, only summarised shortly above is a very interasting piece of work.
The 2020, 2/3 issue of BKI has many more interesting articles: on the last Dutch colonial war between 1945-1949 (the Dutch Vietnam), on the killings of 1965-6 considered as a genocide on the 'Communist Community' of Indonesia, on Indonesians in China after 1965, trying to continue the Indonesian Communist Party PKI, amidst the cultural revoluation in China itself. And many nice book reviews.

7 November 2017: Constitutional Court on local religions

From 7-29 October I was in Indonesia again, with Paule. We visited for the first time in our life the Island Sumba. It was an exceptional happening. Everywhere in East Indonesia the old traditions, adat are still sacred and important, but in Sumba they have continued to survive as the major religious and spiritual tradition in quite many 'traditional' villages. The followers, about 30% of the population, consider themselves as Marapu, followers of the traditions of the ancestors.
An Association of village chiefs from Sumba, of similar Dayak group (= Kaharingan) and two Batak spiritual societies, Parmalim and Ugamo Bangsa Batak, have taken their case to the Mahkamah Agung or institutional court (in 2016?).  On 7 November 2018  this court published its decision that article 29of the Constitution of 1945 gives freedom of religion and belief  (agama dan kepercayaan) for all Indonesian citizens. It was specified as to the request for identity cards and passports: no longer applicants have to chose out of six official recognised religions, but they can also write that they are followers of a kepercayaan: penghayat kepercayaan. Within the ministry of culture and education they are listed as cultural and spiritual societies.

Already at our  arrival at the airport of Waingapu we shook hands with the village chief of  Prailiu, who was also the vice-president of the Marapu Society of Sumba. We were introduced by Rev. Herlina Kenya, a minister of the Protestant Sumbanese Church, who has good contacts with Marapu people. That same afternoon we visited the village of Prailiu, where we had to share a sirih-pinang with the village chief (above, left). He was very happy with the new legal overtures which gave more status and security to their old traditions. His house is, like the 15-20 great houses in this village all built with traditional materials. There is an old tree where in former times the heads of their enemies were hang, but where now still a ritual centre is found (in a quite informal way: for outsiders, the motor cycle does not disturb the sacredness of the place).

 Above the three ingredients for the ritual sirih pinang: the pinang nut, the sirih fruit and a bottle with calcium.  If you chew it for  quite long time (30 minutes up to a few hours) some calmness seems to come over you, but we had not the true habit of chewing it patiently without somehow eating it.
The other day we went to the greatest traditional village of Sumba, Rende (some 10 km east of Melolo). Here the president of theMarapu Society resides. They were very busy with the preparation of a major funeral, including a village chief and former bupati, who had died ten years ago, together with two other men and one lady. The corpses that had been kept until one month ago in foetus position, were now brought in one house, where they were accompanied by mourning people. The specialists for a night long singing traditional hymns in the complicated ritual language were called upon.There is fear that these texts  will be lost, because there are less and less specialists who know them by heart and there are no written copies.
Bali has the most spectacular funerals in Indonesia, followed by the Toraja people. But also the Sumbanese now celebrate a revival of their pride! And funerals are a major part of this.
I heard that  part of the Kaharingan want to continue as member of Hindu-Kaharingan,but other people want to be member of the Kepercayaan Kaharingan.

A universal medicine with the name of Darurat?

In 2016 the MUI, the Council of Muslim Clerics of Indonesia issued a fatwa about the prevention of the rubella disease through vaccination. The common method through preventive vaccination is haram, because gelatine is used, usually made from pork skin or bones. Although chemically changed, it should still be considered as haram.
This fatwa looked quite similar to the former fatwa against the extremely popular fast food of instant Mie about 15 years ago. That was a nice issue for the MUI because it opened the financial gold mine of registration the halal character of all kind of food, against a proper financial payment. I heard from well informed people that this is now the true financial basis of the MUI, which formerly was paid by the State (in fact the Ministry of Religions). Halal certification is big business, also in non-Muslim countries like the Netherlands, but definitely in Indonesia.

The couple Jokowi-Ma'ruf Amin at a hospital for their medical examination

Now Ma'ruf Amin is in a problematic situation. As candidate to become Vice-President, but also head of NU and of MUI, he is considered responsible for quite dramatic cases of children with many defections because of the spread of rubella since the fatwa of 2016. Instead of 90%, in this year only 50% of the children have been vaccinated and in Aceh the percentage has dropped to 7% only.
Ma'ruf Amin has now given a quite verbose declaration, where he stated that in case of darurat (urgent situation) the haram status is nullified and it is allowed to practice  vaccination. The situation is quite chaotic now and we will see whatcomes of the debate.