Jemaah Islamiyah defunct but its ideology still being taught, says terror expert

POLICE may have dropped the ball on the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) threat in the country when a lone wolf attacked the Ulu Tiram police station early yesterday killing two policemen and seriously wounding another, said a terrorism expert.

Academic Ahmad El Muhammady told The Vibes that although JI no longer existed as an organisation, the group’s ideology is still being taught by sympathisers, including ex-members.

The International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) academic said several scenarios could have led to the unexpected attack on the police station yesterday.

“JI’s organisation has been eliminated here and in Indonesia. Their top leaders were all eliminated but the ideology, the way of thinking, is still out there.

“There are still books and literature from the past which are still being used by some,” El Muhammady said.

JI was a Southeast Asian Islamist militant group that was affiliated to al-Qaeda and based in Indonesia. It was dedicated to the establishment of an Islamic state in Southeast Asia.

At its height in the 2000s, JI was alleged to have members from Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia and the Philippines, and masterminded a series of deadly bombings, including the October 2002 attack in Bali that killed more than 200 people.

Some of its most prominent leaders were Malaysian, including Noordin Muhammad Top, who acted as a recruiter, strategist and financier for the group and was wanted for involvement in a string of attacks in Indonesia.

“Old grievances were also involved in yesterday’s attack. The attack was carried out by 34-year-old Radin Romyullah Radin Imran, who is the son of a former JI member.

“He was a kid when saw his father being detained and he grew up with that grudge.”

His 62-year-old father, Radin Imran, was a former member of the organisation and was under police custody previously.

“Let’s not forget, there was a religious school in Ulu Tiram, Sekolah Luqmanul Hakiem, opened by Abu Bakar Bashir, JI’s founder.

“The police did not anticipate that the son of a former JI member could strike when the time came.

“They may have dropped the ball in this case,” said El Muhammady.

JI was founded by Abu Bakar Bashir, an Indonesian cleric, in the early 1990s after he moved to Malaysia while trying to escape persecution by the Suharto regime in Indonesia.

It was here in Malaysia, specifically in Ulu Tiram, Johor, that the group began to recruit new members.

In yesterday’s attack, two police constables were killed while the third sustained serious injuries after Radin, armed with a machete and a gun, stormed into the police station.

He hacked the first police officer to death after he tried to stop the suspect from entering the police station through the back door.

Th second police officer was shot in the head and the third was shot in the stomach. Radin was later killed in a shootout with officers who were dispatched to the scene.

Inspector-General of Police Razarudin Husain had instructed the police to locate at least 20 people in Johor with connections to JI.

“We have identified 20 of them and I have instructed the Special Branch to locate them,” he said.

Police also detained five of Radin’s family members, including his father.

“We found numerous JI-related paraphernalia and items which we believed were linked to the ideology,” Razarudin told reporters at the police station yesterday.

The last time a police station was attacked was in 1950 in Bukit Kepong, also in Johor.

The attack was carried out by Parti Komunis Malaya (PKM), claiming the lives of 23 policemen and two civilians. – May 18, 2024.