Incendiary speech on race, religion leading to lone wolf attacks, says expert

INDIVIDUALS, including politicians, who spread incendiary messages like “Islam is under threat” and “Malays are being sidelined” to spread hate are giving rise to lone wolf attacks, experts say.

Mizan Aslam of National Defense University Malaysia said such remarks are dangerous as some quarters may take it literally and attack innocent lives without considering the consequences.

“The authorities need to detain those who are spreading such messages. These are dangerous remarks that could lead to extremism,” Mizan told The Vibes.

“They resort to violence because they feel that they are actually being mistreated and sidelined.”

And this, he said, gives rise to lone wolf attacks.

A lone wolf refers to a terrorist or other criminal who acts alone rather than as part of a larger organisation.

Mizan said this is not a problem in Malaysia alone. In Europe and the broader West, the “whites” are being told that Muslims are taking over, shariah law is going to replace their law.

“This gives rise to attacks like the one in a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2019 where the attacker believed Islam was the problem,” said the academic.

The mosque attack in Christchurch killed 50 people and injured more than 40 individuals.

The motive for the Ulu Tiram police station attack last Friday is still unclear but police had disclosed that the suspect’s father was a former Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) member – a terror organisation responsible for the Bali bombing in 2002 which claimed more than 200 lives.

Two policemen were killed after the assailant, 34-year-old Radin Romyullah Radin Imran hacked a policeman to death before shooting another officer in the head. A third policeman is recovering from a gunshot wound.

Radin, who did not receive formal schooling, was killed in the shootout.

Inspector-General of Police Razarudin Husain initially said the attacker was a JI member but it was later reported that the attacker was not a member of the now defunct terror group.

Mizan said that the suspect was most probably indoctrinated by his father on violence and extremist teachings.

He added that family indoctrination was the most potent way in breeding an ideology.

“Whatever teaching be it extremist, or Shia or even deviant teachings, it is easy to get our own family members to believe in it before we can teach outsiders,” Mizan said.

“In this case, the attacker was taught by his father before he decided to take matters on his own.”

The academic said the government must be equipped with the latest technology to monitor online content on social media as even minors can be easily influenced.

“Anything can be watched online. Extremist teachings and radical thoughts can be easily found online. Preachers talking about violence and spreading violent content must be stopped such as ‘takfiri’ and jihadi ideology.”

Mizan, who is a professor of security and strategic studies at NDUM, said the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission must use every technology it has to take down dangerous content immediately.

Monitor families with extremist backgrounds

Meanwhile, Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid of Universiti Sains Malaysia said that it would be almost impossible for security forces to anticipate a lone wolf attack such as the one that occurred in Ulu Tiram.

Fauzi, who has written many journals on Islamic extremism and terrorism in South East Asia, said external factors such as the war on Gaza could also lead to a terror attack.

“Social media is very effective in sending out subtle messages. Hidden messages were being used to indoctrinate the people. In this case, it is interesting to see that it happened from a non-violent perspective to violence.

“The Ulu Tiram attacker must have been taught at home and he would have had his own social media platforms.

“He must have been studying and learning for some time before it came to a point where he decided to act, resort to violence,” said the academic.

“We must monitor social media, especially those with extremist backgrounds. Whether they like it or not, they have to accept that they will be monitored, their family will be monitored for the rest of their lives.”

Fauzi added security forces must also continue to place families with extremist backgrounds under constant surveillance.

“We cannot have a repeat of the Ulu Tiram incident. We have no choice but to have them monitored and they have to accept that.

“The suspect could have felt disappointed with what’s happening in Gaza or he thought the police or the army were ‘enemies of Islam’ just because they are part of the government.”

“Monitoring them is a necessity. Their online preference must be checked and censored,” he said.

The Vibes previously reported that the police may have dropped the ball on the JI threat in the country.

Terrorism expert Ahmad El Muhammady said although JI no longer existed as an organisation, the group’s ideology was still being taught by sympathisers, including ex-members.

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.

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. – May 21, 2024.