(New York, NY) – Southeast Asian Jihadist group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) made international headlines with bombings targeting tourists in Bali in 2002 and 2005 that killed 222 people, but the group has a long and violent history spanning decades.
Founded by Abu Bakar Bashir and Abdullah Sungkar to overthrow the secular Indonesian state through political disruption and violence, JI seeks to establish a regional caliphate that would encompass Indonesia, Malaysia, Mindanao (southern Philippines), southern Thailand, Singapore, and Brunei. Bashir pledged loyalty to ISIS in July 2014 but the group also has links to al-Qaeda and the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), a Philippines-based terrorist organization.
Among its violent operations, JI is known for its ties to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing as well as the 1995 failed “Bojinka” plot, an attempt to bomb 12 U.S. commercial airlines in the span of two days.
More than 200 Indonesian citizens have fought in Syria and Iraq. Indonesia‘s relatively lax immigration laws, which allow citizens to travel in and out of conflict zones without prosecution, has raised fears of increased domestic terror from radicalized jihadists.
Explore the history, ideology and leadership of Jemaah Islamiyah and many other extremist groups, leaders, propagandists and terror financiers at counterextremism.com.
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