Rising in the East: Regional Overview of the Islamic State's Operations in Southeast Asia
Abstract
Starting in mid-2014 with Isnilon Hapilon of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) in the Philippines, a series of Southeast Asian militants pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. Despite this early support, it was only in 2016 that the Islamic State publicly acknowledged some of these oaths of allegiance and declared Hapilon of ASG to be the regional emir.12 As the Islamic State began to lose territory in 2016 and 2017, it encouraged Southeast Asian supporters to travel to the Philippines to wage jihad rather than make hijrah (migrate) to the Middle East.3 Since 2016, a wave of lethal attacks, including a number of attempted and successful suicide attacks, claimed by the Islamic State across the region have led to heightened concerns about the groups mounting influence within Southeast Asian countries. In addition to containing local affiliates aligned with the Islamic State, regional authorities are concerned about the interconnectedness of Islamic State-linked activity across Southeast Asian countries and the experience provided by returning fighters from Iraq and Syria. The case of Bahrun Naim illustrates the multifaceted problem. Naimwho had joined the Islamic States Southeast Asia fighting unit Katibah Nusantara in Syria in 2014 and was arrested by Indonesias counterterrorism forceis believed to have orchestrated connections across disparate Islamic State-linked factions in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines.4 As the first in a series of four reports that map the Islamic States presence in Southeast Asia, this report provides a broad regional perspective on the nature of the Islamic State threat with the remaining reports providing country-level analysis of the Islamic State in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia. The key question explored within this report is the following: what are the overarching characteristics of Islamic State-linked operations across Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines between 2014 and 2019?
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1124484
Entities
People
- Amira Jadoon
- Charmaine Willis
- Nakissa Jahanbani
Organizations
- United States Military Academy