Impact of Taliban Takeover on Regional Extremism
The Afghanistan war began in 2001 after the attack on the World Trade Centre (WTC) buildings, in New York City, on September 11. After the incident the United States began a campaign to fight terrorism in Afghanistan with the aim of overthrowing the Taliban who were accused of protecting al-Qaeda. Osama bin Laden, who planned the WTC attack, was living in Afghanistan and was under the protection of the Taliban. They refused the United States’ request to extradite Osama bin Laden and this triggered the invasion of Afghanistan by the US Military in 2003.
The Taliban, which means “student”, emerged from the border region of northern Pakistan and southwest Afghanistan in the early 1990s. They were founded in 1994 with the full support of Pakistan and the United States with the purpose of fighting the Soviet Union, which had carried out a military invasion of Afghanistan.
Since then they claimed to be determined to fight corruption and restore security to Afghans suffering from civil war. The Taliban were able to quickly expand their influence and implement strict Sharia law, including the public execution of convicted murderers and adulterers, and the amputations of those convicted of theft. The Taliban also banned television, music and cinema. They refused to allow women aged 10 years and older to attend school. Under the Sharia law men were required to keep beards and women had to wear a burqa to cover their face and body.
Ideologically, the Taliban have a narrow understanding of Islam. They put Islam in the context of the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century AD, during a time when Islam was established.
Rules of Sharia law such as cutting off the hands of thieves and stoning women who commit adultery were widely practiced and accepted. The Taliban’s dream of a caliphate means the consolidation of power among certain people, based on lineage. The replacement of those people occurs through war and horizontal conflict. The principle of Islam, of mercy in the universe, is ignored through exclusive and intolerant religious practices.
The bloodiest conflict in Afghanistan peaked in 2014 when international forces ended their combat mission and handed over control to Afghan forces to continue fighting the Taliban. This momentum was used by the Taliban to regain control of territory and launch bomb attacks on the government and civilians. A report from the BBC found that in 2018 the Taliban were openly active in 70% of Afghanistan territory.
In February 2020 the United States and the Taliban signed an agreement to restore peace in Afghanistan. Under the agreement, the United States and its fellow NATO allies (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) agreed to withdraw all troops in Afghanistan on the condition that the Taliban no longer would allow al-Qaeda or other extremist groups to operate in the areas they controlled. As a result of these negotiations, the Taliban and the Afghan government exchanged prisoners and the United States coordinated with the United Nations to lift economic sanctions against them. Since the emergence of this agreement, the Taliban has changed tactics from launching attacks on cities and military facilities to a series of targeted killings and terrorizing Afghan civilians. After the withdrawal of foreign militaries, they regained control of large areas of the country and again threatened to overthrow the government in Kabul.
The peak of their momentum occurred in August 2021 when the Taliban managed to invade the capital of Kabul and seize control of a majority of Afghanistan as the United States military withdrew from the country. It is clear the takeover has had a major impact on radical Islamic groups in countries that have close ties to Afghanistan, such as the Philippines and Indonesia.
Islamic extremist groups and terrorists in Indonesia see Afghanistan as their second “homeland”. Terrorists such as Amrozi, Imam Samudra, and Ali Gufron, three young men from Tenggulun Village, Lamongan Regency, East Java, fought in the Afghan wars. These three groups were the perpetrators of the first Bali bombings in October 2002. Most Indonesian terrorists received military training in Afghanistan in the late 1980s to early 1990s.
Taufiqurrahman, a researcher from PAKAR (Pusat Kajian Radikalisme dan Deradikalisasi/Center for the Study of Radicalism and Deradicalization) confirmed this when he said, “Some radical groups in Indonesia are indeed influenced by Afghanistan. We can see this in the 1980s when many Indonesian jihadists were involved in the resistance against the Soviet Union.” He further stated that members of radical groups such as Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) and the Indonesian Mujahidin Council (MMI) are mostly Afghan alumni.
JI members received military training at an academy belonging to the Afghan Mujahideen called Harby Pohantun, an Afghan military academy set up to fight Russia in Afghanistan. Volunteers from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries were students that trained in the academy. The Afghanistan Mujahideen military academy had five training divisions including: Infantry, engineering, artillery, logistics, and cavalry communications. Indonesians training and worked in various areas, but the majority were in the infantry. The education period at the military academy lasted for three years, and the main subject matter provided was: (1) infantry fighting and tactics, (2) map reading and navigation skills, (3) weapons training (4) field engineering which focused on the techniques of making mines and explosives with chemicals. In addition to the military, the academy also taught religious matters such as the interpretation of the Qur’an, interpretation of hadith, fiqh sirah, fiqh haraki and fiqh jihad.
Nasir Abbas, a former Jemaah Islamiyah figure who once served as the 3rd Chair of the Jamaah Islamiyah Mantiqi Region in Southeast Asia and for six years was at the Afghan Military Academy, told The Apex Chronicles that volunteers from Indonesia had trained military knowledge learned in Afghanistan from 1985 until early 1990s. Nasir Abbas said that some of the JI members were Afghan alumni. “Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) regularly sends a number of its members to attend military academies in Afghanistan and the Philippines, but it is not coercive or mandatory.” It is a matter of pride to be able to go to Afghanistan and many members go willingly, according to Nasir Abbas.
In 1983 there were only 5 people who started studying at the Afghanistan Mujahideen military academy that came from the Indonesian Islamic State (NII) network. They included Syawal, Zulkarnain, Mohammad Faiq, Idris alias Solahudin and Saad alias Ahmad Roichan. In 1984 there were 28 volunteers who went to Afghanistan, including Abu Rusydan or Hamzah and Abu Tholut or Mustofa, who had a major influence on the militancy of Jamaah Islamiyah , and Mukhlas or Ali Gufron who was involved in terror acts including the Bali Bombings in 2002.
In 1988 there were 9 people from Indonesia and in 1989 there were about 22 people, including Tamim, Zubair, Urwah and Umair or Abdul Ghani, who were involved in the Bali Bombing 1 explosion and died in an accident in Ambon. In 1990 several militants, including Muktib who was found guilty in the Christmas bombing case in Batam in 2000, and Unais who was found guilty of the Christmas bombing in Pangandaran in 2000. The ninth class in 1991 included as many as 23 militants, many of whom carried out acts of terror in Indonesia, such as Ali Imron or Zaid, the younger brother of Ali Ghufron who was also involved in the 2002 Bali Bombing 1, Abu Sheikh or Umar Patek who became the military instructor of Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) in the Philippines, and Imam Samudra or Abdul Aziz who became the commander of the Bali 1 bombing team. The last group that trained in Afghanistan attended in 1992, a group of 10 people which included Abu Ubaidah or Indra Warman, who was suspected of being involved in the bombing of the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta.
Nasir Abbas said that the Jihadists in Indonesia felt they had the same mission and struggle, establishing a state based on Islam. He said that there was a sense of pride from the Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid (JAT), the Indonesian Mujahidin Council (MMI) and the East Mujahidin Council (MIT) for the Taliban’s takeover. This has encouraged more volunteers from Indonesia to go to Afghanistan to study and train.
“When the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 2021 the local jihadist groups were happy and they wanted to join the Taliban, because the Taliban declared this new independent state an Islamic state. Those (radical groups) who have the desire to live under an Islamic state, especially those who have had experience fighting with the Afghan mujahedeen, feel that they are represented by this sentence, so there is enthusiasm to go there. Among them, like JI, this JI group, which previously had a lot of experience fighting with the Afghan mujahedeen, were the ones who were very excited to be able to go and become part of the Taliban. After the era when the Taliban took over Afghanistan, the desire to leave was there, but they couldn’t go because there was still a pandemic and many countries had closed borders. Immigration also didn’t allow it. According to police data, during the pandemic nothing was heard about anyone having managed to go to Afghanistan,” Nasir Abbas said.
Meanwhile, Moh. Nahdhoddin, SH, a lawyer and researcher in the field of terrorism from the Center for the Study of Radicalism and Deradicalization (PAKAR) stated that “Most of the migrations carried out by members of radical groups were carried out before Covid-19 occurred and the exact number is not yet known. If the average number is below 200 people, their departure is due to the first two objectives of hijrah and the second one is jihad to realize a life that is in accordance with Islamic law.”
A report from IPAC in December 2021 stated that the Taliban’s takeover had a major impact on the JI group in Indonesia. JI detainees, interviewed by the police, indicated that they were happy with the success of the Taliban. This shows the success of the tamkin strategy in moving from the stage of weakness (marhala idtidlaf) to power through jihad fisabilillah. The JI detainees feel that the takeover of the Taliban is due to two factors, firstly by means of full implementation of the Shari’ah, fulfilling the requirements for help from Allah through strong faith. Secondly, they also meet the practical requirements for it (kamanyah requirements) such as adequate resources, population support, appropriate war tactics and adequate weaponry. Their success was able to convince JI members of the legitimacy of the war strategy known as nikayah wal inhak, also known as harbu intizal, which gradually weakens the enemy until it is ultimately defeated.
With the renewed strengthening of the Taliban, it is feared that terror groups in Indonesia will increase. A report from the Special Anti-terror Detachment 88 (Densus 88) stated that, shortly after the Taliban succeeded in conquering the capital city of Kabul in August 2021, the Indonesian police detected congratulations and invitations for jihad on social media, and arrested Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) and Jamaah Ansharut activists. Tauhid (JAT) is suspected of raising funds and planning terror.
Nasir Abbas asked the government to be aware of the Taliban sympathizers and of renewed recruitment efforts by the JI group. “Some members of the general public are carried away that this is a victory for Islam. As a result, they are easy to recruit, many of whom are pledged, so the effect is that many people will join. This also happened in 2013, when the ISIS terror group declared a Caliphate state and many sympathizers, including JI in Indonesia, considered this a victory for Islam, so they led public opinion. Nassir Abbas also believes that many Jamaah Islamiyah sympathizers are still left, so they are trying to change its structure, change its strategy and strengthen its coffers of funds,” he concluded.
