• IS

• Terrorist Organization - Southeast Asia

• Extremist Islam Southeast Asia

Bibliography : This book seeks to understand why, despite almost... ... Read More

Bibliography : This book seeks to understand why, despite almost two decades of strong law enforcement and security force pressure since the October 2002 Bali terror attacks, terrorist networks in Southeast Asia motivated by violent extremist interpretations of Islam remain resilient and dangerous. Arguing that focusing on the physical threat posed by terrorism has failed to address the totality of the problem, the book—through detailed case studies of four Southeast Asian extremists—encourages a shift away from the threat groups themselves, to a focus on the wider ideological ecosystems of closely interlocking persons, places, and platforms that sustain such groups and their acolytes. Challenging controversial notions that Islam per se is a “religion of violence,” the book argues that the theological-ideological amalgam of what has been called “Salafabism” is the more useful lens for recognizing closed-minded extremist currents in Islam. It argues that supposedly nonviolent, soft Salafabist Islamists do not actually counter, but complement and potentially sustain, violent hard Salafabist, Salafi Jihadis—because both constituencies share a common extremist ideological DNA. That said, the book carefully distinguishes between relatively open-minded Salafabist radicals—whom governments and civil societies can co-opt and embrace—and the system-subverting, closed-minded Salafabist extremists of the aforementioned soft and hard varieties, who should rightly attract policy concern. The book concludes by outlining a comprehensive strategy for promoting theologically sound yet culturally authentic alternative narratives to Salafabist extremism—thereby defending the complex, richly textured tapestry of the moderate Islam Nusantara of Southeast Asia.