This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/22/isis-seeking-to-set-up-distant-caliphate-in-indonesia-george-brandis-warns

The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 1 Version 2
Isis seeking to set up 'distant caliphate' in Indonesia, George Brandis warns Isis seeking to set up 'distant caliphate' in Indonesia, George Brandis warns
(35 minutes later)
The Islamic State is working to boost its presence in Indonesia with dreams of creating a “distant caliphate” in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, an Australian minister warned on Tuesday. The Australian attorney-general has “no doubt at all” that Islamic State is seeking to establish a “distant caliphate” in Indonesia, “either directly or through surrogates”.
The jihadist group constituted a threat to Australian and western interests, said the attorney general, George Brandis, who spent Monday in meetings between Indonesian and Australian ministers, police chiefs and security officials. In comments made to the Australian newspaper during high-level security meetings in Jakarta between Australian and Indonesian ministers and security officials, George Brandis said Isis “has identified Indonesia as a location of its ambitions”.
“Isis has ambitions to elevate its presence and level of activity in Indonesia, either directly or through surrogates,” he told the Australian newspaper. “Isis has ambitions to elevate its presence and level of activity in Indonesia, either directly or through surrogates,” he said.
“You’ve heard the expression the ‘distant caliphate’? Isis has a declared intention to establish caliphates beyond the Middle East, provincial caliphates in effect. It has identified Indonesia as a location of its ambitions.”“You’ve heard the expression the ‘distant caliphate’? Isis has a declared intention to establish caliphates beyond the Middle East, provincial caliphates in effect. It has identified Indonesia as a location of its ambitions.”
In further remarks he warned Australia and Indonesia were “very vulnerable” to terrorism, particularly “Isis-inspired terrorism”.
Related: Singapore defense minister: Isis drawing more followers in south-east AsiaRelated: Singapore defense minister: Isis drawing more followers in south-east Asia
Isis, which adheres to a fundamentalist doctrine of Sunni Islam, has already declared caliphates in several areas outside Syria and northern Iraq where it holds a swath of territory. But Greg Fealey, an expert in Islamism and Indonesian politics from the Australian National University, said Isis was not the major Islamist risk in Indonesia, despite comprising the larger part of the approximately 300 foreign fighters who have left the country for the middle east.
Brandis’s comments follow Indonesian police foiling plans for a suicide attack in Jakarta and arresting radicals linked to Isis. “I’m a bit skeptical,” Fealey told Guardian Australia. “Most scholars looking at Isis in south-east Asia and particularly in Indonesia are not convinced that Isis has big plans for Indonesia.”
Three-day raids across Java ending on Sunday saw the confiscation of explosive materials and an Isis-inspired flag as well as nine arrests. “We’ve not seen Isis sending fighters back to Indonesia or Malaysia to undertake terrorist operations ... Nor has there been a statement from IS [Isis] centrally, indicating they would seek to establish a caliphate in south-east Asia or Indonesia.”
The extremists were targeting shopping malls, police stations and minority groups across the country, Indonesia’s national police chief said. He said the small number of foreign fighters who returned to Indonesia had fought with al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra.
Security has been beefed up across the country, with senior ministers from Australia and Indonesia agreeing on Monday to boost intelligence sharing, including on terrorism financing, following bilateral talks in both Sydney and Jakarta. “They do come back, within a year, and they are not interested in terrorism but are interested in using those skills to build an Islamic state.”
The Australian newspaper said that while Australian authorities believed there was little chance Isis could create a caliphate within Indonesia, they were deeply worried the terrorist group may establish a permanent foothold in the archipelago. A separate meeting between the defence and foreign ministers of the two countries was held in Sydney and resulted in the signing of a memorandum of understanding on terrorism, among other agreements.
This could allow it to conduct attacks against western or Australian interests within Indonesia and beyond. Australian justice minister, Michael Keenan, said sharing intelligence and policing resources were how the two countries could “work together to counter the virulent and violent message that is put out by Isis in the Middle East, particularly over social media”.
The justice minister, Michael Keenan, said the rise of jihadist groups had destabilised the security of both countries. Aside from foreign fighters, the two governments identified cyber-security as a future area of co-operation.
“The rise of Isis in the Middle East is something that has destabilised the security of Australia, it’s destabilised the security of Indonesia and it’s destabilising the security of our friends and partners, particularly here in the region,” he said. An October report on social media use among Indonesian Isis supporters, from the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (Ipac), said the internet is “not necessarily changing patterns of recruitment but it is ensuring that Isis propaganda is reaching new audiences”.
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, suffered several major bomb attacks by Islamic radicals between 2000 and 2009, including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people. Face-to-face recruitment was still the main factor in prompting the decision to leave Indonesia for distant warzones.
A crackdown has weakened the most dangerous extremist networks although the emergence of Isis has sparked alarm that Indonesians returning from battlefields in the Middle East could revive them. The report recommended monitoring Indonesians’ internet use for extremist material, excluding convicted terrorists and prisoners from internet and mobile phone usage, and the training of intelligence and police officers in cyber-security techniques.
Australia is equally concerned at the threat from those being radicalised. Six attacks in Australia have been foiled over the past year, according to the government, but several have not, most recently in October when a police employee was shot dead by a 15-year-old reportedly shouting religious slogans. Also useful, the report noted, were “disillusioned returnees who have come back from Syria with stories of corruption, false promises and discrimination by Arabs who treat southeast Asians as second-class citizens”.
Fealey noted that while the Indonesian police are capable of monitoring internet and phone usage, Australia may be able to assist with more sophisticated online operations, like tracking the transfers of overseas funds.
Even so, according to Fealey co-operation between the two countries is so close that any further progress from agreements to fight terrorism is likely to be diplomatic rather than technical.
“Now that relations have gotten better there’s an element of wanting to ink deals like this, to drive home the point that we have a functional and mutually beneficial relationship,” Fealey said.
He added that Malcolm Turnbull’s prime ministership has brought “warmth to the relationship that’s never been there under Abbott”, and that the government could capitalise on this.
Australia’s ministers were indeed positive during the meetings about Indonesia, which Keenan described as “the world’s largest Muslim majority country, but still pluralist, still a vibrant democracy, and a very successful model that needs to be exported to the rest of the world”.
The statements from Brandis and Kennan follow three days of raids across Java to thwart plans for a suicide attack in the capital, Jakarta.
Nine arrests were made in the raids, which ended on Sunday. Chemicals, detonators and a black flag, reportedly “Isis-inspired”, were confiscated.
The attacks were planned against police targets, members and ex-members of the counter-terrorism squad Densus and Shia Muslims, Indonesia’s chief of national police, Badrodin Haiti, said on Monday.
Those arrested are former members of Jemaah Islamiyah, the group responsible for the 2002 bombings in Bali that killed over 200.
“There is also a connection with Isis,” he said.