Noor Huda Ismail, Semarang – Based on my interviews with the actors of past attacks – both inside and outside prisons – there are three primary factors that will keep their movements going in Indonesia.

The first factor is global injustice. Ali Imron told me that during an interrogation session with an FBI agent, the agent asked how to stop terrorist movements. According to Ali Imron, his answer was, "If you don't change your attitude towards the Muslim world, we, the defenders of Islam, will never cease to terrorize you."

Global injustice is a persistent and common theme of those involved in terrorist attacks in Indonesia. In many ways it is the driving force, and the basis of the global jihad movement.

This theme is reiterated in a statement on the internet that was strongly believed to be authored by, or sent on behalf of Noordin M. Top after the July 17 suicide bomb attacks in Jakarta.

The second factor is an enchantment with martyrdom. For the group, the main principle to live by is Innal hayata la aqidatun wal jihad (life's purpose is to maintain faith and jihad). "One should not live life like a fowl! Eat, marry and excrete. Life is a struggle," said Anif Solchanudin, during an interview in prison, in June 2009.

He had committed himself to be a "martyr" in the second Bali bombing. Those who commit themselves in this fashion are ready to face any challenge or risk in the process, including being tortured in prison or facing death sentences. "To die fighting for our faith is noble (syahid) and heaven awaits our arrival with 72 beautiful angels," Anif said.

To recruit someone as committed as Anif to these ideals is not a difficult thing to do. The committed consider their activity as istisyhad (in search of syahid), rather than "suicide".

"At the moment, Noordin never goes looking for people committed to the cause. Instead, young people seek him out to sacrifice themselves. If you are on the same track, you will be able to find him," Anief said.

The third factor is the appearance of a figure known as Noordin M. Top. He represents the rallying point for those disenchanted with the current regime and world. Born Malaysian, Noordin is a charismatic man with wavy hair, light skin and a stout body. He is soft-spoken and generally reserved and quiet. He is very thorough, organized and innovative in his work. According to Ali Imron, Noordin was a student of Ustadz Mukhlas when he taught at Pesantren Lukmanul Hakim in Johor Bahru, Malaysia.

Noordin was not involved in the first Bali bombing incident. His role became prominent after Mukhlas – his teacher – was arrested. Noordin's dream was to continue the struggle of his idol by taking over all bombing campaigns, beginning with the first JW Marriott bomb attack.

A former right-hand man to Noordin said in an interview that Noordin was a man of high discipline in carrying out the amaliyah (the code for terrorist acts) and possesses a fingerspitzengefuhl – an innate sense of his environment and strong instincts as to when police are closing in. He moves from one location to another and never uses a cellular phone. "In times like this, he can move in minutes, even seconds," he further explained.

The prospects of imprisonment and the death sentence will not weaken their ideology but instead will strengthen and elevate terrorist leaders' social status. When covering the story of Amrozi and Mukhlas' funerals in Lamongan, I witnessed the enthusiasm of thousands of supporters and followers.

They came from several areas in Central Java, East Java and even Malaysia. Over a short period, they established a media center decorated with a giant banner with Kafilah Syuhada written on it, had built a public kitchen and taken over the whole process of the funeral ceremony. The two bodies were welcomed as heroes and apparently inspired a lot of people.

How did this happen? Borrowing a slogan from Bill Clinton, the answer is, "It's the ideology, stupid!" This leads us to the "de-radicalization" processes of the actors involved in these networks. Altering an ideology of a group can never be achieved by opposing it with another ideology. A clash will only encourage a new form of sustainable resistance, such as what we have experienced during and after the New Order era.

From the statements of jihadists, we are able to conclude that the environment and experience develops and forms the human mind, our patterns of thinking and hence our behavior and beliefs, and not the other way around.

The environment and experiences of fighting a war create defined contradictions between "us" and "them", "friends" and "foes", and also when the choices available are limited, either to kill or be killed, and solidifies the concept of "enemy".

Therefore, members of terrorist networks – if they are to be de-radicalized – must be introduced into a whole new and different environment to the ones they have gone through in the past.

Not a war or a prison, but a social environment where people are able to interact openly and inclusively. Through new experiences they can accept an understanding that "non-Muslim" does not necessarily mean enemy, and moderate Muslims are not thoghut (satan).

Some may argue that convicted terrorists in jail are prisoners of conscience rather than criminals, but this argument holds little sway with the victims and victim's families. Regardless of the semantics of the argument, the de-radicalization process is about achieving ideological change.

Empty jargon must be replaced with systematically planned real hard work by the government and must be fully supported by the general public. For example, helping them start small-scale businesses to keep them occupied and improve their financial conditions.

Without these real efforts, we will continuously harvest new terrorists who will conduct acts in even more horrifying forms.

[The writer, the executive director of an international institute for peace building, earned a master's degree in international security at St. Andrews University.]