Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Unemployed, impressionable, and reckless, 26-year-old Taufiq Abdul Halim is the face of the next wave of foot soldiers being deployed to fight the cause of religious extremism in the region.
Recovering after a leg amputation caused by a failed bombing in Jakarta, the Malaysian claimed he came to Indonesia with 10 other friends "to help his Muslim brothers" in Maluku, after seeing images of the conflict on television and reading about it on the Internet. He also said he did not join the fighting in Maluku but only helped to guard Muslim villages and tried to teach the youngsters there.
A graduate from a state Islamic school in Johor, Taufiq spent two years in a madrasah or Islamic school north of Islamabad, Pakistan, where he said he studied the Quran. But according to some newspaper reports, he fought as a guerilla there. Unemployment, plus persuasive friends and his experience in Pakistan drew him to Indonesia after he graduated from a technical drawing course, Taufiq said.
He denies charges of being part of the Malaysian Mujahideen Group, an alleged terrorist group, and going to Indonesia with a political agenda. The Malaysian government has linked the group, reportedly responsible for the bombing of the Philippine embassy last year, to efforts to bring down the government. "I'm just sympathetic to Muslim groups because Muslim people can work together," he said. But Taufiq has admitted that the bomb which accidently exploded at Atrium Plaza in central Jakarta and destroyed one of his legs was intended for a church. He also admitted to other reporters that his loose organisation of Malaysians and Indonesians was responsible for the explosion at Santa Anna Church in East Jakarta in July. Following Taufiq's confession, police arrested 13 suspects whom they believe to be responsible for the Christmas Eve bombings in churches across Indonesia that killed 13 and injured 100 people.
Analysts say Taufiq is the type of young, unemployed, loose cannon who can easily be used to fight holy wars outside their home countries. "There are two possibilities. One is that Malaysia is used as a safe haven for attacks against other countries, the other is that these groups work to destabilise Malaysia and bring about an Islamic state," said analyst Abdul Razak Bagindar from the pro-government Malaysia Strategic Centre.
The rise of Muslim groups here and their connections to other Muslim extremists in the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia are causing great alarm. "Groups such as the Mujahideen could be running cross-border terrorism. It could be quite an effective way to operate if they have a base in Malaysia and then run operations here or elsewhere," said one western intelligence source.
Taufiq has admitted to meeting the leaders of several extremist Muslim groups, including the Laskar Jihad responsible for spreading the Christian-Muslim conflict in Maluku and the Muslim Brotherhood which was charged with attempting to bomb the famous Hindu monument Borobudur in Central Java several years ago. Several of Laskar Jihad and Muslim Brotherhood members received training in Afghanistan during the 1990s.