The extremist Islamic organization "Jama'a Islamiya" has become notorious for its terrorist activities in Indonesia and several other countries of Southeast Asia (SE). She is responsible for many innocent victims of various nationalities and religions. The program of this organization aims to create a Sharia state in Indonesia, which would become the core of the "new Asian caliphate", with the inclusion of Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, the southern Philippines, Thailand and Myanmar.

Jama'a Islamiyah, which has close ties to al-Qaeda, has carried out a number of terrorist attacks in recent years, including the Bali nightclub bombing, which killed more than 200 people and injured more than 300, and the Marriott Hotel bombing in Jakarta, which also caused a large number of deaths. number of victims. The methods used by Jama'a Islamiyah terrorists are very similar to those used by Al-Qaeda militants, in particular, the use of suicide bombers.

The history of the creation of "Jama'a Islamiya", as well as the formation of armed detachments of the radical wing of Islam in Southeast Asia, dates back to the mid-80s of the last century. In 1984, Islamic extremists provoked bloody clashes in Jakarta, which resulted in a large number of victims. Indonesian President Suharto, who strictly controlled the activities of Muslim organizations, suppressed Islamist protests. The leaders of the latter, Abdullah Sungkar and Abu Bakar Bashir, fled to Malaysia to escape imprisonment. There they began to create armed formations. From among them, recruits were recruited to be sent to Afghanistan for the purpose of training in specially prepared camps. This is how the foundation of Jama'ah islamiyah was laid. Recruitment was funded by the Muslim World League agency, which was based in Saudi Arabia. The recruited fighters were sent to Afghanistan through a "Service Center" in Peshawar, Pakistan. This center was headed by Abdul Azzam, who was appointed by Osama bin Laden as the main ideologue of Al-Qaeda. Azzam is known as the author of many propaganda developments claiming to be the theory of justification of terror. In total, from 1985 to 1991, five groups with a total number of about 300 people arrived in Afghanistan from Southeast Asia. They included Indonesians, Malays, Filipinos and Thais. The camps where they were trained were funded from Saudi Arabia. They were led by the Afghan Mujahid Abdul Rasul Sayaf.

The aforementioned A. Sungkar attached great importance to the selection of candidates for sending to Afghanistan. Most of the recruits were well educated. Some of them graduated from prestigious educational institutions, such as Gajah Mada University in Yogyakarta or Surabaya Institute of Technology, and were fluent in English and Arabic. They were used to train instructors for subsequent recruits. The full cycle of training, consisting of a religious course and military training, was designed for three years. The religious program was aimed at studying the "pure" Islam emanating from the Prophet and his disciples. Special attention was paid to the arguments of the armed struggle against those Muslims who evade "pure" Islam or refuse to follow Sharia law.

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The idea of creating a Sharia state in their country was promoted among Indonesians. The military component included training in sapper engineering, topography, various types of shooting, specifics of military operations in urban and mountainous areas, organization of ambushes, etc.

The process of sending recruits to Afghanistan began at least seven years before the formal transformation of Jama'ah islamiyah into the organizational structure that it is today. In this structure, Afghan veterans make up the elite. They hold senior management positions and are involved in the most critical operations. In May 1996, Sungkar and other veterans of Afghanistan published the book "Strategic Line of Struggle of Jama'a Islamiyah", in which they outlined the program of its activities. Its structure is as follows. The organization is headed by the Emir, whose position was held by Abdul Sungkar. The Emir appointed four councils under his control - the Governing Council, the Council for Religious Affairs, the Supreme Theological Council and the disciplinary Council. The activities of Jama'a Islamiya were carried out in four districts in accordance with their functional purpose. The first district, which included Singapore and Malaysia, was the source of funds for the operation of Jama'a Islamiyah. The second district covered most of Indonesia and was seen as a base for jihad. The third district included Mindanao (Philippines), Sabah (Malaysia) and Sulawesi (Indonesia) and was tasked with training militants. The fourth district included Australia and Papua New Guinea, where illegal financial transactions were conducted.

Jama'a Islamiya also has a special unit called Laskar Kos, which became famous after the explosion of the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta in August 2003, when a suicide bomber was once again used. The activities of this unit are classified. Recruiting suicide bombers is the responsibility of highly vetted commanders who have served in Afghanistan. Laskar Kos recruits are recruited primarily from conflict areas. They undergo special two-month training. Not every candidate is selected. Only mature, well-trained people are enrolled in shaheeds.

The International Crisis Group ^* , which studies the activities of Jama'a Islamiyah, describes it primarily as a paramilitary organization with a hierarchical structure of subordination, operating in conditions of strict secrecy.

The joint actions of the regional police forces resulted in the arrest of about 200 people associated with or suspected of having links to Jama'ah islamiyah. The arrests were made after the organization's planned bombings of the US Embassy in Singapore and other American facilities were uncovered. Among those arrested is one of the most dangerous international terrorists, 36 - year-old Isamuddin Riduan, nicknamed Hambali, a native of the Indonesian province of West Java. He was Abu Bakar Bashir's deputy when he was the Emir of Jama'ah islamiyah . Hambali was part of the inner circle of the leadership of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and was the main "financier and strategist" of Jama'a Islamiyah. In the documents of the special services, in particular the US CIA, he is referred to as "Osama bin Laden of Southeast Asia". He was involved in the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen in October 2000, and the recruitment of two hijackers by the Kumpulan Militan Malauzia underground group in January of the same year to carry out the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. Hambali served as a liaison between al-Qaeda and Jama'ah islamiyah, directing a series of terrorist attacks.

At the same time, as the International Crisis Group notes, despite significant losses, Jama'a Islamiyah is far from collapse. Information obtained from interrogations of detainees indicates that this organization is much larger than previously thought, that its activities extend to the entire Malay archipelago, and that the number of its members reaches several thousand. The explosion at the Jakarta Marriott is not only a reminder that the organization survived the losses, but also continues to operate. The explosion was another challenge to the government of President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who had vowed in Parliament a few days earlier to "uproot" terrorism in Indonesia. Islamists seek to demonstrate their strength, show the authorities their helplessness, and force them to change the approach to the judicial investigation of the criminal case of their spiritual leader Abu Bakar Bashir, who was arrested on the basis of emergency laws introduced in Indonesia shortly after the Bali bombing and was brought to trial on charges of plotting a coup and plotting to kill Megawati Sukarnoputri when he was its vice-president of the country. Jama'a Islamiyah is conducting an intensive recruitment campaign to restore the losses it has suffered.

The spread of Islam in Southeast Asia is more recent than in the Arab world, as well as the presence of a large number of religious groups in the region.-

^* The International Crisis Group consists of prominent political figures from the Philippines, Finland, Norway, Switzerland, Australia and a number of other countries; the group is funded by large private capital.

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The influence of Muslim movements and sects undoubtedly weakens the activity of fundamentalist religious organizations. This explains, to a certain extent, the fact that most Islamic groups in the region do not support violence. One such group is Nahdatul Ulama, Indonesia's largest party with 30 million supporters. It supports "traditional" Muslim values and criticizes terrorism. Along with" Nahdatul Ulama", another largest Muslim association in Indonesia, "Muhammadia", also condemned the terrorist action on the island of Bali. This position reflects the opinion of the majority of adherents of Islam. For the majority of Indonesian Muslims, religiosity is not combined with too strict adherence to the canons of Sharia law. Fundamentalism and extremism in general do not determine the mood and motivation of the Muslim community. Supporters of rebuilding the entire way of life on the basis of Sharia law and turning Indonesia into an Islamic state have always been a minority of the population. This is still the case today. All this indicates that the supporters of radical Islam in Southeast Asia do not have a broad social base.

The leadership of Jama'a Islamiyah consists of representatives of the educated middle class. They failed to gain electoral support among the poor. The organization's leadership is trying to strengthen its influence on independent Muslim organizations of a radical nature. Their fighters are often trained in Jama'a Islamiyah camps. The joint activities of these organizations are based not only on ideological unity and common methods of training militants, but also on family ties. Islamists pay great attention to the role of women, who have a cementing influence on the entire conglomerate of Islamic terrorist organizations in Southeast Asia. In many cases, the leaders of Jama'a Islamiyah establish links with a number of Islamic organizations by establishing cooperative relationships. One such independent organization in South Sulawesi claimed responsibility for the bombing of a McDonald's restaurant and a car bombing in Makassar in December 2002. Jama'a Islamiyah often uses thugs and notorious thugs to commit terrorist acts. To spread its influence, the organization resorts to promoting jihad in closed Muslim schools, where members send their children to study, and then train them to become future fighters.

Abdullah Sungkar compensated for the loss of military bases after the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan by creating a new camp on the island of Mindanao (Philippines), where the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) operates, fighting for the creation of an independent Muslim state. Sungkar established close ties with the IFA's leader, Salamat Hasim. There is reason to believe that the creation of a training base in a neighboring country is largely dictated by the desire of Jama'a Islamiya to balance the weak social base inside Indonesia by expanding external relations and thereby popularize its movement.

Developments in recent years indicate the existence of a kind of alliance between Jama'ah islamiyah and al-Qaeda. Both organizations have a lot in common, in particular, the ideology of jihad. They are drawn together by the long joint work of their leaders in Afghanistan. The leaders of Jama'ah Islamiyah revere bin Laden, try to follow his example, and receive direct financial support from al-Qaeda. The association with the latter makes Jama'a Islamiyah particularly dangerous, since its activities are guided by the recipes of international criminal corporations that use modern means of communication to plan and coordinate their actions, the weakness of local governments, the porosity of borders and the lack of proper international cooperation in the fight against terrorism. This makes it easier for terrorists to illegally transfer funds and transport weapons. To enter Malaysia, for example, no visas are required for citizens of other Muslim countries, and there are no strict immigration controls in the Philippines. Thailand only adopted its first anti-money laundering law in 1999, the Philippines in 2001, and Indonesia is just now drafting it with the help of the Asian Development Bank.

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The activities of Jama'ah islamiyah and similar Islamic extremist organizations pose a serious threat to the peoples of the world and security. The survivability of these organizations is explained by their deep conspiracy, equipped with the latest technologies, and using populist slogans to attract new recruits to their ranks. All this seriously complicates the fight against terrorism.

The successful outcome of this struggle depends crucially on the activity and unity of the international front against terrorism, and the determination of the leaders of the Southeast Asian countries to implement a set of reforms that can undermine the social base of extremist Muslim organizations.

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