Title: Militant Islam in Southeast Asia: New Insights into Jihad in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines
Abstract: Aman Abdurrahman, the head of the pro-ISIS network Jamaah Ansharud Daulah (JAD), was sentenced to death for his role in inciting terror attacks in Indonesia in 2016 and 2017. 1 The attacks for which he was found guilty included the January 2016 gun and bomb attack in Jakarta's Thamrin business district and the November 2016 attack on children playing in front of a church in Samarinda, East Kalimantan. 2 In the first attack, a traffic police post and a branch of Starbucks were targeted, and in the second one a two-year old girl was killed and five other children were injured.Other attacks committed by Islamists affiliated with JAD included the May 2017 Kampung Melayu suicide bombing which killed three police officers, 3 the June 2017 attack on a police station in North Sumatra which killed one police officer, 4 and the shooting dead of two police officers in Bima, West Nusa Tenggara, in September 2017. 5 While Abdurrahman was on trial in the South District court in Jakarta, three churches were simultaneously targeted by suicide bombings in Surabaya on 13 May 2018. 6These were carried out by the members of one family comprising husband, wife and four children.Later that day, another family of six was involved in a premature bomb explosion at a house in Sidoarjo (near Surabaya), and the following day, a family of five rode two motorbikes to the entrance of Surabaya police headquarters where they blew themselves up. 7All three families were affiliated with JAD.