Terrorism definition: the unofficial or unauthorized use of violence and intimidation

in the pursuit of political aims.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/malaysia-arrests-5-for/2266654.html
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has arrested four Malaysians and one Indonesian for suspected
terrorist activities, with just days to go before the ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur.
The suspects, aged between 22 and 40, are said to have links with the Islamic State militant
group, and another regional terror network known as Iman Mah-di.
The arrests come as authorities beef up security at the ASEAN Summit ahead of the arrival of
world leaders, including US President Barack Obama and heads of government from China,
Japan, Korea and Russia.
The terrorist attacks in Paris came just a week before the opening of the 27th ASEAN Summit in
Malaysia, and they have put authorities on even higher alert. The government said it will increase
security for the upcoming summit, including stepping up checks at all entry points. It has vowed
to use every means at its disposal to prevent a terror attack from happening in the country.
Speaking in Parliament two days after the attack, Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan gave the
assurance that the police counter-terrorism and special intelligence units are constantly
monitoring communications in cyberspace among militant suspects.
He said: "After what happened to Charlie Hebdo in January, nobody should be really surprised
by what happened in Paris. You (can) see how difficult it is for authorities to monitor and stop
this new type of terrorists; they just operate in small groups of five to 10 people but they can
create maximum havoc."
Malaysia has arrested more than 150 terror suspects, including 24 women, since 2013. It has also
successfully stopped many from leaving the country to join Islamic State in the Middle East. But
now, Kuala Lumpur and its leaders too have become targets of attacks, according to police
intelligence.
This follows an apparent shift in IS strategy, to fight its enemies on two fronts - in Syria and
Iraq, and against other countries that oppose it.
Said Malaysian Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein: "We've made a very strong stand
against them. We have brought all 10 ASEAN countries united against them. We are the
moderate phase of Islam which does not represent what they stand for."

In October, at a session of the United Nations' General Assembly, Malaysian Prime Minister
Najib Razak promised to accept up to 3,000 Syrian refugees over three years. Malaysia said it
will not turn its back on this promise, although early investigations into the Paris attacks suggest
a suicide bomber might have entered Europe among refugees from Syria.
Mr Nur said: Lets not paint all Syrian refugees in the same light. We assume they are not
terrorists but we have to filter their background, to make sure they dont pose a threat to the
country if we decide to take them in."
Kuala Lumpur will be screening all refugees thoroughly before accepting them into society.
https://www.rt.com/news/329644-libya-attack-isis-port/
Militants affiliated with Islamic State reportedly attacked oil installations and set fire to several
crude storage tanks near the port of Ras Lanuf, Libya. Photos posted on social media show huge
plumes of black smoke rising from the ground.
The tanks torched on Thursday morning belong to the Harouge Oil Operations company, Reuters
reported, citing local industry sources. The militants also targeted a pipeline leading from the
Amal oilfield to Es Sider.
A video posted online by one of the fighters threatened further attacks on Libyan ports.
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-05-29/islamic-state-makes-a-move-onsoutheast-asia

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has ramped up its activities in Southeast Asia so effectively
that there is now an entire military unit of terrorists recruited from Indonesia, Malaysia and
Singapore, according to Singapore's prime minister.
Southeast Asia is a key recruitment center for ISIS, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said at
the Shangri-La Dialogue here in Singapore Friday. He noted that this included more than 500
Indonesians and dozens of Malaysians. ISIS has so many Indonesian and Malaysia fighters that
they form a unit by themselves -- the Katibah Nusantara -- Malay Archipelago Combat Unit, he
added.
Even in the small and tightly controlled city-state of Singapore, a few young men have gone to
Syria to join the Islamic State ranks, and even more were intercepted trying to leave, Lee
disclosed. He said the Singaporean authorities had recently arrested two students, one 17 and one
19, the latter of whom had planned to assassinate Singaporean government officials if he was
unable to reach the Middle East.

This is why Singapore takes terrorism, and in particular ISIS, very seriously, Lee said. The
threat is no longer over there, it is over here.
Lee revealed that the Islamic State has posted a propaganda and recruitment video showing
Malay-speaking children training with weapons inside territory controlled by the terror group,
and that two Malaysians were identified in a separate video carrying out the beheading of a
Syrian man.
Lee also said that the Malaysian police have arrested several people who were planning to go to
Syria to join the terrorist group, including some members of the Malaysian armed forces. Some
were planning attacks inside Malaysia. Meanwhile, several jihadist groups in Southeast Asia
have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, including Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah,
whose leader, Abu Bakar Bashir, announced his allegiance from his prison cell last year.
The Islamic State has said it intends to establish a province of its "caliphate" in Southeast Asia.
Lee said the idea was a grandiose, pie-in-the sky dream. But he warned that it's entirely
feasible that the group could take advantage of some ungoverned spaces to establish a foothold
from which to expand recruiting and plan attacks in the new host countries. That would pose a
serious threat to the whole of Southeast Asia, Lee said.
Starting Friday, Singapore will contribute a KC-135 tanker plane to the international coalition
fighting against Islamic State forces in the Middle East. The deployment is symbolic, but Lee
emphasized that the fight against Islamic extremism was just beginning, and like the Cold War,
would surely take decades to win. 50 years from now, I doubt the scourge of extremist terrorism
will have entirely disappeared, he told the forum. Remember that Soviet Communism, another
historical dead end, took 70 years to collapse, and that was a non-religious ideology.
Terrorism in Southeast Asia is not new. More than 200 people died in the Bali bombings in
2002. Jemaah Islamiyah almost succeeded in a plot to bomb diplomatic offices in Singapore just
after Sept. 11, 2001. But the development that Southeast Asian terror groups are now flying the
black Islamic State flag -- and that young men from the region are saluting -- is a huge problem.
The current U.S.-led fight against the Islamic State is largely limited to the Middle
East. But the jihadists' approach to fighting the West has no geographic boundaries.
Unless the anti-Islamic State coalition does more to cooperate with countries in
Southeast Asia and elsewhere, the terror group will just expand its recruiting and
attacks across the globe. http://www.cnbc.com/2015/11/18/southeast-asia-not-atrisk-of-paris-style-attack-experts-say.html

Southeast Asia faces growing risks from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) given its large
Muslim population but strategists see several reasons why the region won't become a hotbed for
terrorism.

For one, Southeast Asia lacks the military and logistical connections that Europe enjoys with the
Middle East as a result of geographical proximity, said Justin Hastings, senior lecturer at the
University of Sydney.
Like other parts of the world, terror groups in the region are mostly supporters of Al Qaeda or
ISIS sympathizers. The most worrisome networks are in Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia
home to the world's largest Muslim population. Within these three countries, more than 30
active groups have been pledged allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, said Rohan
Gunaratna, professor of security studies at Singapore's Nanyang Technology University.
While these local groups have inflicted damage, their reach remains limited for now.
"Generally speaking, the threat level from these regional groups is in the early stage, except for
the immediate local area where they operate," explained Gunaratna.
There is a third category of terrorists, comprising of ethno-nationalists in southern Thailand and
the communist New People's Army in the Philippines, but these aren't widely considered major
threats.
After Anonymous, UK threatens ISIS with cyberattack
"We've seen reports of 500 people from Indonesia and Malaysia going to Syria to fight, which is
well below Europe's numbers, so the region is still at a nascent stage from that angle," pointed
out Hastings, adding that the terror landscape has considerably weakened in recent years
following a crackdown on Indonesian extremist group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).
If extremist sympathizers in other parts of the world began contacting regional groups, as people
do so with ISIS, that would be a worrisome sign since it would mean Southeast Asia is becoming
a viable alternative to the Middle East, Hastings said.
Because terror-related events in the region have been mostly low-level, tourism hasn't been
impacted.
"It would have to be a really big attack in a very big visible location to hurt tourism. For
example, the 2002 Bali bombings cost Indonesia 2 percent of GDP that year by some estimates,"
Hastings said. Around 202 people died from the explosion of two bombs placed by suspected JI
members at popular bars and nightclubs on the tourist island.
Risks of a Paris-style attack
A series of highly-coordinated attacks in Paris last week by ISIS raised fears of similar events
occurring in other capital cities. But Southeast Asia doesn't presently face an imminent threat of
attack, according to Hastings.

"The Paris attacks will encourage regional groups but whether they can pull off a similar episode
here is another question. They may be able to do so in the future but for now, it's a fairly steep
learning curve."
Gunaratna echoed those sentiments, but was more cautious and advised officials to be on the
alert. "Paris has emboldened ISIS personalities and networks because the attacks reinforce
fundamentalist values and ideologies."
Government strategies
As world leaders gathered in Manila for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit
this week, security was high on the agenda.
"Economics is the foundation of security.... [U.S. President] Obama is expected to focus on
economic integration and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) at APEC and explain how those
things are important to establishing a strategy to beat ISIS in Asia," noted Ernest Bower, senior
advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
After Paris, Southeast Asia will be looking to Washington for leadership on the fight against ISIS
and the enhancement of intelligence sharing and co-operating on counter terrorism strategies, he
said.
"Governments in this region must also prepare for hybrid-style attacks, not just individual, lonewolf events attacks," Gunaratna said, referring to last week's suicide bombers and shooters in
Paris.
Special attention must also be thrown on the sphere of social media, where ISIS supporters are
prevalent, he said, urging religious leaders and officials to do more to combat ISIS' online
presence.