CatholicNews ■ Sunday July 22, 2007
until 2001 when they were
An admirer of Osama bin Laden hold a copy of the Quʼran
next to an image of the terrorist Al-Qaeda leader.
influence in Muslim countries,
eradication of those deemed to be
“infidels”, and the creation of a
new Islamic caliphate. Al-Qaeda
does not have a formal structure,
but recruits field operatives to
work independently in support of
its goals.
The United Nations Security
Council and several UN member
states have labelled Al-Qaeda a
terrorist organization.
It has executed many attacks
against targets in various
countries, the most prominent ones
being the Sep 11, 2001 attacks on
the World Trade Center in New
York and the Pentagon building
in Washington, DC.
In response to the Sep 11
attacks, the United States
government and allies launched
a broad military and intelligence
campaign, known as the War
on Terrorism, with the goals of
dismantling Al-Qaeda and killing
or capturing its operatives.
Some reports say as many
as three dozen terrorist groups
belong to Al-Qaeda. However
due to its lack of a formal
structure, Al-Qaedaʼs size and
reach is difficult to establish, as
is its degree of responsibility for
any particular attacks.
The Taliban is a Sunni-based
puritanical movement that ruled
most of Afghanistan from 1996
Afghan women, all covered
up despite the ouster of the
Taliban, line up to cast their
ballots outside a polling station
in Kabul, Afghanistan, in the
countryʼs first direct presidential
election, after the 2001 ouster of
the Taliban. CNS photo
Moro Islamic Liberation Front
dislodged by a U.S.-led military
intervention. It is currently
engaged in a fierce guerilla
war against NATO forces in
Afghanistan. The word “Taliban”
is the Pashto plural form of the
Arabic “Tâlib”, whcih means
“student”. The group gets its
name from the fact that its
membership is drawn from the
students of religious seminaries
in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Bin Laden forged an alliance
between the Taliban and his Al-
Qaeda organization, and helped
finance the Taliban.
When the Taliban was in
power in Afghanistan, the regime
gained diplomatic recognition
from only three states: the
United Arab Emirates, Pakistan
and Saudi Arabia. The Taliban
regime was severely criticized
for not respecting the human
rights of women. Women
were prohibited from leaving
their homes unless they were
completely covered; no part of
their face, hair or body was to be
shown in public. Religious police
patrols forced women to wear
a “burqa” (an outer garment)
of a specified length, and even
minor deviations could result in
public punishment; women were
beaten at the ankles with sticks
for wearing burqas that were “too
short”. The education of women
suffered too, and women were
deprived even of elementary
education.
After the 1998 U.S. embassy
bombings in Africa, bin Laden
and several Al-Qaeda members
were indicted in a U.S. criminal
court. The Taliban refused to
extradite bin Laden to the U.S
and continued to harbour him
after the Sep 11, 2001 attacks.
Bin Laden took personal
responsibility for ordering these
attacks in a 2004 broadcast on
Al Jazeera Satellite Channel (the
Arab worldʼs only independent
news channel based in Qatar).
Many experts believe that bin
Laden is still alive and in hiding.
Jemaah Islamiyah is a South-
East Asian militant Islamic
organization present in Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines,
southern Thailand, Pakistan and
Singapore.
“Jemaah Islamiyah” is an
Arabic phrase meaning “Islamic
Group” or “Islamic Community”.
and is often abbreviated as
JI. It is a designated terrorist
organization by the United States
and other countries, and the main
terrorist threat to Singapore.
JI was responsible for the Bali
car bombing on Oct 12, 2002
which killed over 200 tourists
and civilians, and is also strongly
suspected of carrying out the
2003 JW Marriott Hotel bombing
in Jakarta, the 2004 Australian
embassy bombing in Jakarta,
and the 2005 Bali terrorist
bombing.
In December 2001, the
Singapore government uncovered
a JI plot to bomb the U.S., Israeli,
British and Australian diplomatic
missions in Singapore.
The FBI of the U.S.A. has
singled out JI as Al-Qaedaʼs
foremost South-East Asian
collaborator. The recruitment,
training, indoctrination, financial
and logistic cooperation between
the JI and Al-Qaeda and other
terrorist groups, such as the
Abu Sayyaf Group and the
13
continues to this day.
The capture in August 2003
of JI leader, Indonesian Riduan
bin Isomoddin (a.k.a. Hambali)
and other JI leaders recently
were a blow to the JI, but the
group continues to be active and
appears to be recruiting new
members through a network of
Indonesia-based radical Islamic
schools.
The exact number of
members is unknown with
estimates varying from hundreds
to thousands. South-East Asian
authorities continue to uncover
and arrest JI operatives.
In Singapore, 13 JI suspects
were detained under the Internal
Security Act in December 2001
and another 21 in August 2002.
Recently a lawyer was detained.
Arrests have also been made in
Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia
and Thailand.
It is unlikely that Singapore is
totally free of JI members despite
the arrests. However, even if JI
sympathizers are present in the
country, they cannot operate on
a big scale here as they are not
in the mainstream Islamic circle,
local Muslim leaders say. These
Islamist extremists are not able
to teach their doctrines openly
nor preach in the mosques, and
the majority of local Muslims
(probably 99.9 percent) do not
condone their thinking. ■