Still Wednesday, still Janurary 7th, 2009 and it is now 6:10 PM here in the Philippines.
There is still one more Islamic organisation to consider when discussing the wars here on Mindanao: "JI." JI stands for "Jemaah Islamiyyah," an organisation founded in Java in Indonesia.
Most people, even within Indonesia remain unaware that in the first half of the 20th Century that there was a huge influx from the Arabian region of Hadramut, which is right between Southern Yemen (which is now only a region BUT was a country for a while) and Aden, into Indonesia.
Born to an Arab father and a local Javanese woman was Bashir Abubak'r Ba'asyir Abdus Samad also known as "Ustad Abu" on Java, he and his childhood friend 'Abdullah Sungkar were greatly influenced by a movement called "Darul Islam" (House of Islam) which gained popularity in the 1940s.
Both men had founded a Javanese madrassa (Islamic school) called "al Mu'kim" in 1972 and it was there that both men developed a coterie of willing young men who would be more than happy to undertake the call of jihad,
The Indonesian dictator Suharto had formulated a nationalist ideology that he required all schools to instill and abide by. This greatly distressed Islamists and Samad and Sungkar refused to do so. Samad spent 5 years in an Indonesian prison for refusing to take an oath of fealty to Suharto and upon release he and his friend made their way to Malaysia but not before they had time to blow up Buddhist relics on Java..
It was in Malaysia, in 1993 that they officialy founded their Islamist movement on the first day of the year. They attracted a following and by the time that they returned to Indonesia in 1998, they had developed ties already with a network of Middle East radicals including Osama Bin Laden.
The name "Jemaah Islamiyyah" had been around since the early 1970s in one guise or another but the 2 founders of the terrorist organisation "JI" had not developed a core ideology until their sojourn in Malaysia. Then, when sectarian violence between Muslim and Christians on the Indonesian islands of Poso and Maluku (Moluccas) took place in Janurary of 1999, JI made the transition into a Jihadist organisation.
They were one of the groups, but by no means the only group that expressed their hatred for Christians by decapitating young schoolgirls snatched on their walk to school. Fort quite some time it became a kind of competition between these groups, or so it seems.
By the time THAT violence ended almost 2 years later JI was onto bigger things, manufacturing bombs and launching terrorist attacks, such as the "Bali Bombing" in 2002 where nearly 200 people died, many of them Australians.
In 2003 they bombed the Marriot in Jakarta, in 2004 the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, and in 2005 back to Bali where they bombed two southern villages, one near a Four Seasons Hotel where they managed to kill 129 people.
Interestingly, after the last attack, Samad (AKA "Bashir") publicly condemned the actual attack but offered that it was Allah's will and a warning for all of Indonesia to wake up before it is too late.
One of the 2 bomb makers remains free and his whereabouts unknown although many believe him to be in the Philippines. JI has cells in Malaysia, Singapore (where several attacks have been foiled), Thailand, Philippines and possibly Cambodia.
JI and ASG operated a training camp together on Jolo, and JI bombmakers have been arrested as recently as last month in Cotabato and Zamboanga here on Mindanao so the threat is indeed real. They have also linked up with RSM on past operations as well, so that there is a very real linkage between all of the Islamic groups.
That finishes the information on the Islamic Armies.
Aside from those guerilla armies there are also criminal organisations usually made up of ex or even present guerillas. Gangs like the "Pentagon Gang."
Pentagon was led by Faisal Marohombsar, a high ranking MNLF leader from Cotabato. He was killed on Cavite, while holding one of the richest women in the country hostage for 100 Million Pesos (roughly 2.25 Million US). Like many in the MNLF and MILF he came from a clan of Muslim tribesmen living in Ligusan Marsh, the "Maranaw" Clan. Ligusan is a prime breeding ground for Muslim jihadists.
Then there was the "Mubarek" gang named for its leader, another MNLF leader, Abogado "Gado" Bago who went by the nom de guerre "Kummander Mubarek." After his faction of the MNLF deactivated became the leader of a a Muslim paramilitary made up of ex-MNLF fighters working as a bodyguard/private army of the ARMM Governor. When his patron lost the election he turned to kidnapping and robbery like so many of the ex-guerillas do.
Another of these groups, which still has retained some of its political agenda, is the "al Khobar Organisation." This is the group responsible for bombing bus after bus of a company headquartered in Cotabato City. One of its best known bomb makers has just escpaed from the Kidapawan City jail in Cotabato, for the SECOND TIME! You really have to love Mindanao. al Khobar holds political/religious Objectives as well but is primarily involved in illegal profit making schemes.
I have not even touched on the Communists but that will wait for now (sigh of relief from the readers).
There is still one more Islamic organisation to consider when discussing the wars here on Mindanao: "JI." JI stands for "Jemaah Islamiyyah," an organisation founded in Java in Indonesia.
Most people, even within Indonesia remain unaware that in the first half of the 20th Century that there was a huge influx from the Arabian region of Hadramut, which is right between Southern Yemen (which is now only a region BUT was a country for a while) and Aden, into Indonesia.
Born to an Arab father and a local Javanese woman was Bashir Abubak'r Ba'asyir Abdus Samad also known as "Ustad Abu" on Java, he and his childhood friend 'Abdullah Sungkar were greatly influenced by a movement called "Darul Islam" (House of Islam) which gained popularity in the 1940s.
Both men had founded a Javanese madrassa (Islamic school) called "al Mu'kim" in 1972 and it was there that both men developed a coterie of willing young men who would be more than happy to undertake the call of jihad,
The Indonesian dictator Suharto had formulated a nationalist ideology that he required all schools to instill and abide by. This greatly distressed Islamists and Samad and Sungkar refused to do so. Samad spent 5 years in an Indonesian prison for refusing to take an oath of fealty to Suharto and upon release he and his friend made their way to Malaysia but not before they had time to blow up Buddhist relics on Java..
It was in Malaysia, in 1993 that they officialy founded their Islamist movement on the first day of the year. They attracted a following and by the time that they returned to Indonesia in 1998, they had developed ties already with a network of Middle East radicals including Osama Bin Laden.
The name "Jemaah Islamiyyah" had been around since the early 1970s in one guise or another but the 2 founders of the terrorist organisation "JI" had not developed a core ideology until their sojourn in Malaysia. Then, when sectarian violence between Muslim and Christians on the Indonesian islands of Poso and Maluku (Moluccas) took place in Janurary of 1999, JI made the transition into a Jihadist organisation.
They were one of the groups, but by no means the only group that expressed their hatred for Christians by decapitating young schoolgirls snatched on their walk to school. Fort quite some time it became a kind of competition between these groups, or so it seems.
By the time THAT violence ended almost 2 years later JI was onto bigger things, manufacturing bombs and launching terrorist attacks, such as the "Bali Bombing" in 2002 where nearly 200 people died, many of them Australians.
In 2003 they bombed the Marriot in Jakarta, in 2004 the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, and in 2005 back to Bali where they bombed two southern villages, one near a Four Seasons Hotel where they managed to kill 129 people.
Interestingly, after the last attack, Samad (AKA "Bashir") publicly condemned the actual attack but offered that it was Allah's will and a warning for all of Indonesia to wake up before it is too late.
One of the 2 bomb makers remains free and his whereabouts unknown although many believe him to be in the Philippines. JI has cells in Malaysia, Singapore (where several attacks have been foiled), Thailand, Philippines and possibly Cambodia.
JI and ASG operated a training camp together on Jolo, and JI bombmakers have been arrested as recently as last month in Cotabato and Zamboanga here on Mindanao so the threat is indeed real. They have also linked up with RSM on past operations as well, so that there is a very real linkage between all of the Islamic groups.
That finishes the information on the Islamic Armies.
Aside from those guerilla armies there are also criminal organisations usually made up of ex or even present guerillas. Gangs like the "Pentagon Gang."
Pentagon was led by Faisal Marohombsar, a high ranking MNLF leader from Cotabato. He was killed on Cavite, while holding one of the richest women in the country hostage for 100 Million Pesos (roughly 2.25 Million US). Like many in the MNLF and MILF he came from a clan of Muslim tribesmen living in Ligusan Marsh, the "Maranaw" Clan. Ligusan is a prime breeding ground for Muslim jihadists.
Then there was the "Mubarek" gang named for its leader, another MNLF leader, Abogado "Gado" Bago who went by the nom de guerre "Kummander Mubarek." After his faction of the MNLF deactivated became the leader of a a Muslim paramilitary made up of ex-MNLF fighters working as a bodyguard/private army of the ARMM Governor. When his patron lost the election he turned to kidnapping and robbery like so many of the ex-guerillas do.
Another of these groups, which still has retained some of its political agenda, is the "al Khobar Organisation." This is the group responsible for bombing bus after bus of a company headquartered in Cotabato City. One of its best known bomb makers has just escpaed from the Kidapawan City jail in Cotabato, for the SECOND TIME! You really have to love Mindanao. al Khobar holds political/religious Objectives as well but is primarily involved in illegal profit making schemes.
I have not even touched on the Communists but that will wait for now (sigh of relief from the readers).