| Jemaah Islamiah (JI) |
Formed in the mid-1980s by 2 Indonesian clerics, JI became a terrorist
organization when one of the co-founders, Abdullah Sungkar, came
into contact with Osama bin Laden and al Qaida. JI has since spread
to include terrorist cells in every country in Southeast Asia and
in Australia. The principal goal of the organization is the creation
of a unified Southeast Asian Islamic state which they want to stretch
from southern Thailand, through the Malay Peninsula, encompassing
Singapore, and across the Indonesian archipelago into the southern
Philippines. They are most active in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand
and southern islands of the Philippines, where they claim to wage
holy war against agents of "Western imperialism," and
others who resist their movement.
Currently led by cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, the JI is thought to
be responsbile for the October, 2002 bombings in Bali, the Marriott
bombing in August 2003, and a failed plot to bomb US and Israeli
embassies and the British and Australian diplomatic buildings in
Singapore in December 2001.
|