Indonesian jihad call against Jews revives terror fears on Bali bombings anniversary

Indonesia’s hardline Islamic Defenders Front has urged the country’s Muslims to ‘join the jihad against cursed Jews’ at a Jakarta protest attended by pro-ISIS and Jemaah Islamiah elements.

A sign at a rally in support of Palestinian independence outside the US embassy in Jakarta on Wednesday. Picture: AFP

Indonesia’s hardline Islamic Defenders Front has urged the country’s Muslims to “join the jihad against cursed Jews” at a Jakarta protest attended by pro-ISIS and Jemaah Islamiah elements, which terrorism experts have warned could be “inspired” to launch fresh domestic bombing atrocities.

The protest outside the US embassy in Jakarta on Wednesday – just one day shy of the 21st anniversary of the Bali terrorist bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, on October 12, 2002 – raised tensions in Indonesia, Australia’s largest near neighbour, which has long supported the Palestinian cause and does not recognise the state of Israel.

Hundreds of demonstrators burned the Israeli and US flags and chanted “save Palestine, destroy Jews” during the hours-long protest over Israel’s retaliatory ­attacks on Gaza, which came in ­response to the most deadly co-­ordinated strikes against the Jewish state in decades.

The Indonesian government banned the Islamic Defenders Front in 2020, less than four years after the Islamist vigilante group led a campaign that drew more than a million Indonesians onto Jakarta’s streets to demand the city’s then-governor be jailed for blasphemy. However, it has since re-formed as the Islamic Brotherhood Front (FPI).

“Today, the call to jihad is burning in Indonesia because our brothers and sisters in Palestine are being bombed by the cursed Jews,” one FPI female cleric, Nurdia Asma, told the crowd.

“Fight against those cursed Jews. Allah will punish them. Are you ready for jihad? Are you ready to defend Palestine?”

Rally convenor Buya Husein instructed the crowd to be ready to become “mujaheddin (holy warriors) fighting in Palestine”, should registrations open for foreign fighters.

The Indonesian government has been careful to issue only tempered statements over the horrifying violence last weekend, though some MPs and Muslim groups have been less judicious.

The country’s most powerful Islamic scholars body, the Ulema Council, this week described the Hamas attacks as a “reckoning for Israel” and urged all Palestinian factions to seize the moment to “consolidate their efforts” to achieve independence.

Indonesia, which does not have an embassy in Israel, has sought the help of The Philippines government to evacuate Indonesian citizens from the conflict.

Ade Bhakti, executive director of the Jakarta-based Centre for Radicalism and De-radicalisation Studies, said it would not be easy for Indonesians to join the Palestinian fight, though homegrown terror group Jemaah Islamiah had previously sent militants with aid to the region.

The fact that pro-ISIS and JI-affiliated elements were present at Wednesday’s rally, however, “raises significant questions for us” – particularly many Indonesian militants had in the past cited the West’s support for Israel as justification for attacking Western targets.

While the FPI would be aware that domestic attacks “would not play well” in Indonesia, JI and pro-ISIS outfits have traditionally engaged in extreme violence in Indonesia and could be inspired by the Hamas attacks.

“I see what Hamas is doing against Israel as a potential threat in terms of inspiring Indonesian militant groups to do the same against the government. My concern is they might be inspired by Hamas, not that they are supporting Hamas,” said Bakhti.