The bomb attacks in Jakarta last week, the first major attacks since the 2009 bomb explosions at the J.W. Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels, have raised a red alert on the growing footprint of Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) that has made no secret of its intention to contaminate south-east Asia with its extremist ideology.
This latest terrorist attack in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, is one more unambiguous signal to the world that no more time must be lost in rooting out Daesh.
The Indonesian government is no stranger to Islamic extremism, having successfully cracked down on it following a series of bomb attacks between 2000 and 2009 by radical groups.
With more than 500 Indonesians reportedly recruited in Daesh’s ranks, it is critical that the government of Indonesia use every method at its disposal to destroy this nexus. And in the current climate of propaganda by social media, which Daesh is using with disturbing success, Indonesia must launch its own counter-ideology to radicalism and stem the tide of its people being drawn to the reprehensible ideology of groups like Daesh to safeguard its integrity and social harmony.
