Jemaah Islamiah | |
---|---|
Ideology |
Wahhabism Islamism Islamic fundamentalism Pan-Islamism |
Leader | Abu Bakar Baasyir |
Area of operations | |
Strength | 5,000 |
Allies |
Taliban al-Qaeda Hamas |
Opponents |
Australia Brunei Cambodia Indonesia Malaysia Philippines Singapore Thailand United States United Kingdom |
Jemaah Islamiah (Arabic: الجماعة الإسلامية, al-Jamāʿat ul-Islāmíyatu, meaning "Islamic Congregation", frequently abbreviated JI) is a Southeast Asian militant extremist Islamist terror group dedicated to the establishment of a Daulah Islamiyah (regional Islamic caliphate or state) in Southeast Asia. On October 25, 2002, immediately following the JI-perpetrated Bali bombing, JI was added to the UN Security Council Resolution 1267 as a terrorist group linked to al-Qaeda or the Taliban.
JI is a transnational organization with cells in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines. In addition to al-Qaeda the group is also thought to have links to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid, a splinter cell of the JI which was formed by Abu Bakar Baasyir on July 27, 2008. The group has been designated as a terrorist groups by the United Nations, Australia, Canada, China, Kazakhstan, Russia, the UAE, the United Kingdom and the United States. It remained very active in Indonesia where it publicly maintained a website as of January 2013[update].
JI has its roots in Darul Islam (DI, meaning "House of Islam"), a radical Islamist/anti-colonialist movement in Indonesia in the 1940s.