Laskar Jihad

Laskar Jihad (Indonesian: Warriors of Jihad ), was an Islamist and anti-ChristianIndonesian militia, which was founded and led by Jafar Umar Thalib. At present, the militia is believed to have disbanded.

Laskar Jihad was founded in 2000 by Thalib, an Indonesian who had been trained in Pakistani madrasahs and who had fought together with the mujahadeen in Afghanistan. The primary cause for the creation of Laskar Jihad was the outbreak of sectarian violence in the Indonesian provinces of Maluku and North Maluku where clashes between Muslims and Christians erupted in 1999. Soon after its creation, Laskar Jihad opened recruitment centers in various parts of Indonesia. Muslims joining the militia came from Java, Sumatra, South Sulawesi and Kalimantan. Many of them were unemployed, while some were university students.

Laskar Jihad arrived in Ambon in May 2000 and then in other of the Maluku Islands (also known as the Moluccas) where the Islamist militia joined Maluku Muslims in the fighting with Christian groups, thereby exacerbating the ongoing violence. The intervention of Laskar Jihad soon gave Muslims the upper hand in the conflict, with the Islamists burning down churches and houses of the indigenous Melanesian communities in Ambon and other Moluccan islands. In the following two years, an estimated 9,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands had to flee their towns.Forced conversions and forced circumcisions of Christians took place in Maluku, while, according to witness accounts, present duty military and police personnel did not interfere. A Laskar Jihad member later recalled being welcomed by Indonesian soldiers who supplied the Islamist militia with standard military equipment.

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