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RELIGION-INDONESIA: ''My Roommate, the Terrorist''

Marwaan Macan-Markar Interviews NOOR HUDA ISMAIL, Researcher and Journalist

JAKARTA, Nov 24 2008 (IPS) - For one Indonesian journalist, the acts of terror unleashed on the resort island of Bali in October 2002, that killed 202 people, were more than a major story to cover.

Noor Huda Ismail was shocked to learn that one of the men involved in the shadowy Muslim organisation blamed for the bombing of popular nightspots – Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) – was known to him personally. He was Fadlullah Hasan, then accused of helping to pass on the funds to finance this unprecedented terrorist attack on Indonesian soil.

They had been roommates during their teen years studying at Al Mukmin Ngruki, an Islamic boarding school, in central Java. Twenty other students shared that dormitory which had few comforts. Fadullah was three years older than Noor, who was 12 years when he entered the school in 1985 to remain there for six years.

But Fadlullah, currently in an Indonesian jail, was only one of several other Ngruki alumni that Noor discovered had links to JI. It was a revelation that has turned Noor from simply being a reporter to an analyst, trying to unearth what went wrong and why he and some of the Ngruki graduates took such radically different paths after going through six years of indoctrination at one of the country’s most conservative Islamic schools.

After leaving Ngruki, Noor pursued a degree in political science and communications that nudged him into the world of journalism and, later, as a researcher in the field of political violence. He also embraced the night life of a big city like Jakarta, visiting bars on Friday nights, drinking with friends.

The difference that struck him since the 2002 bombings was reinforced this month, when Noor went to cover the funerals in East Java of Amrozi Nurhaqim and Ali Ghufron, two of the three men who were executed by firing squad on Nov. 9 for their role in the Bali carnage. He encountered over 200 men linked to JI and other radical groups, not all of whom ‘’agree with a violent ideology.’’

JI, which has been linked to other bombings, including the Australian embassy and the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta, has not mounted attacks since 2005. Abu Bakar Bashir, a radical cleric and one of the seven founders of Ngruki, in 1972, has been charged for being a leader of JI.

IPS correspondent Marwaan Macan-Markar spoke with Noor about his former roommate and his old school, now the most notorious in a country that is home to the world’s largest Muslim population – but where a tolerant and inclusive form of Islam is practised.

IPS: After the Bali bombings, you have gone from being a journalist for local and foreign newspapers to being an analyst of JI and other radical Muslim groups in Indonesia. What paved the way? Noor Huda Ismail: It was because of my unique situation when people realised that I had shared a room with one of the men linked to the Bali attack. I had considered him one of my friends at our school, Al Mukmin Ngruki. We came from the same village, we literally ate together, we played together and studied together. The only difference was he was more religious and encouraged me to embrace Islam more seriously.

IPS: So it must have come as a shock for you to discover, 10 years after leaving school, that your former roommate Fadlullah Hasan had a hand in the Bali bombings? NHI: Yes. When the head of the police investigating team released the pictures of the men wanted for the attack, I said, ‘’Oh, shit! I know this guy.’’ I was shaken up. Imagine, you share a room with someone who ends up a complete foreigner to you.

IPS: Had he gone down this road soon after leaving school or much later? NHI: When I traced back his story I learnt that he had gone for military training to Afghanistan a few years after he finished at Ngruki. I think in 1992. That was the time many jihadis were going from Indonesia to Afghanistan to drive out the Russians (who had invaded the country in 1979). He then trained with the Moro (rebels) in southern Philippines on jihad. He established special links between Indonesia and the Philippines.

IPS: Did the school help to condition people like Fadlullah? Did it encourage jihad? NHI: They taught the importance of jihad, both jihads, the inner personal struggle of an individual and the physical one. The emphasis was more on the physical jihad, the action jihad. But I never heard teachers encourage me to kill my enemy.

IPS: So the school had a radical bent? NHI: It had earned a reputation as one against the government of Suharto (whose dictatorial rule spanned three decades from the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s). It was against the flag; it did not want to accept the secular national ideology of ‘pancaseela’. The founders of the school decided not to vote at elections.

IPS: And how strict was the school? How many students lasted the entire programme? NHI: It has a difficult programme. When I entered there were 150 students with me, but only 15 stayed on till the end. For six years you constantly stay in the school, you cannot go out, you can only meet your parents once in two weeks, you cannot smoke, wear jeans. And the subjects were a mix of religious ones, like Arabic syntax, Arabic reading, and secular subjects like maths and geography.

IPS: Then how does somebody end up like Fadlullah or other alumni of your school who turned to violence in the name of Islam? NHI: There was a ‘talent squad’ in the school. They look for people who are smart, physically fit, religious. These were some of the teachers. They played a very significant role in creating the tentacles of dedicated jihadists.

IPS: Who was one of them? NHI: Abu Husna (now in jail). It was a case of teachers influencing students. That is why I call this recruitment kinship. In South-east Asia there is this special relationship teachers have with students. He has a certain influence over students. This indoctrination of jihad comes through this personal contact with the teacher.

IPS: Is there a pattern? NHI: First the recruits are indoctrinated to jihad; they are exposed to like-minded people. Then comes the introduction to violence that is backed by the ideology, which justifies these acts. Then there is experience, getting involved, leading to the violent acts.

IPS: What was Abu Husna’s background that made him such a leading recruiter in your school? NHI: He was a member of the radical Darul Islam movement (which has been active for over five decades). His first enemy was the secular government. They wanted to topple the Indonesian government and replace it with an Islamic system. But the international atmosphere slowly influenced this guy after the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. His anger was shared by others. And they got backing at that time from the CIA.

IPS: So how many students went to Afghanistan from Ngruki? NHI: A couple of hundreds. I don’t think you can compare it with any other Islamic school in South-east Asia. But you cannot talk about this – the pathway for the students to become jihadists – without including the international context. Then the Americans welcomed them as mujahideen to help fight the Russians in Afghanistan; now they are bloody terrorists who should be crushed. It is a question of history, you know.

IPS: So how come you did not end up like the others? NHI: I was caught having an affair with the daughter of one of the school’s founders. So I was seen as not pious enough. I could have ended up like one of them if not for my interest in voluptuous girls.

IPS: Are you now seen as a traitor by people at the school, such as Bashir? Do they consider you a munafiq (hypocrite)? NHI: Of course. They see me as a tentacle of Western interest. But they know I have no interest in arresting them. My interest is only in writing that I don’t like their fighting ideology.