This includes the Forum Aktivis Syariat Islam (Islam Sharia Activists Forum, or FAKSI) and Jema’ah Anshorut Tauhid (JAT), which is a splinter cell of the Jemaah Islamiyah. Considering JAD is assumed to consist of a cell system network, it should not destabilize the JAD organization too much. Considering Indonesia’s patriarchal society, children have very limited room to rebel against the father’s wishes. In February 2020, the Indonesian government announced that it had decided not to repatriate 689 Indonesian citizens who have been stranded in Syria and Turkey (many of whom being women and children). When the rebels won, Franco took control of the country and incorporated some fascist ideologies of the Falange party into his government. IS became world news in 2014 after it drove Iraqi government forces out of key cities in its Western Iraq offensive, followed by its capture of Mosul, and the Sinjar massacre. Since the 1960s some Americans have tried to stop government support of religion.

The Jemaah Islamiyah is behind some of the most vicious attacks in the last 20 years (as can be seen in the table above) and they have used one key method: the bomb attack. Secondly, children are easy “soldiers” to recruit (there is ample room for brainwashing), especially when it involves terrorists’ own children (and some of the children involved in these attacks were indeed kept away from schools). Questions often arise about what if the person is traveling, and there is no danger to his life. It then also proclaimed a worldwide caliphate (an Islamic state under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph, a person considered a political-religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of the entire ummah). A terrorist group that became quite well-known over the past decade due to vicious acts (including beheadings of hostages) is the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or Islamic State (IS). In the aftermath of these attacks, Indonesia’s special counter-terrorism squad Densus 88 arrested dozens of suspected militants in East Java, including Syamsul Arif (also known as Abu Umar) who is suspected of being the leader of JAD’s East Java chapter.

These Surabaya attacks could also have been motivated by the arrest and conviction of prominent JAD members, including Abdurrahman and Zaenal Anshari (JAD’s second-in-command and the leader of JAD’s East Java chapter). That evening, a self-made bomb went off prematurely in an apartment in Sidoarjo (East Java). On 13 May 2018, a six-member family – with suicide bombs – struck nearly simultaneously at three churches in Surabaya (East Java) when Sunday morning services were about to start, or were ongoing. Before Surabaya (and Indonesia) had time to recover, another explosion occurred, on 14 May 2018, at the entrance of Surabaya’s police headquarters. In fact, the father of the family, Dita Oepriarto, was named the leader of the Surabaya branch of JAD. It is important to emphasize that the family suicides in Surabaya is a new phenomenon. Just like the other incidents that happened on the preceding day it was – again – a family that performed this attack and they were also linked to the same study group. How long is a day on Jupiter?

Indonesian police assumed the bomb was meant to be used in a terrorist attack, similar to the church attacks earlier that day. Moreover, both families knew each other as they were part of a study group that frequently met to study the Al-Qur’an and watch IS-related movie clips (such as suicide attacks and decapitations). The movie was frightening enough and early audiences found the scary music was just too much. Eat enough grass, and it will wear away the enamel on your teeth. After all, in terrorists’ minds they are doing a good deed and will meet their loved ones again in heaven. Some contemporary radical and/or militant organizations that have been in the spotlight after 1998 are the Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia (Council of Indonesian Jihad Fighters), the Front Pembela Islam (Front of Islam Defenders), the Jemaah Islamiyah (Islamic Congregation), the (already disbanded) Laskar Jihad (Warriors of Jihad), and Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD). It is estimated more than 700 Indonesians have traveled to Syria to join the war and fight for IS. More than 7 million people visit the palace each year.