The process of Islamization in Indonesia has been slow but steady. Though Indonesia upholds secular principles under Pancasila in its Constitution, a marked change is visible in the mindset of younger generations in recent years. Since 9/11 and its fallout, almost all Islamic youth organizations have staged anti-US protests in the country's major cities, unveiling a new face of Indonesian Islam which was hitherto unknown.

The car-bombing outside the Marriott Hotel in the Indonesian capital on 5 August 2003 killing 13 and injuring hundred others came as another black day in the history of terrorism in the country. This particular terrorist attack in Jakarta was seen as retaliation for the death sentence awarded by an Indonesian court to Amrozi, the key accused in the last year’s bombing in Bali.   A journalist for the Singapore Straits Times, Mr. Derwin Pereira said on 7th Aug that an anonymous caller had told him that the Indonesian President should not clamp down on the Jemaah Islamiyah members otherwise similar consequences will be repeated.

The purist Islamic leaders of Indonesia including the Vice President, Hamzah Haz, who have kept refuting US government warnings about the tangible presence of al-Qaeda in Indonesia and who very recently in his speech to some Islamic clerics, described the United States as a terrorist king, are getting befitting replies when they witness such inhuman terrorist attacks on their own soil.

For almost a decade Indonesia has been struggling with terrorism.  There are two Indonesian Muslim clerics who are leading regional terrorist organizations with global associations. First is Abu Bakar Baasyir, the spiritual leader of the JI, the terrorist group believed to be responsible for unsolved bombings in Indonesia and the Philippines over the past few years. This included a series of church attacks during Christmas Eve in 2000, the Kuta beach attack in Bali in October 2002, and in Manila in December 2000. He was recently sentenced to four years in prison for plotting the overthrow of the government.  Prosecutors say the cleric founded the militant group and led efforts in plotting the assassination of President Megawati Sukarnoputri. The second is Nurjaman Riduan Isamuddin, known as Hambali. The authorities claim him to be a former student of Baasyir. He is the leader of another organization, the Kumpulan Militan/Mujahideen Malaysia (KMM).  Both JI and KMM have cells throughout Southeast Asia, and their Afghan-trained members have played major roles in expanding al-Qaeda networks in the region. 

Hambali was finally nabbed in Thailand on August 11 and handed over to the US Government. This was followed by a strong demand by the Indonesian government that the US should hand him over to Jakarta. Almost after a month, the US authority handed over an interrogation report to the Indonesian government, which said that Hambali was involved in 39 bombings in eight Indonesian cities between August 2000 and the Bali blasts in October last.

Also of concern is a militant Muslim group called Lashkar Jihad, which was founded in 2000 with the goal of establishing an Islamic state, known for its violence against Christians in the Moluccas and central Sulawesi.  Another al Qaeda-linked group is the Indonesian Islamic Liberation Front (IILF).  A year ago, Singaporean police busted several jehadi groups and the JI was among them. It was plotting attacks on the region's Christians. It was planning seven truck bomb attacks on select targets in Singapore, including the US Embassy and other prime business centers. Earlier a large quantity of ammunition was confiscated with the arrest of 13 Muslim extremists in December 2001. This was a consignment of 21 tons of ammonium nitrate, the destructive power of which can be gauged from the fact that just one ton destroyed the nine-storied federal building in Oklahoma in 1995.

A striking feature of Indonesia's Islamisation is the fostering of over 10,000 pesantrens and madrassas. Political Islam's rise in the post-Suharto phase was reflected in the proliferation of orthodox Islamic parties on the eve of the 1999 general elections. These groups do not respect the Pancasila (the soul of the Indonesian constitution). Many Muslims demand the official adoption of Shar-ia. Radical Islamic groups have grown in number- the Lashkar-e-Jihad (Jihad Troop), the Front Pembela Islam (Islam Defenders Front), the Hizb al Tahrir (Party of Liberation) and the Angkatan Mujahideen Indonesia (the Jihad Fighter Group of Indonesia). Under Suharto, state repression had deterred Islamic movements from taking any avowed radical stance. But they survived him, and 20 Islamic parties together secured 37.1 per cent vote share in 1999. Since 1955 and despite popular misgivings and rejection, these parties have never been out of the picture, pressurizing the government against making any further move for secular modernization.