http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/09/18/my-encounters-with-terrorist-urwah039-budi-pranoto.html
My encounters with terrorist `Urwah' Budi Pranoto Noor Huda Ismail , Jakarta | Fri, 09/18/2009 12:02 PM | Opinion Indonesia's Detachment 88 counterterrorism unit raided in a house in Mojosongo, Surakarta, Central Java, on Wednesday, killing four people, two of them reportedly Noordin M. Top and Bagus "Urwah" Budi Pranoto. I met Urwah for the first time in 2004 in Cipinang Penitentiary as a journalist. According to police, Urwah helped Noordin look for a place to stay, as well as provided logistical support and scouted for individuals to carry out further operations. It was through Urwah's wide circle of associates that Noordin met Iwan "Rois" Dharmawan Mutho, who carried out the Jakarta hotel bombings. For his involvement, Urwah was sentenced to three years in prison. I maintained contact with him after his release from prison in mid-2006 to his home in Surakarta, in the village of Padokan, Grogol, Sukoharjo. His daily activities included downloading jihad documentaries and films from the Internet and burning them onto VCDs for mass dissemination under the name of Muqowama Publications. He also produced in-house jihad documentaries in Indonesian, including titles such as Para Peminang Bidadari (The Fairy Proposals), Daulah Islamiyah Iraq (The Islamic State of Iraq) and The United States of Losers. Urwah also actively gave lectures around Surakarta and Yogyakarta. A good part of his audience was made up of youths and young adults, as well as housewives. >From my interactions with him, I learned that after their release from prison, >an ex-terrorist will always have a decision to make: to stay radical (or >become even more radical than he used to be), or to become more moderate and >try to reorganize his views on and understanding of jihad. However, if we look at the bonds between the terrorists while they were in prison, an ex-terrorist is more likely to stay radical than to become moderate or to reform. This was the teaching they received inside prison, and is again repeated when they rejoin their religious groups outside prison. It has proven very difficult for a convicted terrorist to let go of his old values and become a moderate Muslim. When I asked him about his time in jail, Urwah told me there were three types of JI members behind bars. First, there were those he referred to as "JI hitam" (Black JI), who became turncoats and collaborated with the police by leaking the group's secrets. Second, there were those in the gray zone. The third category is made up of individuals who stay committed to the radical cause. Urwah said, "We need to visit those in the third category so they don't forget the cause." Urwah regularly visited these JI inmates, at least once a month. Urwah understood that a strong bond between the jihadists (terrorists), often established inside prison, made them even more prominent, both as individuals and groups. The interaction between them in groups is continuous, thus (ideologically) strengthening each other. An addition to this is the response and appreciation from fellow Muslims around them who consider convicted terrorists as defenders of Islam, i.e. heroes, and as a result place them in a higher social hierarchy in their group. This distinction causes many of their friends, relatives and admirers to visit them in prison as a form of solidarity among Muslims, or mujahids, to be exact. This kinds of support enables them to maintain their spirit of jihad on the same level, because they are still living within mujahid groups even when they are in prison. Furthermore, as mujahids, they always have to protect their image and their principles on their views on jihad. Once, Urwah said in a very chilling message that he was convinced it was extremely important for Muslims to support any Islamist group still committed to jihad. When he was invited by a group of JI members to speak at a mosque, he reiterated that jihad was fardhu a'in (a personal obligation), and therefore legitimate for any group or individual to carry out jihad based on their own initiatives and methods. He argued that there was "no need to ask permission from the group's imam *leaders*". In response to this phenomenon, I believe the government on its own will not be able to successfully neutralize individuals or groups who flirt with violent groups or imbibe their ideology. Often such success is possible because ordinary citizens step forward to alert the authorities when they see something suspicious or amiss. Ultimately, therefore, terrorism will not be defeated by the government, but by the people. The average man on the street is the key component of the national community of vigilance, which can be the effective target of a country. The writer, the executive director of an international institute for peace building, earned a master's degree in international security at St. Andrews University, Scotland. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
