Daesh (ISIS) has released a propaganda video about Indonesia and Southeast Asia in both Arabic and Indonesian, Jihadology-a site dedicated to analyzing jihadist material-noted on May 15th. The video is primarily in Indonesian with Arabic subtitles, and appears to target Southeast Asian youth by celebrating young fighters from the region presently fighting in Iraq and Syria. It also criticizes what it describes as Indonesia’s ‘infidel’ government.
The group has targeted Indonesia in the past. On January 14th, a group reportedly linked to Daesh (ISIS) carried out an attack in the capital Jakarta, killing seven. Hundreds of Indonesians are believed to have joined the group. Other regional states such as the Philippines fear their citizens may join the group too.
The video is not the first to show Indonesian children fighting in Daesh (ISIS)’s territory, and is hardly the first time they’ve targeted Indonesians for recruitment using their language. In August 2015, Daesh (ISIS) released a photo of a baby next to an assault rifle and an accompanying letter in Indonesian encouraging Indonesians to join. Daesh (ISIS) has also released military songs known as ‘nasheed’ in Indonesian. However, this latest video is unique in that it’s long (fifteen minutes plus) and includes images from and in-depth commentary on Indonesia. The aforementioned factors are prompting fears that more Indonesians will join the group or those who already have will return from Iraq and Syria to carry out attacks in their home country.
