Mr. Imtihan Syafi’i, principal of Pesantren Darul Quddus in Magetan regency, Indonesia, highlights the school's modern amenities, including Wi-Fi access and student freedom in matters like hairstyles.
MAGETAN/BOYOLALI, Indonesia - A gentle laugh accompanies almost every single sentence uttered by Mr Imtihan Syafi’i, the principal of an Indonesia n Islamic boarding school – or pesantren – in Magetan regency, about three hours away by car from Solo in Central Java.
However, he stressed that the active recruitment of students to become JI members has ceased since theFormed in 1993 in Indonesia, JI was the South-east Asian affiliate of Islamist militant organisation Al-Qaeda. The group was outlawed in 2008 after deadly attacks in the Philippines and Indonesia, including the bombings on the holiday island of Bali in 2002 that killed more than 200 people, many of them Australian tourists.
Faculty members evaluated which students had potential to join the select group and be taught extremist content. Usually the students whose fathers were jailed or active JI members were given priority, explained anti-terrorism expert Adhe Bhakti of the Centre for Radicalism and Deradicalisation Studies .
Khoirul Anam, an ex-paramilitary commander of JI who goes by the alias Bravo, shed light on the recruitment process. “We applied ‘tandzim sirri’ . Classmates of the selected students were not aware of these halaqa activities,” said Bravo, who will be released from prison in 2025. He was jailed in 2022 for several offences, including the setting up of firearm repair workshops and making home-made firearms.
“I’ve only ever had access to the students here in the pesantren, and to the group’s senior leadership,” he said. He added that while it was easy for his school to accept JI’s dissolution, it may not necessarily be the case for every member. He said he was inspired by the humanitarian work of Doctors Without Borders in Syria, which transcended nationality and religion. He was a translator in Syria for three months in 2011 during the civil war there.
Many of its teachers were JI members, with one killed during a raid on a village in Central Java in 2006, where he was believed to have harboured Malaysian bomb expert Noordin Mohammad Top, who masterminded several bombings in Indonesia in the 2000s before being killed in a police shoot-out in 2009. Students reciting Quranic verses in a classroom at Pesantren Darusy Syahadah on Sept 13. The students are allowed to return home thrice a year - on Hari Raya Aidilftri, Hari Raya Haji, and on New Year’s Day. ST PHOTO: AQIL HAMZAH
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