Enrolments may be down, but is the rhetoric going up? ... Senior teacher Hamdan with students at the notorious Al Islam boarding school. Picture: Ardiles Rante Source: Supplied
Australians and Indonesians are preparing to mark the 12th anniversary of the Bali bombings with ceremonies.
AS confirmation of their final disgrace, the shared gravesite of Bali bomb brothers Mukhlas and Amrozi is set apart from the general Muslim cemetery in the village of Tenggulun, in east Java. It is untended, unloved and as barren as their philosophy.
Yet they continue to inspire young men to jihad.
Haris, now aged 25, went to the Al Islam boarding school — located half a kilometre from the graves — in 2005. He wanted to be taught strict Islam and says that Amrozi, a former Al Islam student — by then on death row — was "inspiring to me. A hero."
At Al Islam, his ustad, or teachers, included skilled warrior veterans from Afghanistan, the southern Philippines and internal conflicts in Poso and Ambon. Amrozi's brothers Mukhlas and Ali Imron had both been teachers at Al Islam.
Even though the Al Islam school was by then notorious as a production line for Jemaah Islamiah terrorists and was under close watch, it didn't stop preaching jihad.
Haris learned in jungle "adventure camps" how to kill men with his bare hands. In 2007, a young man named Wildan Mukhollad came to Al Islam from the local village.
Haris became close to Wildan, who in 2010 told him he wanted to join the embryonic struggle in Syria. Harits, who had once sworn to fight the Americans in Afghanistan, had by then abandoned his jihadist thoughts and lost contact with Wildan.
"I learned he got killed with ISIS, early this year," says Haris. "He was a suicide bomber in Iraq."
Suicide bomber ... Wildan Mukhollad, a 19-year-old Indonesian who died in Iraq after previously having fought in Syria. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied
They remember Wildan at Al Islam, which due to its reputation for terrorist alumni today has only 100 students, down from 300 in its pre-2002 Bali bomb prime. It's a threadbare and bleak place, and the students — who have come from all over Indonesia — seem downbeat and reluctant.
The senior ustad, Hamdan, says he was "surprised when Wildan passed away".
Hamdan says the school is now trying to "purify its name", but with its attitudes to jihad, that will be tough.
"If we found a young student who wanted to go to jihad in Iraq or Syria, we cannot stop them," Hamdan says. "This is their personal belief."
I ask him: what would you do if you found a student was using narcotics? Hamdan says: "We would call the parents and find a punishment." Why can't you do the same for a young jihadist? "We really can't stop him," he repeats. "This is their belief."
The reality is they don't want to stop them.
'We cannot stop them' ... the senior ustad (teacher), Hamdan at Al Islam boarding school. Picture: Ardiles Rante Source: Supplied
The Lamongan district where the school is located is widely described as an ISIS-recruiting hotpot, and another local ustad, Harits Abu Ulya — who is linked to the modern JI network but claims he is an "observer" rather than a member — has the same position as Hamdan.
Being a Muslim requires a commitment to jihad; so Harits would not discourage any young man who wanted to fight.
"As a teacher, I have to teach how to be proportional," Harits says. He talks of a local Lamongan boy, Zainul, who blew himself up (but no one else) when attacking a police station in Poso last year. Harits considers Zainul's action wasteful, because the Poso conflict was not important at the time.
But he says: "Wildan's and Mubarok's (another local boy who blew himself up in Iraq) response was proportional. The time is right and that's how jihad should be."
The general view among hardliners is that they do not support ISIS, though not so much because of "isolated" ultra-violent events such as beheading journalists, selling and raping women, or executing their enemies.
'As a teacher, I have to teach how to be proportional' ... Ustad (teacher) Harits Abu Ulya, in Lamongan. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied
They support the notion of an Islamic State but question the credentials of ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
"We are not clear on his words," says Harits, who has been told he has been hit with a global travel ban for his outspoken remarks, which he delivers with unerring calm.
"His capacity to manage a caliphate is not proven on a global scale. He has a lack of planning for an economy, the law and society."
Yet Harits, like many Muslim faithful, believes in a prophecy that the global caliphate will begin in Sham, or Syria. That prophecy, they think, is now being revealed.
We are seated in a hotel in Surabaya at breakfast with Anif Solchanudin, sentenced to 15 years prison in 2006 for his part in planning the second Bali attacks in 2005, which killed 20 and injured, blinded and maimed more than 100.
Released last year ... Bali bombing terrorist suspect Anif Solchanudin outside Denpasar District Court before his sentencing over his involvement in the 2005 bombings in Bali. Picture: Supplied Source: AFP
Anif once sheltered Noordin M Top, behind Indonesia's worst anti-Western terror attacks, and had been trained to become a suicide bomber for Bali in 2005. At the last minute, his services were not required.
Released from Bali's Kerobokan prison last year after his sentence was almost halved, Anif will only talk for money. The interview is a non-starter.
This year, Anif — who said he wanted to put the past behind him — was seen in a pro-ISIS video shot in a mosque in Solo, in central Java.
Anif claimed he only went along because he was curious about ISIS; but when he found out it was about Iraq and Syria, he wasn't interested.
The police told Anif he was hanging with the wrong crowd, yet again, but did not change his parole conditions.
Ansyaad Mbai, who has just retired after leading Indonesia's counter-terror war for 12 years under two presidents, said Indonesia's laws only allowed police to act against terrorists after an event.
Mbai said when Suharto lost power and Indonesia began reforming in 1998-99, no terror laws were introduced to replace the absolute control Suharto had exercised against terrorists using his authority.
Jemaah Islamiah leader Abu Bakr Bashir returned from exile in Malaysia and began teaching young men at his Ngruki boarding school in Solo, closely linked to Al Islam.
Returning power ... Jemaah Islamiah leader Abu Bakr Bashir. Picture: Dimas Ardian. Picture: Getty Images Source: Getty Images
"And then it rained bombs," Mbai told News Corporation, lamenting that the irony of Indonesia's new-found freedoms is that it has tolerated the invective of Muslim hardliners.
Indonesia outlawed ISIS this year, but cannot stop people from using the climate ISIS has provided to push for an Islamic caliphate under Sharia law.
Mbai says it is thought 300 Indonesian jihadists have gone to Syria and Iraq to fight, but said thousands of students were studying in Yemen, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. No one really knows how many have left to join ISIS.
The fear is they will return home and the bombs will rain again; and that hardline clerics will do nothing to dissuade jihadists from striking hard within Indonesia.
Machmudi Hariono, better known as Ucup, 38, was arrested a month before the 2003 JW Marriott bomb attack, which according to al-Qaeda statements at the time was mostly aimed at Australia.
Aimed at Australia ... a policeman tries to keep order at the front entrance to the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta after a powerful car bomb exploded killing at least ten and injuring around 150 people. Picture: Supplied Source: AP
Ucup, who knew Mukhlas and Ali Imron and once attended an Al Islam training camp, was sent in the late 1990s by Indonesian jihadists to learn war craft as a volunteer mujahedeen, or fighter, with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in Mindanao, in the Philippines.
There he learned to make bombs and watched with satisfaction when the Filipino military carted away its dead and wounded soldiers in helicopters.
Ucup says he disagreed with the first Bali bombing, which killed 202 people including 88 Australians; he says his intention was to return to join the Muslim fight against Christians in Poso and Ambon.
But when he returned from the Philippines, the Poso and Ambon conflicts had cooled down. Approached by Jemaah Islamiah to help with jihad, he rented the apartment above his own in Semarang to Abu Tholut, who used it to store 600kg of explosive.
At the time, a year after the first Bali bombing, JI had huge stores of bomb material hidden all over Java — some of which would soon be used in the JW Marriott and the Australian embassy Jakarta car bombing the following year.
Recurring threat ... a victim is evacuated in front of the Australian Embassy following an explosion in Jakarta, Indonesia. Picture: Achmad Ibrahim / AP Photo Source: AP
Ucup claims he never knew Tholut was hiding explosives in the flat. He was not believed and served five years in jail. He was in remote Nusakambangan prison, in southern Java, in 2008, when Amrozi, Mukhlas and Imam Samudra were taken from their cells and shot.
Tholut, incredibly, was out after only five years — even though the explosives he had concealed were three times the amount used in Bali in 2002.
Tholut was again arrested in 2010 at a JI guerilla training camp in Aceh that had been organised partly by Bashir. Ucup, on the other hand, gives some hope that jihadists can reform.
He is one of Noor Huda Ismail's success stories. Noor, who studies in Melbourne, came out of Bashir's Ngruki boarding school and saw former friends jailed for terrorism, leading him to set up the Institute for International Peace Building, a de-radicalisation program for jihadists.
De-radicalisation program ... Mahmudi Haryono (Yusuf), serves coffee to counterterrorism expert Noor Huda Ismail, at a cafe in Semarang, central Java. Yusuf spent five years in jail for helping the JW Marriott Hotel bombers in 2003. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied
Noor started a small restaurant in Solo, where men such as Ucup could serve food to members of the public — including the foreigners they were taught to believe were infidels — in order to reacquaint them with society.
Ucup, by his own account and others, has moved on. He remains intimately connected to the radical network, which allows him to quietly persuade others to give terror away. But it's not easy when so many believe that jihad is intrinsic to Islam.
Two of Noor's Jakarta-based staff, Dete Aliah and Ekayanti, try to establish ties with jihadists, both in and out of prison, and talk them around.
"We're trying to control the ISIS narrative, because the issue is getting stronger here," says Dete, who says there are 20 online jihad recruitments site in Indonesia, and that the student rallies calling for the rejection of democracy and the creation of a caliphate are growing.
They recently visited bomb maker Umar Patek in his Surabaya prison. He was the last big name brought in from the 2002 Bali bombing after being extradited from Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2012, the same town where Osama bin Laden was shot dead.
Patek expressed remorse when sentenced to 20 years but, nonetheless, he told Dete and Ekayanti that he was not a terrorist, but a mujahedeen — a warrior for Allah.
He is concerned that his family is suffering while he serves his time and wants Noor Huda's organisation to help them establish a food stall.
In Australian terms, Patek's request for help would be seen as contemptible. But this is Indonesia, where our sharp distinctions on crime and punishment don't apply so easily.
Eka says her own aunt was injured in the Santa Ana church bombing in Jakarta in 2001.
"It would be easy to think that Umar Patek should not need help," she says.
"But with that perspective, nothing will change. Every time I meet a terrorist, their statements are against what I believe. Some see killing as the right way. But I have to listen."
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