Isis threat in Malaysia a bomb waiting to explode, says Muslim cleric

Muslim cleric Zamihan Mat Zin Al-Ghari says the government needs to step up efforts to counter the spread of Isis ideology in Malaysia. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Seth Akmal, February 21, 2016.Muslim cleric Zamihan Mat Zin Al-Ghari says Putrajaya needs to intensify efforts to counter threats by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis), and that it has reached a “critical” level akin to third stage cancer.

“It is like a ticking bomb ready to explode if no proper measures are carried out to counter and eradicate the influences of Isis sympathisers in the country,” he said.

The president of Pertubuhan Ahli Sunnah Waljamaah (Aswaja), who is also involved with rehabilitation programme for suspected militants and sympathisers, said one of the things the government could do was to set up a Counter Narrative Ideology Centre, similar to the ones in UAE and Dubai.

“In UAE, they have the Sawab centre, Kalam Research Centre and in Dubai they have the Hidayah centre with the objective of countering terrorism through narrative ideology.”

He said a similar proposal had been forwarded to the Home Ministry for further action.

Zamihan hoped that the centre could become a reality soon.

“We don’t need big budget to set up the centre. We need a very small allocation to get it started. But most importantly, we really need such a centre.”

He added that although the situation in Malaysia was still under control, more efforts needed to be done to counter the inflow of ideologies by extremists to recruit more followers to join them in their struggle.

“The Isis sympathisers in Malaysia, despite knowing what the group had done, the cruelty and the murders they have committed, still believe in the militant organisation's struggle.

"Many of them have been brainwashed. These propaganda was being channelled through social media and online networking. So, in order to fight the threat, we have to use similar method.

"… by putting the message out there and allow people to make their own comparison and do their own thinking.”

He added that Malaysia could be considered lucky because the police's counter terrorism unit was proactive in terms of combating Islamist extremism in the country.

“Our police force are working hard and always on the ground to trace and detect the influencers and people who are involved in militancy and the cops will swoop in before the group can do any damage.”

However, he said that the public too needed to play their role by providing information to the authorities if they felt or believed any groups or individuals were leaning towards extremism and could pose a danger to the country's security.

Zamihan said he had been involved in the rehabilitation programme for some time now and rehabilitated about 1,000 of the suspected militants and sympathisers detained by police under the Internal Security Act and now, under Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012.

Early this month, Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said police were collaborating with Aswaja for the training of religious speakers to address the spread of terrorist ideology.

He said the cooperation would made it easier for people to reach out to religious scholars to get the right message on terror-related issues, particularly involving militant groups such as Isis.

"Security has become more complex and challenging in a borderless world especially with the usage of information technology."

Thus, he said the police were taking a proactive measure by working with non-governmental organisations to tackle the spread of such ideology.

He said police had so far arrested 157 suspected militants, including 25 women since 2013. They were believed to be involved with various levels of militant activities.

The latest was at the end of January, when seven people were picked up in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Pahang, Johor and Kedah for suspected links with Isis.

Police seized a cache of bullets for various types of firearms, including those for the M16 assault rifle. The three-day operation was a follow-up to the earlier arrest of a man at an LRT station in Kuala Lumpur on January 15.

The seven were said to be planning attacks at several popular spots in the Klang Valley as well as other states.

Among those detained was a cell leader, a Sabahan, who works as an assistant manager of a hotel in Johor.

Another suspect arrested in Johor was a 33-year-old factory store supervisor.

One of the seven was also identified as the cell's fund manager, whose task was to collect and channel funds to people wanting to go to Syria and for carrying out attacks.

The man, aged 50, was arrested in Kedah and had worked as a cendol seller.

He was assisted by another detainee, aged 26 from Terengganu, who was planning to join Isis in Syria.

The counterterrorism unit had also found out that one of those arrested had been in communication with Bahrun Naim, the Indonesian founding member of Khatibah Nusantara Muhammad, and whom Indonesian police said orchestrated the Jakarta attacks on January 14 that killed 12 people.

Another one of those arrested had been in contact with Malaysian Isis recruiter, Muhammad Wanndy Mohamed Jedi, also known as Abu Hamzah. – February 21, 2016.