Jemaah Islamiyah’s Publishing Industry

Jakarta/Brussels: The Indonesian government should more closely monitor publishers associated with Indonesia’s most prominent extremist organisation, Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).

Indonesia: Jemaah Islamiyah’s Publishing Industry, the latest report from the International Crisis Group, examines how a handful of JI members and persons close to JI have developed a profitable publishing consortium, producing books that reflect the lively debate taking place within the organisation about tactics and strategy. The main aim seems to be religious outreach; the output of books has jumped dramatically as JI has weakened over the last few years, perhaps reflecting its focus on consolidation and rebuilding.

“These publishers are disseminating a radical message, but they also may be playing a positive role by channelling JI energies into jihad through the printed word rather than through acts of violence,” says Sidney Jones, Crisis Group’s Senior Adviser.

The importance of the JI publishers goes beyond the material they publish. The network of printers, translators, designers, marketers, and distributing agents is one of many webs binding the organisation together. If JI has shown extraordinary resilience, the personal ties binding individuals involved in the publishing industry helps explain why.

Publishing also provides a meeting ground between leading figures in the JI mainstream, opposed to al-Qaeda-style bombings on Indonesian soil, and a few men more associated with fugitive terrorist Noordin Mohammed Top, who act as translators of Arabic texts. While some of the books published are simply downloads from al-Qaeda websites, others are tracts by well-known Middle Eastern radicals who have rejected terrorist tactics. These jihadi texts appear to be subsidised by the sale of vastly more popular books on Islamic lifestyle and worship.

“These publishing houses should not be closed down or their books banned,” says John Virgoe, Crisis Group’s South East Asia Project Director. “But by enforcing existing laws on labour, trade, publishing and taxation, the government could exert closer scrutiny than it is doing now and gain valuable information at the same time.”