IPAC Report: The Search for an Islamic State in Indonesia: The Many Guises of Darul Islam/NII

As the influence of ISIS wanes, one of Indonesia’s oldest extremist networks is coming back in focus. Darul Islam, a movement that proclaimed the Islamic State of Indonesia (Negara Islam Indonesia, NII) in 1949 has produced generations of violent splinter groups. A member of one of those was the suicide bomber in an attack on a police station in Bandung in December 2022. The challenge for the government is how handle a network with tens of thousands of members, only a tiny fraction of whom will commit criminal acts, but whose ideology promotes jihad as the means to achieve a state governed by Islamic law.

In their new report, Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) answers some common questions about Darul Islam and how the government is tackling them, including their islah (reconciliation) policy of offering nonviolent members the chance to swear allegiance to the Indonesian Republic in lieu of arrest.

IPAC compares some strategies that have been used to counter other terrorist organizations to offer its own suggestions as to how to successfully shut down a group that may not be the most violent network, but still propagates an ideology that paves the road to extremist radicalization.