Jemaah Islamiyah’s link to al-Qaida is a myth

The JI network is generally self-funding, through small businesses, often run by women, in tightly-knit communities. The committed communities of JI do not necessarily make themselves known to non-JI friends and acquaintances. So in a multi-level marketing organisation, currently popular in Indonesia and other South-East Asian countries, there may be non-JI members who inadvertently help raise funds for JI operations - if those in the top echelons of the organisation are JI members.

Infiltrating JI through conventional methods is not effective because the cells are not necessarily linked. Only the top operatives of some cells know of each other, and then only to enable them to work together in a particular operation.

Akh Muzakki, a lecturer at the Sunan Ampel National Institute of Islam in Surabaya, has been researching the clandestine organisation. He describes it as having "a partially cut-off organisational structure". This means members of a cell, if captured, are not able to give information on other cells. As a result, most of the significant information about the internal operations of JI has been gathered from former members who have eventually disagreed with the hard line ideology.

JI has generally been described as linked to al-Qaida. It is questionable how true this might be.

There may be ideological sympathy on the part of JI for al-Qaida, but according to Sidney Jones there has been no direct affiliation between JI and al-Qaida since 2003 (when the Australian Embassy bombing in Jakarta occurred). In fact, al-Qaida’s attention is certainly no longer focused on South-East Asia, where JI operates. Al-Qaida, it seems, has dismissed JI as ineffectual - after all, they keep getting caught.

The fear that JI has been receiving funds from radical Islamists all over the world is groundless. For example, it is worth noting the tension that has grown between hard line Islamist groups in Saudi Arabia and JI. JI’s sympathy for Osama bin Laden’s ideology has not endeared them to the Salafis in Saudi Arabia, who regard bin Laden as a heretic. So at present, JI is not on al-Qaida’s priority list, nor is it on the Salafis.