Indonesian police have attributed the 14 January terror attacks on Jakarta’s main thoroughfare to Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian affiliated with Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), living in Raqqa, Syria.
Who is Bahrun Naim and why do the police suspect him? Why did the perpetrators choose to attack the Starbucks cafe and a nearby traffic police post? Can we expect further attacks from ISIL-affiliated in groups in Indonesia, and are there lessons that Australia and Indonesia’s Southeast Asian neighbours can learn from Thursday’s events?
In this special edition of Talking Indonesia, I explore these issues with Solahudin, a leading expert on jihadism in Indonesia and author of The Roots of Terrorism in Indonesia (translated by Dave McRae).
Talking Indonesia is a fortnightly podcast presenting extended interviews with experts on Indonesian politics, foreign policy, culture, language and more.
Catch up on previous episodes here, subscribe via iTunes or listen to the entire Talking Indonesia podcast via Stitcher.
Update, 18 January 2016: Since this podcast was published on 16 January, Indonesian police have concluded that one of the deceased originally thought to be a perpetrator was in fact a victim, and a further person had died from injuries sustained in the attack. The current fatality count from the attack is consequently eight people killed, including four perpetrators.
Photo by Flickr user Tommy Wahyu Utomo.
