THE HABIBIE CENTER

DISCUSSION REPORT

Institutional Visit and Talking ASEAN

Kuala Lumpur, MalaysiaOctober 30, 2015

No. 17/October 2015

The Role of Media in Countering Religious Extremism

INTRODUCTION

JAKARTA – On Friday, 30 October 2015, The Habibie Center in collaboration with IMAN Research Consulting held a Roundtable Discussion entitled, “The Role of Media in Countering Religious Extremism” at Pusat Kreatif Kanak-Kanak Tuanku Bainun, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The roundtable discussion featured Dr. Rudi Sukandar (Senior Advisor of the National Violence Monitoring System, The Habibie Center, Indonesia), Jahabar Sadiq (Chief Executive Officer and Editor, Malaysian Insider, Malaysia), and Ahmad El-Muhammady (International Islamic University, Malaysia) as resource persons.

The objectives of the roundtable discussion were to: (a) generate awareness among stakeholders; (b) initiate a discourse on the importance of ‘contents’ and ‘language’ in the public sphere as a conduit towards favourable countering religious extremism (CRE)/countering violent extremism (CVE) outcomes; (c) foster productive partnerships and contacts to strategise and capitalise on publicly available information for CRE/CVE purposes; and (d) cross border collaboration with partners of roundtable.

ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION

Comment No. 1

How long has the strategy been adopted in Indonesia to counter religious extremism?

Dr. Rudi Sukandar

Indonesia’s BNPT was only established in 2010. However, the efforts of NGOs to engage former terrorists has been going on since much earlier than the establishment of BNPT. Indeed, some people argue that the government’s strategy to deal with terrorists is not effective.

Comment No. 2

Are there any thought of working together with celebrities to attract people in disseminating counter terrorism issues in Indonesia or Malaysia?

Jahabar Sadiq

Generally you need endorsement from an ulama or ustadz (religious leader). Another important thing beside celebrity or well-known people endorsement is the use of language. Unfortunately, in the case of Malaysia, the media is divided in the language it employs and the agenda it puts forward.

Dr. Rudi Sukandar

In Indonesia, sometimes we use celebrity endorsement. The government is working together with celebrities as a strategy to combating extremisim. However, to date there has been no research conducted to analyse the effectiveness of using celebrities and other well-known figures.

During the roundtable, Dr. Rudi Sukandar explained Indonesia’s experience in using media to counter relogious extremism. There were various ways to use the media to counter religious extremism. First, the government used school books to educate students ranging from elementary school to senior high school. Second, by using pop culture through movies production, one of which was “Mata Tertutup” (Closed Eyes). Third, by using pop comic books. Fourth, by using official websites and fifth, through social media. Fifth, by promoting deradicalization efforts for former terrorists.

Mr. Jahabar Sadiq explained that when we talked about media, we should note that there were many types of media, such as state media, independent media, and news media. He stressed that each of them was different but he noted that the role of news media was to explain what was going on, not to give propaganda, and not to be used by one side. Mr. Sadiq also stated that the government should support media to tell the truth instead of spread a certain message. In this sense the media should focus on reporting what was right.

The last person to speak was Mr. Ahmad El-Muhammady. In general he proposed a strategic partnership between researchers and media practicioners to counter violent extremism. He began his presentation by explaining that ISIS posed a serious threat to global peace and national security and that there was no sign of this threat decreasing. Accordingly, the “whole-of-nation” approach should be implemented. There was a need for participation from all stakeholders in preserving peace and avoiding conflict.

In this regard, researchers and media were the “opinionmakers” according to Ahmad El-Muhammady. They were often considered as sources of credible information. Thus, strategic partnership between researcher and media practitioner was vital in countering violent extremism. Strategic partnership bounded to produce “synergistic effect” he added. However, there were many challenges to realize this partnership. Challenges include inaccurate assessment, lack of expertise and specialist.

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ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION

Comment No. 3

There are three things that I want to explain. First, it is important to improve media literacy. Not only for media consumers but also for the journalists themselves. Second, in the future, the news media will become a battlefield in itself. Both the government and terrorists need it. In addition, most of the media in Indonesia are owned by political party leaders. Thus, there is the potential for conflicting interests. Third, the deradicalization of terrorist prisoners is not effective in my opinion. Most of the time these former terrorists become Imam in the prison’s mosque and this actually helps facilitate the spread of their extremist ideology to the other prisoners. Overall, there is a certain lack of comprehensive strategy in countering religious extremism in Indonesia.

Comment No. 4

When we talk about media consumers, we always think of urban and high educated people. We rarely think of rural people who rarely use high technology media. They often use door to door message or get the message from someone they believe. For example, in Southeast Asia, religious leaders still get respect from the society. Thus it is important to find a better media channel that can reach this grass root.

Dr. Rudi Sukandar

There is another channel to inform people other than through high technology media. In Indonesia, the authorities use text message (SMS) which can be effective as many Indonesians have access to a handphone even if it is not connected to the internet.

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Kuala Lumpur, MalaysiaOctober 30, 2015

The Role of Media in Countering Religious Extremism

Talking ASEAN

INTRODUCTION

JAKARTA – On Friday, 30 October 2015, The Habibie Center in collaboration with IMAN Research Consulting held a Talking ASEAN public dialogue entitled, “The Role of media in countering religious extremism” at Pusat Kreatif Kanak-Kanak Tuanku Bainun in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This particular edition of Talking ASEAN featured as resource persons Dr. Rudi Sukandar (Senior Advisor of the National Violence Monitoring System, The Habibie Center, Indonesia), Mr Jahabar Sadiq (Chief Executive Officer and Editor, the Malaysian Insider, Malaysia), Dr. Zahri Yunos (Chief Operating Officer, CyberSecurity Malaysia), and Ms. Adheen Louis (Lecturer in international Relations, Faculty of Humanities Arts and Heritage, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Malaysia) with Ms. Altaf Deviyati (Research Director, IMAN Research Consulting).

The objectives of this Talking ASEAN were to: (a) discuss how religious extremists take advantage of the latest media development, and how to counter it; (b) identify challenges and opportunities in the efforts to counter religious extremism, and promoting interfaith harmony in Southeast Asia; (c) identify the role of media in the effort to counter religious extremism; and (d) produce possible recommendations on the efforts to counter religious extremism in the Southeast Asia.

This discussion report summarizes the key points of each speaker as well as the question and answer session that followed.

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The first to speak at the Talking ASEAN public dialogue was Dr. Rudi Sukandar. There were three main points in his presentation: (a) the use of media rather than the role of media; (b) media in a broader sense; and (c) how Indonesia used it to counter religious.

In order to counter religious extremism or violent extremism, the government was doing constant monitoring of online media sites. Recently, the Indonesian government had tried to shut down websites considered as radical. The request came from BNPT (Indonesian National Counter-Terrorism Agency) with the aim of the shutdown to reduce radical websites.

There were a number of ways to use media to counter religious extremism according to Dr. Rudi Sukandar. First, the government used school books to educate students ranging from elementary school to senior high school. This was to create a peaceful engagement from early stage. Second, by using pop culture through movies production. One of which was “Mata Tertutup” (Closed Eyes). Third, by using pop comic book to approach young people. Fourth, by using websites and fifth, through social media in particular. Dr. Rudi Sukandar pointed out that government agencies sometimes created Twitter accounts to educate people on certain issues, such as terrorism. However, most of the time, government’s social media was not that appealing to people. This was compare to other non-state actors whose Twitter accounts had more followers, such as Ma’arif Institute.

Sixth, by promoting deradicalization efforts for former terrorists. Dr. Rudi Sukandar highlighted one non-governmental organization in Indonesia which had help to find employment for reformed terrorists, such as working in restaurants. Through this way, the NGO helped them to be better off socially and economically, making them less likely to return to terrorist activities. Seventh was providing data for policy making. The National Violence Monitoring System (NVMS), The Habibie Center had compiled violence data from 2012 and in one particular area

in Indonesia there was only a few cases of violence that occurred in every February. On the other hand, the data showed that violent cases seemed to peak every October. Dr. Rudi Sukandar said such patterns should be investigated further to explain the trend.

Dr. Rudi Sukandar ended his presentation by recommending the government and non-state actors to work together in countering religious extremism. Furthermore, there should be media literacy for media consumers.

Dr. Rudi Sukandar

SPEAKERS’ PRESENTATION

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The second resource person to speak was Mr. Jahabar Sadiq. He explained that when we talk about media, we should be mindful that there were many types of media, such as state media, independent media, and news media. He noted that each of them was different and that the role of the news media in particular was to explain what was going on, not to give propaganda or to be used by one side.

He further explained that lately the Muslim society around the world was becoming more religious. He suggested that the increasing religiosity among them was because materialism did not do enough to fulfil them. Unfortunately for some, when they turned to religion they tended to become more extreme. More specifically, Mr Jahabar Sadiq noted that younger people below the age of 25 were often seeking a different identity and meaning in life but often did not find any moderate role models to follow. In addition, it was suggested that the nation-building process in Southeast Asia often neglected younger generations thus making them question their identity and role in society.

Mr. Sadiq Jahabar also mentioned the reasons why people became a terrorist. He suggested that some turned to terrorism because they could not find employment through the usual channels. He argued that it was easier for someone to become a terrorist and fire a weapon as it did not need any particular skill/education whereas it was harder to attain higher education and secure proper employment. To end his presentation, Mr. Sadiq Jahabar stated that the government should support media in telling the truth and that the media should be given the space to show what was right.

Mr. Jahabar Sadiq

SPEAKERS’ PRESENTATION

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Dr. Zahri Yunos was the third person to speak. He started his presentation by explaining that the character of the internet was user-blind and that it served all. He highlighted seven key characteristics of the internet, namely: anonymity, unregulated, borderless in nature, convenient services, less risk, asymmetric force, and open network infrstructure.

He further explained that cyber media had been a media of choice by terrorist and extremists because it was faster to use media. He added that the misuse of social media platforms could easily influence a person’s thinking to embrace terrorism and extremist thinking.

Regarding terrorism, he explained that the general pattern of most terrorists was to move from being relatively moderate to being radical and then to becoming an extremist. After that, they would become terrorists. Dr. Zahri Yunos explained that most of the time, they were recruited through social media, such as Facebook. However, terrorists and extremisis were also using cyber space for publicity and propaganda, fundraising, recruitment and mobilization, social networking, etc.

To counter the IS narrative in cyber space, Dr. Zahri Yunos highlighted the announcement of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak regarding the establishment of a “Digital Counter-Messaging Center” based in Southeast Asia. The proposed cyber violence mitigation framework consisted of three aspects: engagement, intelligence, and advisory.

Dr. Zahri Yunos

SPEAKERS’ PRESENTATION

SPEAKERS’ PRESENTATION

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Ms. Adheen Louis

The last to speak was Ms. Adheen Louis who noted that currently there were two main jihadist proponents: ISIS and Al-Qaeda. However, she noted that Al-Qaeda’s influence had been declining and that ISIS was on the rise. In any case, both terrorist groups promoted their ideology in Southeast Asia through a variety of channels including: includes online website, printed magazine, and even “humanitarian” movement. It was noted that pro-ISIS networks had been established in parts of Southeast Asia including Indonesia’s Lamongan (East Java) and Poso. Ms. Adheen Louis observed that Lamongan was also home for some of the Bali Bombers and that it housed a Pesantren (Islamic religious school) that had taught some members responsible for the Bali Bombing. Meanwhile, Poso was described as a training ground for people who were readying themselves before joining the fight in Iraq or Syria. It was also explained that in addition to ISIS and Al-Qaeda, Southeast Asia was also home to a number of other jihadist outlets such as the MILF in the Philippines.

To counter extremism, Ms. Adheen Louis explained that we could capitalize on the fault line between ideological polarization of the jihadist movements and turn it into a zero-sum game. It was also suggested that the public should be educated about the true meaning of Jihad (religious struggle) which went beyond the concept of militancy. In this sense Ms. Adheen Louis concluded that education was very important

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Q&A SESSION

Comment No. 1

Regarding the idea of countering religious extremism through school books, there should be alternative ways to highlights love and compassion than the current Islamic education.

Adheen Louis

I agree there should be more open dialogue to debating various Islamic texts books.

Jahabar Sadiq

Nobody wants to destroy ISIS because they are fighting Shia Islam. Why would they want to destroy ISIS? How would they gain advantage? These are the questions we need to consider when talking about this issue.

Dr. Zahri Yunos

ISIS can stay anonymous in the internet quite easily. It is not that easy to track people online as people can easily hide their identity. Therefore we need to increase the capability to track this movement on the internet.

Comment No. 2

What is the role of media in countering religious extremism?

Jahabar Sadiq

Media cannot really have a role, as they are limited by the political structure. Media can only report on what is going on. It is up to the religious authorities to clarify religious doctrines, not the media. The role of the media is simple, to tell the truth.

Comment No. 3

Are the media discussing the role of media in countering religious extremism?

Jahabar Sadiq

No. It is because each media has different outlets. We do not have a meeting to discuss the role of media or to set a same perception on how to counter religious extremism through media.

Comment No. 4

Religious extremism is just part of political expression. Is there a correlation between the rise of terrorism and decline of democratic Islamic movement?

Dr. Rudi Sukandar

Looking at the Indonesia’s experience, there are many ways to use media to counter religious extremism such as through pop culture and education. Regarding terrorism in Indonesia, to some extent our freedom have been exploited to allow extremists to rise.

Adheen Louis

In the case of Iraq and other parts of the Middle East, it is actually the case of failing states rather than the introduction of democracy that enables religious extremism to rise.

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Q&A SESSION

Comment No. 5

What is the response of using pop culture to attract youths? How to generate content that is relevant and comparable to the content created by ISIS which is so effective?

Dr. Rudi Sukandar

There are definitely merits in countering extremism by using everyday languages such as through pop culture.

Adheen Louis

There are over 400 social media outlets, explaining the ways and the hows of jihad in Syria and Iraq. This is something that needs to be addressed.

Jahabar Sadiq

Content should always look at the context, and the issues are always related to how the majority treats the minority. At the end of the day the role of parents in education is irreplaceable.

Dr. Zahri Yunos

In Malaysia we have our own program where we work with the industry. I think this experience highlights the importance of having a coordinated and comprehensive program at the national level.

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