Noor Huda Ismail

Noor Huda Ismail is the founder of the Institute for International Peace Building in Indonesia and is a PhD candidate in Politics and International Relations at Monash University.

This individual is a guest contributor for mei.edu, and is not affiliated with The Middle East Institute.

Publications

Jan 27, 2015

Julie Chernov Hwang and Noor Huda Ismail

There and Back Again: Indonesian Fighters in Syria

Jan 27, 2015

Julie Chernov Hwang and Noor Huda Ismail

In July of 2014, I met with a former member of Tanah Runtuh, Jemaah Islamiyah’s onetime affiliate in Poso, Central Sulawesi. As he was newly released from prison, I wanted to inquire as to his future plans. Would he go to the hills and fight with Mujahidin Indonesia Timor (MIT)? Would he follow in the footsteps of many of his former comrades and become a contractor? When he walked into the room, I was surprised to see that he sported an Islamic State (ISIS) t-shirt. “Do you want to join ISIS?” I asked. “If I can raise the money,” he answered. A week later, I met with a former affiliate of Noordin M. Top who was running several small businesses in Solo, Central Java. I had interviewed him in 2012 when he was due to open the Solo branch of Dapur Bistek, a restaurant-cum-job training program for former fighters run by the Institute for International Peace Building. With his son next to him eating ice cream, he told me that he hoped to fight with Jabhat al-Nusra (the Nusra Front); he simply needed to raise the money. Whether or not these two individuals ever make it to Syria, their responses raise important questions.

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Noor Huda Ismail

There and Back Again: Indonesian Fighters in Syria