MANILA, Philippines
- The Islamic State (IS), formerly known as ISIS or the Islamic State in Syria
and Iraq or ISIS, is expanding its recruitment on social media in the
Philippines.
On July 23,
a video of senior Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon along with masked men was
posted on YouTube. Hapilon carries a reward of up to $5 million from the US Rewards for Justice Program. He was indicted in the
District of Columbia for “terrorist acts against United States nationals and
other foreign nationals.” The FBI says he was “the deputy or second in command
for the foreign terrorist organization, the Abu Sayyaf.”
The
propaganda video begins with still photos establishing the notoriety of
Hapilon: his encircled photo on posters of most wanted terrorists from the
United States, which include al-Qaeda’s leaders. Al-Qaeda’s symbolic black
flag, which is being used by extremist groups in more than 20 countries around
the world (including the foreign fighters of ISIS), peppers the opening
montage.
In the video
clip that lasts a little more than 6 minutes, Hapilon, wearing a black gown,
links arms with men, most of whom hide their faces. Using a combination of his
native dialect, Yakan, and Arabic, Hapilon and his men swear allegiance or
“bay’ah,” an oath, to IS and its head, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
“We pledge
bay’ah to Caliph Sheikh Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Ibrahim Awwad Al-Qurashi
Al-Husseini for loyalty and obedience in adversity and comfort,” says Hapilon,
reading from a sheet of paper. The men, ostensibly members of the Abu Sayyaf,
linking arms with him in the video recite the oath after him.
“We pledge
to obey him on anything which our hearts desire or not and to value him more
than anyone else,” Hapilon leads the men. “We will not take any emir other than him unless
we see in him any obvious act of disbelief that could be questioned by Allah in
the hereafter.”
Philippine
officials as well as a former member of the Abu Sayyaf verify the identity of
Hapilon.
This is not
the first time Filipinos have joined and recruited for IS or ISIS.
The first
known instance of Filipino support on social media for ISIS was posted on July
2. It shows Filipinos in prison, many of whom are members or former members of
the Abu Sayyaf, gathering around a black flag and swearing allegiance to ISIS.
Three days
later, a second video was posted on Facebook. Claiming to be members of Abu
Sayyaf, about a dozen masked men speaking in Arabic said: "Our brothers in
Faith, we are your brothers from Ummah Fi'e Sabilillah, the official media of
al Harakatul al-Islamiyah [the official name of Abu Sayyaf]. We would like to
inform everybody that we sincerely support our mujahideen brothers of ISIS. We
are willing to extend to them our right hand when their left hand is
lost."
To Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi, they said, "'You are to us a replacement of our mother and
father.' Our aim is to join you to claim Iraq and As-Sham and to share the
Caliphate by the will of Allah." That video was
taken down before Filipino authorities could get a copy.
A third video is being investigated by authorities in
Southeast Asia. In a mix of languages including Arabic, Bahasa Indonesia and
Filipino, the masked men claim to be throwing Filipino support behind ISIS, but
at least one investigator says the men could be Indonesians pretending to be
Filipinos. The video was uploaded from Indonesia.
Recruiting
Indonesians
A day before
the video of Isnilon Hapilon was posted, the Islamic State posted an 8-minute
video targeting to recruit Indonesians.
The video
declares the “good news” that “the Islamic State implements the Sharia of Allah
in the entire land” and concludes with a call to pledge allegiance to Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi, aka Caliph Ibrahim.
This is not
the first call for recruits from Indonesia, which has the world’s largest
Muslim population and a once active terrorist network that carried out
Southeast Asia’s 9/11 and succeeding annual attacks until 2005. (READ: Indonesia’s evolving terror networks)
In July,
jailed Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba’asyir, the emir
of Jemaah Islamiyah, once al-Qaeda’s arm in Southeast Asia, and
founder of its “reincarnation” Jemaah Ansharut Tauhid, called on his supporters
to join ISIS. (READ: Support ISIS, jailed Indonesian terror leader tells followers)
On June 9,
the day ISIS began its march to capture Baghdad, a video of Indonesian men in
Syria was posted on YouTube. Speaking in Bahasa Indonesia with snippets of
Arabic, they urged Indonesians to join ISIS: “Let us fight in the path of Allah
because it is our duty to do jihad in the path of Allah.” (READ: Southeast Asian recruits join jihadist ISIS)
Officials in
the region say at least 60 Indonesians, 30 Malaysians, 2 Singaporeans and 1
Filipino have fought or are fighting with ISIS. Analysts say more than 12,000
Muslim extremists travelled to fight in Syria and Iraq in 3 years, more than
the 10,000 who fought in Afghanistan in the late 80's, the conflict that gave
birth to al-Qaeda.
Authorities
fear, like Afghanistan, fighters will bring the radical ideology and terror
tactics home. It's certainly brought a global diaspora of extremists together.
Take Melbourne-born Musa Cerantonio, an ISIS cheerleader who effectively
recruited militants to the ideology through social media.
He was arrested and deported by Philippine
authorities after he tweeted that he had joined the fight in Syria and exhorted
other Muslims to do the same. Australia, sources say, wanted to expose his lie.
Regardless
of that, says Ansyaad Mbai, the head of Indonesia's National Counter-Terrorism
Agency, known by its Indonesian acronym, BNPT, social media is potent and,
using the "Caliphate" of ISIS, could rejuvenate Southeast Asia's
terror networks.
“The names
don’t matter, and they can change,” Mbai told me. “When they say they want an
Islamic Caliphate, they are part of the same group with the same ideology.”
That
ideology is spreading fast on social media, which Mbai called “the new machine
to recruit militants.” -
Rappler.com