Darul Islam Sabah

Sabah’s Darul Islam is an underground militant network, which cooperated with Indonesian militants. Darul Islam Sabah’s objective is to establish a regional Islamic state comprising Indonesia, Malaysia and southern Philippines through militant activities.

The role of Darul Islam Sabah was to help Indonesian militants transit to the southern Philippines, smuggle weapons from the southern Philippines to Indonesia and obtain military training in the southern Philippines.

Darul Islam helped seven Indonesian militant suspects - including Umar Patek and Dul Matin, who were believed to be involved in the 2002 bombings on Indonesia’s Bali Island - slip between the southern Philippines and Indonesia between 2003 and March 2006.

Meanwhile Antara reports that one of the Indonesian militants arrested in Malaysia was trained by Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda movement in Afghanistan.

The Indonesian man was trained to handle arms and make bombs and is believed to have conducted similar training for other members of the extremist group in Indonesia and the southern Philippines. Intelligence sources were quoted as saying that the man was a major influence on the other members of Darul Islam.

Darul Islam was an Islamic group in Indonesia that is considered to be more closely related to extremists than to Jemaah Islamiyah. It was started in 1942 by a group of Muslim militias, coordinated by a charismatic radical Muslim politician, Kartosuwiryo.

The group recognized no legislation but the Shari'a. Rebellious movements in provinces such as Aceh and South Sulawesi joined the Darul Islam Movement. The movement was an alternative government to the Republic until 1962, when the leaders were captured or killed.

However, despite the group being dismantled, underground networks may have persisted. In the 1970s and 1980s, there were occurrences of 'Islamic' terrorism attributed to a group known as Komando Jihad. The leaders arrested from this group were found to be Darul Islam veterans.

Contrary with public opinion about Darul Islam, former participants say that all terrorist acts were committed by the Republic of Indonesia. They claim that Darul Islam would have made their responsibility clear if they were to have attacked Republic of Indonesia territory. Darul Islam participants feel that they have right to claim the territory that was colonized by the Republic of Indonesia. According to an inside opinion, komando jihad, known as qiyadatul jihad, is a product of Republic of Indonesia itself.