Whatever the motive and whoever was behind the attack on a Medan church on Sunday, Indonesia could be facing a new security threat in the form of people, particularly youth, who sympathize with the terrorist Islamic State group and are willing to manifest its creed of violence in this country.

Failure to anticipate similar attacks may stretch religious harmony and the state’s commitment to protect religious minorities in this diverse nation to the limit, despite the fact that terrorism knows no religion.

First and foremost, police have to find and capture the people who reportedly ordered the suspect, who will only turn 18 in October, to commit the attack. The police investigation has revealed that the suspect, whom neighbors describe as an introvert, was inspired by the slaughter of a Catholic priest at Rouen Cathedral in northern France last month and was offered 10 million rupiah ($750) by someone to perpetrate the attack.

Those two important findings will not only help to explain the circumstances of the assault in Medan -- a hotspot of sectarian riots in the early 2000s along with Ambon in Maluku and Poso in Central Sulawesi -- but also serve as an impetus to improve counterterrorism policies, especially the much-debated deradicalization program.

As outlined in the documentary movie Jihad Selfie by Indonesian scholar Noor Huda Ismail, the country’s deradicalization program is facing far more uphill challenges than policymakers ever imagined.

The film shows a father who runs an Islamic boarding school in West Java deliberately preparing his small child as well as his followers to go to war in the Middle East with IS. With the IS battlefields now spreading across the globe, there is a risk that IS adherents will wage what they see as a holy war in Indonesia someday.

There is no data about how far radical ideas have become entrenched in the minds of our youth and people in general, but several surveys that revealed a growing level of intolerance in our society should prompt an overhaul of the deradicalization program.

House of Representatives lawmaker and member of the Pancasila caucus Eva Kusuma Sundari has suggested that deradicalization be focused on the fight against hate speech, given indications that, as in the Medan incident, perpetrators are victims of agitation, if not brainwashing.

Arrests, and often killings, of terror suspects alone will not stop acts of terrorism as long as certain people feel free to spread their hatred and slander against others, either directly or indirectly, including through social media.

Thanks to his access to the internet, the Medan teenager reportedly tried to copy the murder of the French priest and assembled explosives that he would detonate in the church.

It goes without saying that amendments to the Terrorism Law will address the role of social media as an effective tool to broaden IS’ network and teachings and spread hate speech to justify attacks. That really poses a challenge as it will affect freedom of speech.

Editorial
The Jakarta Post (Indonesia)

(The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network)