Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Jemaah Islamiah!

I recently came across this article which announces that the Indonesian government has endorsed a court decision to outlaw JI. One thing I found interesting with this article is that it mentions that JI was not previously outlawed because the government did not recognize it as an official organization. I think that this parallels our discussion about terrorism and "war." Personally, I don't think that the ban will have any substantive effect on the JI network, and that the ruling won't be enforced or binding. Does this move simply give JI more legitimacy and power? Singapore-based terrorism expert Rohan Gunaratna, who we read the other week, called the verdict "a huge victory against terrorist," but it is hard for me to see how this will affect JI.

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