January’s ISIS inspired attack in Jakarta raises serious concerns that the ISIS brand might be spreading to the world’s largest Muslim country. Indonesia is the home to more Muslims than the entire Arab Middle East combined and occupies a strategic location alongside the busiest trading routes in the world. Any serious inroads by ISIS in South East Asia would be a significant setback for Western efforts to battle the militant/terrorist group. However, a closer look at the attack in Jakarta shows that the emergence of ISIS in Indonesia, while troubling, is probably more related to Indonesia’s unique circumstances than to anything that ISIS itself has accomplished.
Indonesia is home to over 200 million Sunni Muslims, but it is not a Muslim state. There is no reference to Islam in Indonesia’s constitution, and the country has a long tradition of religious tolerance. It could have gone the other way, however.
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