Their differences were highlighted in two capitals over the last fortnight; in Jakarta where the last of the Bali Bombers has gone on trial, and in Bangkok where a trail of tragic errors had unwittingly led Thai police to an alleged Iranian plot to assassinate Israeli diplomats on Thai territory.

Speculation has firmed that the motive behind the botched plot – dubbed the Valentine’s Day Bombings – is linked to Israel’s well-publicized alleged assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists.

Two people have been held in Bangkok in connection with the Bangkok blasts, a third is expected to be extradited from Malaysia and a fourth, a woman who rented the house, is believed to be in Tehran and is also wanted. Two more – one spotted leaving the house shortly before the blast – are also wanted.

All are linked to Hezbollah, the Lebanese-based Shiite paramilitary group whose benefactors include Iran and Syria, and are largely regarded as a terrorist outfit by the West.

Israel was quick to blame Iran for targeting its diplomatic staff in Thailand, as well as India and Georgia, after a series of bombs was detonated in the three countries over a 24 hour period.

The Bangkok plot was initially uncovered after a bomb was mistakenly detonated – blowing up part of the roof of a house the bombers had rented. According to some accounts, the pair fled, one attempting to hail a taxi that refused to stop. A grenade was tossed amid terrified onlookers.They fled and were eventually cornered by police. A bag of grenades was thrown, but it missed and bounced off a tree, exploded and blew the leg off one of the bombers. In all, five people, including the Iranian, were injured in three explosions.

Their fate was dictated solely because Thailand remains an open country and prides itself on ease of access for foreigners of all backgrounds – the Iranians simply found this an easy place to operate.

That style of planning contrasts sharply with the ideology and methods deployed by the likes of JI acolyte Omar Patek, who appeared before a Jakarta court amid claims he was a key strategist behind the Bali Bombings of 2002 that left more than 200 dead, and a string of church bombings in Indonesia on Christmas Eve nearly two years earlier.

However, Patek can’t be charged under terrorism laws introduced in 2003 because they aren’t retrospective. Instead, he has been charged with harboring terrorists and possessing ammunition for the purposes of launching a training camp in Aceh in 2010.

He has also been charged in connection with the church bombings in Jakarta, but his lawyers are arguing Patek isn’t the strategic mastermind behind JI that the prosecution alleges.

A verdict isn’t expected until June.

International counter-terrorism strategies have largely succeeded in taking out established terrorist leaders like Patek, particularly in Southeast Asia, Jakarta-based Keith Loveard, a regional security analyst with Concord Consulting, says.

He says this created a leadership vacuum. On the Thai bombings, he adds: “Those that learn from the experience of attacks like these ones, and remain free, will most likely develop a following and over time establish the capacity to make larger and more efficient attacks.''

The Iranian profile in Southeast Asia has risen significantly in recent years, and the country remains an international pariah due to its nuclear program, which Israel and the West claim, amid an abundance of evidence, is for military purposes.

Sanction busting companies like the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Line (IRISL) have ignored maritime authorities by plying the waterways, while Iranians have also been linked to gun-running out of North Korea. Indeed, they have emerged as significant players in a booming regional drug trade, in particular methamphetamines.

“The Iranians are also big into the drug smuggling scene in the region now…and there’s a huge influx of Iranians coming into the region now doing illegal activities,” says John Boyd, Chief Executive Officer for regional security group Independent Protective Services.

The bungled Bangkok bombing, which sounds almost as if it deserves comparisons with the incompetent Keystone Cops of the silent film era or Inspector Jacques Clouseau of the Pink Panther films, will only increase Iran’s isolation despite denials and protests from Tehran.

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It’s also a favorite stop over for pirates, smugglers, mercenaries, illegal workers and the Darul Islam movement, whose roots can be traced back to Indonesia’s independence almost 65 years ago. Since then, Darul Islam has spawned a litany of Muslim militant groups like Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).

Most who pass through continue on, but some stay to stock-up on supplies, reload and plan for another day as authorities found out when 13 suspected terrorists were arrested in Tawau last month under the Internal Security Act.

Among them were seven Malaysians, five Indonesians and a Filipino, all of whom were initially labeled as suspected members of JI and alleged to be gathering weapons and bomb making material from The Philippines to be used against the Singaporean Embassy in Jakarta.

“The arrests…raise fresh concerns over the threat of a terrorist attack utilizing small arms and targeting foreigners,” says Todd Elliott, a security analyst with Jakarta-based Concord Consulting.

He also says that according to his sources, it was likely not the first time the Umar group had attempted to smuggle firearms into Indonesia from the southern Philippines, allegedly with the assistance of corrupt Philippines police officers and Umar’s son, who is said to be a member of the Abu Sayyaf Group. Other plans included a plot to kidnap a police officer to exchange for other militants under detention and to “start activities that would be harmful to the country.”

The arrests and pending prosecutions have landed the authorities in an unwanted political mess.Local journalists and analysts have been warned not to speculate, and religious parties like PAS have been urged not politicize the arrests. Rights groups, meanwhile, are disturbed the police used the ISA to make the arrests after Prime Minister Najib Razak announced he would repeal the widely loathed law.

The Sabah branch of the Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) reacted strongly, saying all 13 were members or supporters and called on police to either release or charge them.Under the ISA, police can detain indefinitely without reason.

PAS was rebuked for admitting foreigners to a Malaysian political party with Chai Kim Sen, Youth Secretary General of the Chinese dominated MCA, saying it “should be left to the police to decide whether the persons arrested are missionaries or terrorists.”

“The security of our country is at stake here…PAS and its allies in Pakatan Rakyat should not politicize the issue further by making up lies and distorting the truth,” he added, referring to opposition groups.

The Abolish ISA Movement and human rights group Suaram then took aim, condemning police and the government for using the ISA, which they said was regrettable and contradicted Razak’s pending abolition of a law introduced by his party after Malaysia gained independence in 1957.

“What is the rationale behind the detention? Is the prime minister trying to fool the people of Malaysia with his hypocritical attitude? The PM should be ashamed of this arrest,” they said in a joint statement.

JI is largely defunct, splinter groups have emerged to replace it and they have been prominent in Indonesia, where attacks have focused on small local targets like isolated police stations and even a mosque. The 13 were arrested as they swore allegiance to Kaltim, also known as the Abu Umar group.

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The MILF fired the latest salvo, which was designed to shut down rogue Commander Ustadz Ameril Umbra Kato, who has arrest warrants issued against him for murder and arson but who has been protected by the ceasefire agreement struck between Manila and the MILF leadership.

Kato has opposed peace talks aimed at ending the long-running conflict, and established the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement (BIFM). However, the MILF responded, determining that Kato ‘is no longer with us’ – effectively removing his immunity against prosecution.

Fears of an escalation in violence are genuine.

Lt. Gen. Arthur Tabaquero, chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ Eastern Mindanao Command, has also noted the ceasefire allows the military and the MILF to conduct joint actions against criminals and terrorists under the Ad-Hoc Joint Action Group. He says a manhunt will be launched once Kato, former head of the MILF 105th Base Command, officially renounces the MILF.

This was expected, given his defiance of the MILF Central Committee, the formation of the BIFM earlier this year, its attacks on troops and former comrades, and the passing of a September 26 deadline imposed by the MILF that allowed him time to cool down and return to the fold.

Authorities are also contending with militants who have regrouped under another banner called Awliyah, led by a commander identified as Hatib Zacaria. Zacaria led an attack on government troops guarding a school construction site that is being funded by the United States.

Under his command, about 50 gunmen attacked two marine detachments in the hills around Talipao in the southern Philippines in late September, but were repulsed after two hours of fierce fighting. Thirteen gunmen, two marines and at least one villager were killed. Six other military personnel were wounded before the gunmen withdrew into the forest.

Rumours are already being spread about the Awliyah, whose followers claim Zacaria and his henchmen have supernatural powers. Awliyah simply means ‘leader.’ The authorities, for their part, claim the Awliyah is largely made up of hard-line elements from the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), as opposed to the MILF, and is associated with the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf, which has been leaderless for more than a year but continues to battle troops between routine acts of banditry, kidnappings and extortion.

Hardly comforting was last weekend’s crash of a Philippine Air Force UH-1H helicopter, which killed three crew members while transporting supplies to Sulu, where troops were battling Abu Sayyaf militants.

Awliyah associates include rogue members of the MNLF under Jawalibal Ujod and Khabier Malik, another renegade MNLF leader. The attack was launched about 2.5 kilometres from Malik’s base; he is facing criminal charges after his group captured a government peace mission in February 2007.

Their rise also comes as Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the terrorist outfit that enjoyed a close association with al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, was effectively obliterated by forces as far flung as Indonesia and Pakistan after a decade-long counter terrorism operation was launched following the September 11 strikes on New York and Washington. Still, JI’s demise has created a vacuum in the southern Philippines, which the BIFM and Awliyah seem intent on filling.

More broadly, dissent within the rebel Mindanao ranks isn’t without precedent. The MILF was formed in 1977 as a hard-line splinter of the MNLF, which it split from in 1981 after peace initiatives failed to win over the hardliners. Ironically, 30 years ago, it was the MILF that was seen as the extreme element. Today, though, it’s considered the moderate negotiator and potential ally for the military in hunting down recalcitrant rebels.

‘The military held its punches against Kato’s group because of the ceasefire mechanism,’ Brig. Gen. Ariel Benardo, head of the government’s ceasefire panel says. He added the priority was not to jeopardize the truce and that any action would be coordinated with the MILF.

Kato initially gained international prominence in 2008, when a court in Manila overruled a peace deal struck between the MILF and the government of then-President Gloria Arroyo that gave the rebels an ancestral domain in central Mindanao. That legal decision resulted in widespread attacks across the south, leaving 300 people dead and 600,000 people homeless. Four decades of civil war have killed 120,000 people, displaced another two million and ensured the resource rich Muslim south remains the poorest of the poor in the Philippines.

The MNLF signed a peace accord with the government in 1996 after it dropped its secessionist bid. It settled for limited Muslim autonomy in the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines, but many Moro rebels didn’t lay down their arms. They claim the Philippine government reneged on its promises.

The government insists it’s attempting to address those issues. At the same time, the latest talks with the MILF have stalled since August, with the MILF again demanding that the creation of a sub-state be placed firmly on the political agenda.

But it is the latest ructions within the MILF and MNLF, not disputes at the negotiating table, that have signalled a significant shift in the politics of Mindanao, while providing Manila with its greatest obstacle since Benigno Aquino was swept into office more than a year ago amid promises of peace in the country’s south.

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Most of the focus is on Mindanao, where the Philippines military has drawn up a list five foreigners who had established links to bin Laden, and who are believed to be currently hiding out in the country’s south.

Most wanted is the Malaysian-born, US-trained engineer Zulkifli bin Hir, aka Marwan, who has made it his business to train aspiring members of the Abu Sayyaf Group in bomb making.

Commander of the Philippine Navy, Vice Adm. Alexander Pama, says bin Hir had lived in Tipo-tipo in Basilan, working with Abu Sayyaf leader Khair Mundos before moving to Sulu, adding the Armed Forces of the Philippines had intensified its intelligence operations in a bid to locate ‘these terrorists.’

Bin Hir fought alongside bin Laden in Afghanistan, and is on the FBI’s list of most wanted terrorists for his activities in Indonesia and the Philippines and was head of Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia (KMM) as well as a member of Jemaah Islamiyah's (JI) central command.

Parma also named a Singaporean known as Mauwiyah as significant. Authorities believe Mauwiyah, a seaweed farmer, is hiding in Sulu along with two Indonesians, Saad and Qayyim, and a Malaysian suspect Amin Baco.

The five are the most prominent remains of al-Qaeda’s heyday, when they could count on JI to go on the rampage with some support from Abu Sayyaf. JI was responsible for many of the region’s worst attacks and much of the carnage over the past 12years, including the 2002 Bali bombings, which left 202 dead. But the group seems all but extinct now, with its co-founding cleric and last standing senior figure Abu Bakar Bashir now before the Indonesian courts, where he claims the United States, along with liberal Muslims, are trying to frame him.

The 72 year-old is accused of funding Jemaah Ansharut Tauhid (JAT), which was born lout of JI. JAT was dubbed ‘al-Qaeda in Aceh,’ and was allegedly plotting attacks and the assassination of senior politicians in Indonesia. Prosecutors have demanded the maximum life sentence for Bashir.

Since bin Laden’s death at the hands of US special forces last month, counter terrorism experts, military analysts, politicians and commentators have gone into overdrive warning that the Saudi militant could still pose a threat, perhaps more so in death than in life, as a symbolic figure for wannabe jihadists.

In Africa, this argument certainly has some merit. Somalia and Yemen provided a fertile breeding ground for like-minded affiliates that established strong relations with al-Qaeda. Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, where the presence of US-led troops serve as a magnet for bin Laden acolytes, also figure prominently. In Southeast Asia, however, not everyone is so sure, and some analysts are sceptical about claims that bin Laden remains a threat from beyond the grave.

Pivotal to this argument is Mindanao, says Jakarta-based security analyst Keith Loveard of Concord Consulting. ‘You have to ask how relevant the Mindanao factions are to the global jihad process, given the extreme pressure they are under from the Philippines military and the US advisers,’ he says. ‘There’s a sense that they are so tied down in their local area that it’s very difficult for them to operate beyond the southern Philippines, with even attacks in Manila now rare. That doesn't mean jihad will go away as a threat, but it can be contained.’

Gavin Greenwood, a regional security analyst with Hong Kong-based Allan & Associates, says alleged links between bin Laden through JI and Abu Sayyaf were anyway always minimal ‘at best.’

‘Rather, they have served on both sides as a useful narrative to bolster JI's credibility while also internationalising local insurgent groups as a means to dispense resources and gain assets (from the United States and Australia) for the Armed Forces of the Philippines,’ Greenwood says. ‘Abu Sayyaf has always been intensely local and restricted to a small number of interconnected clans and families, carrying on and updating traditional piracy activities.’

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In Southeast Asia, Bin Laden’s presence was felt and feared as much as anywhere else. His ties with Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) shouldn’t be underestimated, nor should the slaughter that accompanied that terrorist outfit. Together, bin Laden and JI have been rightly pilloried for bastardizing their own faith and using it as an excuse to murder and maim innocent civilians.

JI with Abu Bakar Bashir and Abdullah Sungkar at the helm bowed to bin Laden as they preached an Islamic Caliphate for Southeast Asia, which they divided into four groups, or mantikis.

Mantiki One covered Peninsula Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand, extending to Cambodia and southern Vietnam. Mantiki Two represented most of Indonesia, Mantiki Three incorporated the southern Philippines, Borneo,and eastern Indonesia, and Mantiki Four—although never fully developed—was responsible for the Indonesian state of Papua, Papua New Guinea, and Australia.

At an operational level, each mantiki leader would eventually report to Hambali, whose biggest boast was claiming 202 lives on Bali in the 2002 bombing of the island. Hundreds of deaths through terrorist strikes on embassies, hotels, resorts, and churches, have been documented, but the real number is much higher because of the bloody insurgencies in places like Poso and Maluku that JI initiated in the 1990s—with support from al-Qaeda and bin Laden.

In fact, the relationship went back much further.

Sungkar and Bashir fled Indonesia in 1985 after pushing their Islamic agenda and running afoul of the authorities, shifting their operations to Kuala Pilah in Malaysia, where the Islamic congregation was led by a puritanical Wahabi preacher. From here, an initial group of 12 young men was assembled for jihad in Afghanistan and the fight against occupation by the Soviet Union.

It was here that the initial relationship with bin Laden began. Hambali arrived in early 1987 and, along with Aris Sumarsono or Zulkarnaen, served as reinforcements during a battle at Jaji, when bin Laden led an Arab brigade against the Soviets. It was bin Laden’s first time in battle.

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Real victories have often been elusive in the so-called War on Terror since it was launched in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks.From the Taliban battlefields of Afghanistan to al-Qaeda in Iraq toJemaah Islamiyah (JI) in the Southern Philippines and Indonesia, the results have been mixed at best.

But in unlikely corners of the globe, smaller fights have been fought and are actually being won. Among them is Cambodia, a country whose recent political history had placed it on the least likely list of jihad producing nations.

‘It’s good, the situation, we understand now,’ says bin Idris, who has played a key role in improving relations between the Cambodian government and Western countries that not that long ago had grown deeply suspicious about the arrival of orthodox Wahhabism and Dawa Tabligh into local Muslim Cham communities.

Flanked by senior members of his congregation, he chooses his words carefully. ‘We work closely with the authorities to protect our community from bad influences,’he says.

Western intelligence sources say that at one point Cambodia was an arsenal for sale. Tamil Tigers—and indeed most other would-be regional rebels—would dine at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club before deciding on their weapons of choice.

The lawless thrived on impunity, and amid all this lived a significant Muslim population that had been targeted for proselytizing by Middle East Wahhabis whose code was the virtual antithesis of the moderate, maternal brand of Islam that was traditionally practiced by Cambodia’s Cham.

Bin Idris lets out an audible sigh when recounting those days, as the country struggled to recover after decades of war and insurgency. Cham communities were building separate mosques and fighting among themselves. Outsiders were feared. Mothers effectively accused Saudi missionaries of stealing fatherless children to be reared by Madrassas in the Middle East.

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The September 11 strikes in 2001 against New York and Washington DC justifiably elevated the issue to a realm it had rarely enjoyed before, including in South-east Asia, which has been home to a number of well-structured and well-funded terrorist outfits.

But the global financial crisis and the rise of China have gradually put economics back on top of the list of international concerns and interests, much as the subject was in the heady days of the dot.com boom in the years before 9/11.

In a sense, counterterrorism has been a victim of its own success, with results in the field in recent years – and particularly over the past 12 months – cutting regional leaders some political slack. This has allowed them to turn their attentions to other issues, such as the economy, trade, people smuggling and human trafficking (and more traditional cross-border spats like the Spratly Islands).

Of course, nobody really believes the likes of al-Qaeda, the remnants of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) or the more radical splinter group Jama'ah Anshorut Tauhid (JAT) have packed up their bags for a life of obscure retirement in the Southern Philippines.

Indeed, the Christmas attacks in Pakistan, where a burqa-clad suicide bomber killed 44 people, and on the island of Jolo in the Southern Philippines, where a bomb exploded near the altar of a local chapel during Christmas mass, injuring nine people, were an uncomfortable reminder of terrorism’s continuing shadow.

In addition, the British and Australian embassies in Jakarta have warned tourists in Indonesia that there’s a high risk of attacks over the holiday period, while in England, nine men have been charged with conspiracy to bomb high-profile London targets in the run-up to Christmas, including the London Stock Exchange.

The festive season, it’s clear, is sadly often a magnet for the worst of intentions.

Still, 2010 was a year the authorities across South-east Asia brooked little nonsense with Muslim hardliners. Indonesia and its counterterrorism unit, Detachment 88, led the crackdown on Islamic terrorists, taking on the lion’s share of the work in an increasingly thankless job.

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The unit’s biggest break came in Aceh earlier this year after militants started trying to cobble together what became known in some quarters as the ‘Coalition of the Leftovers’ on the home ground of Acehnese separatists at the north-eastern tip of Sumatra.

Jihad remnants of the splintered Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and an assortment of other outfits had gathered at a paramilitary training camp in the mountains of Aceh determined to re-group.Among their plans was an attack on the Presidential Palace and state guests who would be gathered there for the Independence Day ceremonies in August.

But the police were tipped off and raided the base on February 22;three officers and one terrorist were killed during the raid. Despite the inauspicious start to the operation, the balance has shifted, with another 13 alleged terrorists killed by police and more than 60 arrested.

Among the dead was Dulmutin, by far the most prominent member of JI, who was also wanted in connection with the 2002 Bali bombings and who carried a $10 million reward on his head.However, Dulmutin’s favoured cohort, Omar Patek, is still at large and was recently sighted on the island province of Tawi Tawi in the Southern Philippines. He’s now probably the region’s most wanted terrorist.

But it looks like a potentially bigger prize hasn’t eluded the authorities— radical cleric Abu Bakar Bashir. The police believe Bashir is a key player in the organizational structure of terror cells as opposed to being the simple preacher he has always claimed to be. He’s now in front of the courts again after being arrested in August on charges relating to the Aceh paramilitary camp.

Bashir insists the Bali bombing eight years ago that left more than 200 dead was the result of an offshore missile fired by the CIA. The September 11, 2001, strikes by al-Qaeda, a JI affiliate, were part of an Israeli conspiracy to make Muslims look bad, he says.  

He also insists that he has never been a terrorist because he has never killed anyone and that JI— where he sat as spiritual head—never even existed.However, some of those close to him have suggested otherwise, arguing the 72-year-old Javanese cleric has a two-pronged strategy that advocates terrorism in private while promoting conspiracy theories in public.

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Of course this is nonsense—in old-fashioned military parlance, a terrorist is simply someone who strikes at soft targets in a way designed to terrify a civilian population as a means of trying to shape the agenda. Buses and trains, airplanes, crowded bars and tourist destinations are always popular for this type of warfare—it’s simply one bloody means for obtaining an end and can be deployed equally by governments, militaries, separatists and insurgents of all types, including religious fundamentalists.

But because of the political interference that too often accompanies the handiwork of terrorists, there’s no international legal agreement or criminal law that properly defines terrorism, which is ultimately the cheapest, easiest and most common strategic tactic employed and enjoyed by bullies the world over.

This is why the declaration of a ‘war on terror’ by former US President George W. Bush seemed such a silly response to the tragic events that unfolded on September 11. Instead of declaring war on the combatants—al-Qaeda and their Islamic militant affiliates—he took much of the Western world into battle against a type of warfare. This is akin to the Kennedy administration declaring war against guerrilla tactics deployed by the communists rather than the Viet Cong itself during the Vietnam War, or a declaration of war by Franklin Roosevelt on sneak attacks rather than the Japanese in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor.

Such distinctions are too often lost in the carnage, but the reality is that a ‘war on terror’ makes no more sense now than it did then, when it allowed members of the Bush administration to carry on their Middle East business dealings with unsavoury middlemen whose connections with al-Qaeda—whether direct or indirect—have been well documented.

Unfortunately, the precedent of muddying definitions of this sort for political benefit that was set by the Bush administration didn’t end with the Bush presidency. Indeed it’s a precedent that now appears to be being followed with some gusto in South-east Asia.

Recent investigations into a bus bombing that left 10 dead in the Southern Philippines—widely regarded as the ‘second front’ in counterterrorism efforts—have given political opportunists in the Philippines the chance to latch on to a terrorist incident for their own gain.

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However, although in disarray, al-Qaeda and the Taliban are far from destroyed—a fact that raises troubling questions about Afghanistan’s ability to meet its objectives. And if Pakistan is, as some have charged, continuing its dalliances with terrorist groups, Jihadism will continue to pose a clear and grave danger not just to South Asia, but to the rest of the world.

For regional neighbour India, the risk of terrorism comes from a peculiar concoction of politico-religious Islamic radicalism riding on the back of an already powerful crime syndicate. D-Company is led by one of the world’s most-wanted men, Dawood Ibrahim, who is now believed to be safely nestled in Pakistan (although Pakistan denies any knowledge of him).

India may not yet face a direct threat from al-Qaeda, but it is still forced to contend with Lashkar-e-Taiba( Army of the Righteous) and its syndicates, which currently operate in India. Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has been accused of backing the group as a way of targeting Kashmir and particularly India. But many experts, including in the United States, now feel that even if there were a resolution to the Kashmir dispute, it would no longer satisfy the group’s aspirations. Indeed, with operations in an estimated 21 countries, Lashkar-e-Taiba is bound to look for a larger role in efforts to create a Pan-Islamic world order.

With Muslims comprising more than 13 percent of the country’s population, the government in India (at the central and state levels) can ill-afford action that’s seen as alienating this politically important sector. Communalism is still a volatile issue, with the potential to drive the country toward carnage. But it’s the spectre of such carnage that has meant that all counter-terrorism efforts in India tend to get stuck in a quagmire, with policymakers caught between accusations of appeasement on the one hand, and fear of estranging the country’s Muslim populace on the other.

The terrorist threat in Southeast Asia, meanwhile, is quite different. Here, al-Qaeda has been the mentor, including to outfits such as Jemaah Islamiyah (Islamic Society), another force that has a presence beyond the borders of the country it is most associated with. JI was created and launched in an effort to create an Islamic community or brotherhood, with the ultimate aim of creating an Islamic caliphate of Southeast Asian countries.

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