By: I Nurdin, Post Graduated Student of STIMA IMMI Jakarta

The suicidal bombing is back occurring again in Medan, North Sumatera. Now, it targets a house of worship in the city. Despite of the failure of the attack, still it becomes a very shabby precedent of law enforcement on terrorism in Indonesia. In addition, it also indicates how these radical groups are able to brainwash the young generation of Indonesia so as it requires an early vigilance of the society, starting from the family.

Jihad is one of the principles in Islamic teaching. However, many of them who have a hidden agenda have misinterpreted and misunderstood the definition of Islam in term of fighting against Islam, or even aggravating the Islam’s image in the world.

According to Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI – Indonesian Dictionary), jihad is an attempt by all means to achieve goodness; a genuine attempt to defend the religion of Islam at the expense of property, soul, and body; holy war against unbelievers to defend Islam. Great jihad/great war is a war against lust (evil); jihad fi sabilillah / jihad in the path of Allah, (for the advancement of Islam or to defend the truth); Jihad is fighting (in Allah's way); struggle.

The word of jihad derives from Arabic: jahd, that initially means difficulty/hardship or juhud, that refers to the ability. Both meanings implies that the real jihad is not easy as it can bring various difficulties and hardship to the mujahid. The Mujahid is not allowed to stop before the it’s all over or the ideals are met. That is why in the struggle for independence, the mujahid / fighters of our nation shouted, "Freedom or death."

Muhammad Ad-Dawoody (2016) divides jihad into two categories, namely jihad difa’i (defensive) and jihad thalabi (offensive). The defensive jihad means it is conducted through preserving good tradition and working effectively for the goodness of family, society, and nation. While jihad thalabi is a jihad to offend by taking other party as an object or opponent to be attacked in which this kind of jihad is not allowed in Islam.

Jihad in Islam basically means to defend, not to attack and confirm the existence. The IS group and its networks in Indonesia prevailing jihad thalabi (offensive) obviously indicates that they do not comprehend Islamic teaching very well. Hence, it’s clear that IS is erected to disrupt or discredit the image of Islam in the world.

Jihad is not always carrying out war physically in a battlefield, but it can also be done through the struggle within oneself to enforce Islamic Shari'a; struggle against others, either orally, in writing or action; jihad in a form of battle is carried out when Muslims are attacked (due to religion) in advance and ousted from where they belong. Other sign showing that jihad is not aimed to murder or carry out violence is that prophet Muhammad SAW in every battle always offer the enemy with three alternatives, namely convert to Islam, stay with their belief but promise to be a good citizen and pay jizyah (tax in exchange for defense against them as well as their use of public facilities), be combated if they reject both the offers.

Based on the above understanding, it is contradictory if jihad is identified with suicide bombings because it is a form of despair. Any religion, including Islam never teaches a suicide bombing, causing the flow of misguided and misleading understanding. Suicide is an action taken by someone to end his life, with the hope that everything which happen to him would end following his death. Many things can encourage a desperate person to commit suicide, and the most frequent cause of suicide is due to despair in facing various problems, such as economy, household, and other issues.

Logically, if a suicide bombing is justified in a particular religion, why the religious leaders never provide examples in the first place before the "brainwashed" perpetrators commit the suicide bombing. In a seminar of National and State Defense in the district of Lamongan, East Java, August 29, 2016, Ali Imron (Convicted Terrorist) said that the number of suicide bombers keeps going up as the doctrine of wrong jihad is done continuously so it triggers one to become a suicide bombers. That’s very likely that the suicide bombers have a pragmatic goal, taking advantage of young children who are psychologically still searching for identity, as well as people who despair in life.

Besides the experiments of suicide bombing carried out by a teenager in the city of Medan, we also noted that the bomber at the JW Marriot in 2009 was also carried out by a young 18-year-old Danni Dwi Permana. He was recruited by Saefudin Jilani, trader of herbal medicines and cupping. Saefudin Jilani also allegedly recruited 14 other youths to be used as a bomber. The terrorists targeted teenagers who drop out of school, youth who have no jobs, people who have low income. Therefore, it takes vigilance of the community in case a very big change happens in one family member, especially if he/she becomes very fanatical on certain understanding/groups. In addition, the government, particularly the Communications and Informatics Ministry should also conduct high control to oversee the dissemination of false perception on jihad, bomb-making instructions, or other things that could destabilize the security in Indonesia.