Research Paper

Ten years after the civil war, Sri Lanka had recovered the sense of

normality most of us take for granted in the West. No special

controls regarding explosives and weapons, no special surveillance

on potentially violent groups. When the first blasts of the present

infamous attack were heard, those present thought to be facing a

natural disaster or accident. And yet the Sunday Easter’s Jihadi

outbreak was one of the most deadly terrorist attacks in South Asia.

What happened? Was this specific to Sri Lanka? What are the

lessons we can draw at a global level? Here we suggest five main

lessons from the events.

1. The global nature of the Jihadi movement

Sri Lanka’s political leadership and investigating bodies were under

fire immediately after the attacks as they were unable to act

preventively in spite of the multiple warnings they received. Yet

apart from other responsibilities, the major reason the attack took the

security establishment by surprise was the fact it did not fit the

pattern of gradually growing level of violence and sophistication the

country had witnessed with the Tamil Tigers (LTTE).

LTTE started its actions in the seventies through targeted

assassinations and only slowly progressed towards the savagery and

technical sophistication which allowed them to develop not only a

territorial basis but also a navy, and even kamikaze airplanes in

2009. By contrast, other than vandalising Buddhist statues in

December last year, the group responsible for the coordinated and

sophisticated Easter attack had no confirmed established violent

precedents within Sri Lankan territory.

The wave of terror which followed the Charlie Hebdo attack of January 2015 also surprised European

authorities in the level of savagery and technical sophistication of the operations involved. Although

Five lessons from the Jihadi Easter attacks

in Sri Lank

Paulo Casaca

SADF COMMENT 26 June 2019 Issue n° 144 ISSN 2406-5617

Mr Paulo Casaca is the founder and

Executive Director of the South Asia

Democratic Forum (SADF), founder of

the Alliance to Renew Co-operation

among Humankind (ARCHumankind)

as well as founder of a consultancy

company on sustainable development,

Lessmeansmore, Land and Energy

Sustainable Systems.

Avenue des Arts 19

1210 Brussels

[email protected]

www.sadf.eu

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SADF Comment N.144

2

the signs pointing to a strong likelihood of a terror act against Charlie Hebdo were only too apparent,

French authorities could not foresee the intensity level of the threat.

The Sri Lanka terrorist attack confirms that national authorities around the world cannot take for

granted the need of a ‘terror learning process’ indoors.

2. The importance of fanatic indoctrination

As was the case in previous Jihadist attacks, there has sometimes been some confusion regarding the

responsibilities involved. Thus pre-existing divisions or tensions in an area or country are sometimes

held to be the cause behind an attack, rather than the attack perpetrators being understood to

manipulate pre-existing divisions or tensions (New York Times approach is a good example).

There is nothing really new in this narrative - which has been repeated in similar circumstances ad-

nauseum. The blame is put on Zionism, colonialism, social or ethnic grievances, sometimes

islamophobia.

The most hard-core attackers were the Ibrahim family - a millionaire, well-connected family; a family

which, according to a BBC report, was most likely indoctrinated by Abdul Latheef Mohamed Jameel,

a former student in the United Kingdom and Australia and also member of a local wealthy family.

Still according to the same source, Mr Jameel went to Turkey trying to join jihadi forces in Syria, but

there is no evidence he managed to do so. He himself seems to have been indoctrinated in London by

Anjem Choudary, a jihadi preacher whose doctrine is known to be extremely religiously supremacist.

If this is confirmed, we might now have reached a situation wherein someone passing through a

European capital with very lax rules on violent indoctrination may prove to be more dangerous than

someone coming out of a Jihadi war theatre.

Whereas Jihadism, as any other fanatic ideology, tends to nurture on real human grievances, the

Easter attacks seem to show how secondary these grievances may be in comparison with the lethal

weight of the ideology.

Otherwise, contrarily to cases such as the European terror attacks, wherein the experience obtained

in the war scenarios of Iraq and Syria seemed to have played a key role, there is as yet no concluding

sign that any of the key terrorists engaged in the Easter attack had any previous experience with war.

The Easter attacks demonstrate the crucial role played by the Jihadi ideology – much more important

than any other factor responsible for the attacks.

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3. Anti-money laundering measures

Taking into account the fortune of the Ibrahim family and its apparently wholehearted commitment

to Jihad, one can easily understand how the attackers were financed and why. In this specific case,

anti-money laundering measures could not stop the attack.

However, if we consider the importance of Osama bin Laden’s capacity to mobilise his family’s vast

funds for the Jihadi movement, we can spot here a radically different situation. The Sri Lankan

families’ financial basis did not allow for the financing of a global Jihad.

Anti-money laundering measures cannot prevent a locally-financed terror attack, but it seems clear

they can make it difficult for a personal fortune to be converted into a financial basis for ‘global

Jihad’.

We think, therefore, that these attacks reveal anti-money laundering measures to be very effective in

preventing the financing of a global Jihad.

4. The war against crusaders

Whereas public opinion was quick to find acceptable grievances for the attack (one of the earliest

explanations was a revenge for the Christchurch attacks), Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi declaration is

unambiguous on presenting it as the answer to the loss of the last ISIS bastion in Syria.

As the US and other western countries – that is, in the fantasised imagery of Jihadism, the Crusaders

– helped the Kurds to defeat ISIS in Baghouz, Al Baghdadi makes clear that his target was the West.

If he chose expensive hotels and churches in Sri Lanka as target instead, this was because he was

unable to target more obvious Western symbols.

The Sri Lanka attacks mean, therefore, that at the moment of its perpetration, Al Baghdadi’s Jihadi

organisation lacked the capacity to develop a large coordinated attack against the West.

Time will tell whether this situation will remain so long. In the meantime, we see that anti-Western

Jihadi attacks can target virtually any location, even countries where Islam is not seen as a major

geopolitical element.

5. Sowing conflict and hate

The standard Jihadi attack has two possible objectives. The first is to threaten one’s way towards the

appeasement of underlying grievances - real or supposed. The second is to threaten one’s way towards

influence among the Muslim community itself.

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Whereas Jihadi leaders such as Bin Laden were especially careful in constructing a message of

grievance – we act thus because of Zionist occupation, because of the desecration of our land by the

infidels or because of any real (or made up) offense to our people – modern generations are more

blunt and do not show any need to ‘justify’ the logic of religious supremacy.

Bin Laden’s Jihadism would use to full extent all instruments of double talk, disinformation and

ambivalence deemed necessary for maximising the impact of attacks. Al Baghdadi is less

sophisticated in its message. His purpose is double-sided - conquering influence among the Muslim

community both through a show of force and through the fomenting of hate by ‘outsiders’.

For as long as societies continue to believe Jihadist propaganda and see attacks as made in the name

of ‘Islam’, people will tend to see all Muslims as responsible for it. Thus the Muslim community

itself - which most suffers the impact of religious fanaticism, and also which better knows how to

combat it – is held responsible. Cornering all followers of Islam – the overwhelming majority of

which are not radical in any way - into having no option but embrace Jihadism is an often-

misunderstood, structural goal of contemporary ‘Jihadist’ terrorism.

A blind reaction or even an over-reaction to a terrorist attack might be as detrimental as an appeasing

one. In Sri Lanka as elsewhere, an inter-faith and inter-ethnic strong dialogue is essential for

annihilating the terrorists’ expected impacts.

Reference List

Beech, H. (2019, May 05). ‘A New Enemy but the Same Hate’: Can Sri Lanka Heal Its Divisions?

The New York Times.

Ethirajan, A. (2019, May 11). Sri Lanka attacks: The family networks behind the bombings.

BBC News.

ISIL chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi appears in propaganda video. (2019, April 29). AL JAZEERA AND

NEWS AGENCIES.

Retrieved from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/06/trump-imposes-sanctions-iran-

targets-supreme-leader-190624161044665.html

Sri Lanka attacks: Who are National Thowheed Jamath? (2019, April 28). BBC News.

Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48012694