Malaysia/Terrorism
Malaysia and Terrorism
Malaysia is a moderate Islamic nation which does not tolerate Islamic extremism.
In May 2014 several members of Al Qaeda cells were arrested.
Fresh arrest in Malaysia anti-terror operation
Published: 3 May 2014
Malaysian police have arrested an 11th suspect in an operation to break up Islamic terror groups posing as humanitarian organisations, a Home Ministry official said today.
Police arrested 10 Malaysians earlier in the week during raids in and around Kuala Lumpur and Kedah before a man attempting to flee the country was detained on Thursday, said a Home Ministry official.
"Our biggest worry is organisations using humanitarian missions as the basis to train militants," said Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (pic) as cited by Berita Harian in comments confirmed by the official.
Hamidi said these groups claimed to be on a "jihad (holy war)", according to Utusan Malaysia.
The Malay-language publication also reported that police are still tracing a number of other suspects in ongoing investigations.
Malaysia practises moderate Islam and has not seen any notable terror attacks in recent memory, but concern has risen in the multi-faith nation over perceived Islamisation.
The Southeast Asian country has been home to several suspected key figures in militant Islamic groups, such as the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah blamed for the deadly 2002 Bali bombings.
Police have said they are also probing terrorism as one possible reason for the March 8 disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
A source familiar with the arrests told AFP on Monday that those detained were not linked to Jemaah Islamiyah nor the disappearance of the plane.
The plane, carrying 239 people, is believed to have crashed into the southern Indian Ocean, but no sign of wreckage has been found despite weeks of search efforts.
– AFP, May 3, 2014.
Source: The Malaysian Insider TMIMY-057
Previous Arrests
Extracts from Malaysia Airline MH370: 9/11-style terror allegations resurface in case of lost plane, The Telegraph, 15 March 2014 TELUK-008
Last May, two Malaysian men were arrested for links to al-Qaeda and charged with joining the Tanzim al-Qaeda Malaysia group. In a separate incident two other men from Malaysia were held in Lebanon as they allegedly tried to cross into Syria to join Islamist extremists fighting the Assad regime.
In 2001 Yazid Sufaat, a biochemist and former army captain, was imprisoned for seven years under internal security laws on suspicion of being part of the Jemaah Islamiah network, the terrorist organisation behind a series of bombings in south east Asia including the Bali nightclub massacre in which 202 people were killed in 2002.
Yazid, who was released in 2008, was also suspected of providing lodging for two of the 9/11 hijackers. Malaysian sources, however, insisted Islamic terrorism carried out by Malaysian jihadists is unlikely since the country has only a tiny number of Muslim fundamentalists.
Source: Malaysia Airline MH370: 9/11-style terror allegations resurface in case of lost plane, The Telegraph TELUK-008