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JAKARTA: The recent suicide bomb attack on a church in Indonesia has reaffirmed terror experts' view of the emergence of what they call a "leaderless jihad".
They said young Indonesians drawn to violent ideology no longer belong to established militant groups.
Thirty-one-year-old Achmad Yosepa Hidayat blew himself up in a church in Solo, Central Java on Sunday.
He was believed to have driven M.Syarif to a mosque in a police compound in Cirebon, West Java last April.
The 32-year-old was the suicide bomber in that attack.
Police said at least four of their accomplices are still on the run, with a dozen bomb vests ready to be detonated.
They are not part of known militant groups in Indonesia.
Anti-Terrorism expert Noorhuda Ismail said: "This is what I call leaderless jihad, and individual Jihad.
"They pick up small knowledge of jihad. They pick up a little understanding of how to make explosives and bombs, (and) make 9(a) direct link with the expert on jihad in the network and they just do it."
Experts said such a phenomenon is not peculiar to Indonesia.
International Crisis Group's Sidney Jones said: "There's been a change in the international jihadi ideology where basically people are being exhorted to do jihad by themselves, rather than risk being caught by being part of a large group with an (leader).
"The message is you don't need (a leader)."
Young militants reportedly refer to radical clerics only when looking for religious justifications, which they also find on the Internet and in radical publications.
"We are seeing people get recruited with no knowledge of religion at all. It used to be the JI putting people through at least a year - sometimes two years of training before they allowed membership," Ms Jones said.
"Now people are being pulled off the streets."
Ms Noorhuda said: "In the past, Nordin had to find those suicide bombers in dingy rooms; closed discussions. Now it is an open market."
But identifying the next suicide bomber will be tough in huge country like Indonesia.
Despite the threat of terrorism, the Indonesian public is still wary of giving its intelligence agency expanded powers.
They fear it might be abused by the government such as during President Suharto's regime.
The new Intelligence Bill that is expected to be passed by parliament in October will not be as powerful as originally designed.
The government had hoped the intelligence agency could be given the power to detain a suspect for seven days.
Indonesian Member of Parliament Muhammad Najib said: "All factions in parliament and the public have strongly rejected the proposal because of past trauma.
"People are still fearful. Victims of past abuses by the intelligence agency are still traumatised.
However, the new law will allow wire-tapping.
"But there must (be) consent from the court. And it is only for six months," Mr Najib said.
"The intelligence agency must seek the court's permission again if they need to extend their wire-tapping activities."
With the new law and a bigger budget, the intelligence agency hopes it can better deal with the threat of terrorism that has now become an individual cause for militants in Indonesia.
-CNA/wk
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