After the overthrow of the Sukarno regime, the fortune of Darul Islam turned. Virulently opposed to the godless Communists, Darul veterans played a strong role in the fight against communism, from the mid-1960s through the 1980s. All Islamic organizations, including Darul Islam, enthusiastically backed the CIA-orchestrated coup (from 1965 to 1966) that installed the Suharto dictatorship - resulted in the massacre of an estimated 500,000 Communist Party members, workers, and sympathizers. The December 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan galvanized Muslims all over the world, including those in Indonesia. Thousands of Indonesians fought in the war, of which Darul Islam sent 360. Some of these people would later emerge as the fighters of a pan-regional group Jamaah Islamiyah, responsible for major terrorist attacks in the region, including the Bali blast that killed 202 people most of them foreigners. (The alleged leader of the group, Abu Bakar Ba'asyir's jail sentence was recently cut.)
As with Osama bin Laden, whom the CIA had backed during his anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan, Indonesia's Islamic fighters also benefited from an alliance of convenience with America – only to emerge later as the sworn enemy of their one-time Western ally and Indonesia's secular government.
Today, the objective of Darul Islam remains the same as its initial purpose: to establish an Islamic state in Indonesia. But they claim that they would never dream of using violence to achieve the goal. Non-Muslims are not the enemy, they say; rather, the enemy is the state ideology of Pancasila – a mere creation of humans. Darul leaders claim to seek the establishment of a state with shariah law by peaceful means.
After my graduation from Ngruki, some Darul members approached me to attend more classes on the faith and donate 2.5 percent of my income to the organization. But I drifted away: Like the majority of my fellow alumni, I opted for a successful career in the secular world. In our daily lives, we have to acknowledge a pluralism that is not consistent with a strict interpretation of Islam. In fact, of the 88 percent of Indonesians who are Muslim, most lead secular lives.
Despite my mixed family background, I remain a Muslim who prays five times a day, reads the Koran and hopes to visit Mecca. But at the same time, I have worked for the American media, hosted Jewish American friends in my home, and spent Friday nights in bars having drinks.
Though the Darul Islam as an organization may not be as much of a threat today – it is fragmented, disorganized – its call resonates with poorly educated, marginalized people in impoverished areas. And in that vein, Darul Islam can be a fertile ground for terrorists to recruit members of different splinter groups who want to put into practice the teaching of jihad. And as recent events have shown, a tiny group of people can create an enormous amount of damage. The fact that Darul Islam adherents share the same objective as Osama bin Laden or Europe-based terrorist groups – to create a new Dar al Islam and a new Caliphate – remains a matter of global concern. However, to carry out arrest of current Darul Islam members without hard evidence could turn the targets of pressure into heroes with Muslim community.