Malaysia: IS Recruits Take Oath Via Social Media Apps

Many Malaysian recruits have skipped a ceremonial oath process for joining the Islamic State (IS) extremist group by choosing to pledge their loyalty through online chat applications, the country’s anti-terror police chief said Thursday.

The oath of loyalty known as “Bai’ah” – Arabic for “allegiance” – only takes about a minute via apps such as Telegram, and this allows IS to boost its numbers of fighters more quickly because recruits don’t have to take a traditional oath in the presence of an IS leader, said Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, head of the Royal Malaysia Police counter-terrorist special branch.

Most suspected members of the group who have been arrested by the special branch had taken the oath online without meeting their IS leader, according to the senior police official.

“In the old days, the new member had to attend a ceremony and shake hands with the leader. Today, they can do it online, using apps,” Ayob said without providing figures for how many Malaysian IS members have taken this route to membership.

Since 2013, authorities in Malaysia arrested 271 people with suspected IS links, of whom 66 have since been freed, according to the latest figures from the government.

“They want to expand their terror group and that means the members will be everywhere, and, with the advance of the technology, Bai’ah can be done anywhere. They can also use it to collect data of their members across the world,” Ayob said.

Farmer jailed over IS link

Concerning those arrested, a Malaysian court on Tuesday convicted and sentenced a 25-year-old farmer, Zairosfitri Jainuddin Azhar, to five years in prison for alleged links to IS.

Investigators alleged that he had pledged his support for Islamic State through a Telegram chat group account used by a local militant cell called Gagak Hitam (Black Crows).

Zairosfitri joined the 66-member chat group under the alias “zairos sijack” on March 25, 2016, according to investigators.

The Gagak Hitam group is led by Muhammad Wanndy Mohamad Jedi, an IS fighter based in Syria who allegedly orchestrated a grenade attack that injured eight patrons at a Kuala Lumpur area nightclub last year.

Filipino charged

Malaysian investigators, meanwhile, have charged a Filipino man with recruiting for IS and possessing a fake identity card (MyKad), according to media reports.

The man, identified as online watch seller Nurhan Sahi Hakim, from Zamboanga, the Philippines, was sentenced in Kota Kinabalu, in the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah, to 30 months and fined 1,000 ringgit (U.S. $225), or an additional three months in jail if he defaulted on the fine, for admitting to possessing the fake I.D.

Nurhan is to appear in court on March 8 to face the more serious charges. Included among these, investigators charged him with allegedly recruiting another person to join IS at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport on Jan. 13.

Nurhan could face up to 30 years in prison, if convicted.