This research started with the question: Why does the deadliest, most dangerous terrorist organization in the world, which is ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), have relatively strong support in Indonesia?

By the time the Islamic State was declared in June 2014, thousands of people had pledged allegiance to the ISIS leader, and according to Detachment 88, the counter-terrorism unit of the Indonesian police, some 1,860 Indonesians tried to go to Syria from 2014 to 2016. Although many were stopped from leaving or were caught and deported before they could join ISIS, more than 1,000 reached destinations in Syria. Many who had pledged allegiance but failed to get to Syria believed they were obligated to obey the 2016 instruction of ISIS spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani that, “If the door to hijra [emigrating to Syria] is closed, open the door to jihad in your own country.” Consequently, more than 50 terror attacks were carried out by ISIS supporters in Indonesia from 2016 to 2022. These attacks included a method never before employed in Indonesia: the use of whole families as suicide bombers, as in the 2018 Surabaya and 2021 Makassar bombings.