Deadly Narrative

Behind every act of terrorism, such as the recent suicide bombing in Bandung by a former convict, there is one thing that tends to be overlooked by the government and society, namely the existence of a "narrative war."

Examples of a narrative war are, "terrorists are kept to divert an issue" or "this is a project to increase the budget of security forces" or "the apparatus failed to notice,” and so on. Then, what is a narrative? How is it different from a story? There is no single definition that is accepted by all narrative reviewers.

In the book by Ajit K Maan and Paul L Cobaugh, Introduction to Narrative Warfare (2022), a story is distinguished from a narrative. A story is defined as a past event related to many characters. And, a narrative is defined as the interpretation, perception or way of reading used by the narrator of past events. In other words, a narrative is a process that is not free of value in giving meaning to an event.

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Media used by a narrator can be verbal, such as discussions, book reviews, lectures, stories, prayer testimonies and songs or non-verbal, such as writings, posters, pamphlets, pictures and videos. It is through the media that the process of radicalization becomes more widespread, even crossing the boundaries of the nation-state.

Like a narrative, there is no single definition to radicalism. However, this paper agrees with the definition of radicalization in Friction, How Radicalization Happens to Them and Us, written by McCauley and Moskalendko. These two social psychology scholars define radicalism as "a process of developing beliefs, feelings and actions in support of a group or political cause in a conflict."

In other words, radicalism does not only happen to "other people" who are far away, but it can happen to anyone. This is because radicalism is a psychological process, which, if you get the right trigger, happens to all people, groups and even countries. As a process, radicalism is not "wrong" or "right," but can happen to both good and bad people.

Narrative distribution

From experience as a researcher and practitioner on issues of radicalism and terrorism, the use of a narrative developed and thrived with the expansion of smartphones in the early 2000s, especially in 2007, when the iPhone was launched, followed by the Android operating system with increasingly cheap and affordable prices.

Of the 5 billion cell phones owned by people in the world, half are smartphones, which have become a medium for spreading narratives around the world. Indonesia is a heaven for the smartphone market. If it is assumed that half of the country's population uses one, there are at least 140 million people who, without asking or wanting, get a narrative about anything, including the issue of radicalism.

Attacks are carried out without the rules of the game as befits a physical war.

Through smartphones, such narratives are easily circulated almost without filter and

are accepted by anyone who is literate: men, women and children, with a radical ideology or not.

In countries with authoritarian tendencies where information always has official and unofficial versions, narratives have a fertile place, especially when society is divided, such as ahead of a presidential election or local election. By taking advantage of this situation, the narrative is used by terrorist groups to carry out war tactics in secret and guerilla warfare. Attacks are carried out without the rules of the game as befits a physical war. They defend as well as attack to influence one's thinking and consciousness.

Apart from media technology, which does not require large capital and costs, the capital for the success of these two movements is also the skill in choosing, sorting and processing the right grand narrative or main narrative in communicating with the public.

Master narrative and ‘reframing’ techniques

Master narratives are narratives that are believed to be true by most people in a particular culture. In Islam, the main narrative is usually taken from stories in the Quran, hadith or sirah – the history of Islamic struggles – such as the Battle of Badr, the events of the Hijra, Isra Miraj and the period of the Islamic caliphate leading up to the Western colonial era.

The main narrative is related to certain issues that are to be raised at the present time by means of reframing techniques. Reframing is a technique of reframing certain historical events without using complicated scientific methodologies with the aim of evoking the emotions of the recipient of the narrative or the audience in the form of analogies or metaphors.

An example of using this metaphor is the story of the Pharaoh in the Quran. The figure of the Pharaoh is often used to describe unjust rulers and dictators. "I have killed the Pharaoh," Khalid al-Islambouli shouted after successfully shooting Egyptian president Anwar Sadat during a military parade in 1981.

The strength of the narrative they produce has a segmentalized and worldly dimension. For young people, for example, the main narrative is built on the context of youth passion, such as the concept of hurun in (angel with beautiful eyes) taken from Surah Al-Waqiah Verse 22.

The verse is framed as God's promise to the brave youths who are willing to risk their lives for a jihad. Meanwhile for the women or family, the narrative "going to heaven as a family" is used by quoting Surah Al-Mu'min Verse 8, as in the case of a family suicide bombing in Surabaya.

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For women, the resoluteness of Fatimah, the daughter of Rasulullah, is usually presented, as well as the narrative of Ummu Mutiah, a young woman who is told in a hadith as the first woman to enter heaven because she always protects herself from slander by not meeting men who are not her relatives. It is said that the Prophet's daughter was also very fascinated by Ummu Mutiah, who always dressed neatly, smelled good and covered her aurat (whole body except face and palms).

In the Indonesian context, it is also through narratives that terror groups influence people to become volunteers for "jihad" in conflict areas, such as Syria, Iraq and the southern Philippines, carrying out suicide bombings in places considered to represent God’s enemy.

When they die from a suicide bombing, they are narrated as syuhada or martyrs by both groups. They are narrated as happy martyrdom because they do not have to go through the process of reckoning or an afterlife court that will weigh their good and bad deeds. For the victims who died as a result of their evil actions, the narrative presented was that this was recompense or punishment from God because the victims were considered infidels and enemies of God.

The narrative trap they play is able to deceive the public.

It is already evident how this narrative has now been transformed into a lethal weapon. The narrative is capable of taking lives and common sense. After a bomb exploded in a place of worship that took the lives of innocent people and after the arrest of the perpetrators, their narrative emerged as waging a war of narratives in society. This indicates that their actions are approved and justified by people who are consumed by their narrative.

Apparently, they chose the narrative war as a systematic effort to fight against the narratives circulating in mass media, such as television, newspapers and trusted online media, which condemn their acts of violence. The narrative war is carried out because it is not uncommon for the terrorist suspects to be public figures, for example religious preachers, professional workers such as doctors and civil servants. They have a good image in their community and the narrative is used as capital in the narrative war.

The differences in perceptions about the figure of a terrorist hampers counterterrorism efforts, in particular the implementation of programs for deradicalization, rehabilitation and reintegration of former terrorists and their families into society. The narrative trap they play is able to deceive the public.

Nothing new

In fact, the use of main narratives such as hadiths to support political agendas is not a new phenomenon in the history of Islamic radical movements.

Researchers of the Darul Islam movement in West Java noted how Kartosoewirjo used he narrative of hijrah by giving new meaning to the narrative of the migration of the Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in the context of the struggle for Indonesian independence. Kartosoewirjo, who later founded Darul Islam, rejected the notion of hijrah used by the Siliwangi troops and freedom fighters who moved from West Java to Yogyakarta as a consequence of the Renville Agreement in January 1948.

For Kartosoewirjo, the meaning of hijrah is to survive and struggle with all one's might (jihad) to carry out Islamic teachings by establishing an Islamic state or Darul Islam (C van Dijk, 1988).

Perhaps, today people forget that the holiest place for Muslims, namely the Grand Mosque in Mecca, was once occupied by a group of extreme Muslims led by Juhayman al-Uteybi. The bloody incident occurred on Nov. 20, 1979.

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Carrying the narrative of the arrival of the Imam Mahdi chosen by his group, Mohammad Abdullah, they wanted to restore the glory of Islam by holding Muslims from a number of countries who were on a pilgrimage. With nearly 100,000 people trapped inside the holy compound, the bloody siege of Mecca dragged on for two weeks.

The incident then triggered a demonstration. Demonstrators stormed and burned the United States embassies in Pakistan and Libya. The desperate Saudis turned to the French commandos led by Captain Paul Barril. It was he who prepared the final blow and supplied poisoned gas to paralyze the rebels. This dramatic and very important story in the history of the hardline Islamic movement was written by Yaroslav Trofimov in the book The Siege of Mecca (2007).

Of course I'm not imagining a deadly scenario that departs from the inconsequential narratives of religious texts in Indonesia that make people desperate to do the same thing in places where Muslims congregate, for example in mosques. However, the reasons for doing so are not impossible, because the regime in power is accused of submitting to foreign powers and not adhering to the Quran and hadith.

Therefore, it is very important to re-awaken stakeholders that humans are homo narrans or creatures who like to tell stories, especially in oral culture and traditions and where there is very little interest in literacy, such as reading books. Inevitably, the process of communication between humans is always wrapped in a story or narrative.

Narratives are often difficult to prove logically and rationally because they are related to the past which does not need proof, but only requires space for faith (belief). Although often nonsense, narratives that come from religious traditions are often used as affirmations or validations that are able to provide answers to life’s questions from the recipients of the narrative. It is in this context that the role of a credible voice, the voice of a former perpetrator who has repented, wrapped in a humane story, can be important in preventing the community from being involved in the action again.

KOMPAS/DANU KUSWORO

Noor Huda Ismail

Noor Huda Ismail, Executive director of Prasasti Perdamaian Foundation (Institute for Building International Peace)

This article was translated by Kurniawan Siswo