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| General Moeldoko (Wiki Info - Image: Wiki Commons) |
By Zachary Keck
In a speech this week, Gen Moeldoko said “ISIS is the worst idea in history. ISIS is not Islamic. I am a Muslim.”
Indonesia’s military chief said this week that the Islamic State is the “worst idea in history” and called for a more assertive regional response to combat the threat.
Calling IS a “cancer,” Indonesia’s armed forces (TNI) chief General Moeldoko said in a speech on Wednesday that: “ISIS is the worst idea in history. ISIS is not Islamic. I am a Muslim, but I can say that ISIS does not represent the Islam that I know. To me, there is no room for ISIS to develop in Indonesia.”
At the same time, he warned that: “There have been several people from countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia who have gone to Syria and Iraq to join IS. We need to find a common understanding among the ASEAN Chief of Defence Forces, to anticipate the future risk, when these fighters return to their home countries. We need to think of concrete steps to deal with this threat.”
To that end, Moeldoko said that at the ASEAN Chief of Defense Forces informal meeting in Malaysia next year, he would propose a meeting between regional defense chiefs to discuss how to best coordinate a regional strategy for combating the Islamic State in Southeast Asia.
Read the full story at The Diplomat