Local terrorists have no significant int'l link, says expert

Bangladesh is vulnerable to al-Qaeda's ideological influence but there are very small international linkages between local and international terrorist networks, according to a research by a global al-Qaeda expert.
The research also suggests Bangladesh's indigenous culture and society work as a natural defence to extremism but if the country does not build more social, political and religious structures to counter the ideology, more militant groups will emerge in the near future.
"Looking at the spread of that (al-Qaeda) ideology in Asia, Bangladesh is one of the vulnerable countries," renowned al-Qaeda researcher and analyst Rohan Gunaratna told The Daily Star in a recent interview.
Gunaratna, a Sri Lankan, is the head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (IPVTR) at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore's Nanyang Technological University.
Mentioning that al-Qaeda ideology is the real threat to Bangladesh, he said, "We have seen very limited international operational linkages in Bangladesh. It is mostly ideological influence."
He said the operations of the Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), similar to the militancy in Pakistan, have been influenced by that ideology rather than by direct links.
The terrorism expert warned, "Islamization itself is not a threat but it is important to screen ideologies whether it is Islam or a distorted form of Islam."
"A very small number of Bangladeshis went and got trained in Afghanistan. The large impact from al-Qaeda is not through those individuals but because of al-Qaeda's very huge investment in propaganda," he explained.
In the last year alone, al-Qaeda produced 95 videos and ran large propaganda campaigns around the world.
He warns, "It is important to understand that currently the social, political and religious structures within Bangladesh itself are not sufficient to deal with this extremism."
"If those structures are not put in place, more groups like JMB will emerge in the next five years," he added.
Stating that 99 percent of Bangladeshi Muslims are moderate because of the nature of the country's culture and society, he warned, "Less than one percent espouse the extremist ideology."
Although stating the government is fully capable of fighting the operational threat of terrorism as demonstrated by its capture of JMB leaders, he said Bangladesh must build strategic capabilities to establish a norm and an ethic against extremist ideology.
Gunaratna, a key adviser to the UN and US on counter-terror measures, suggests the government and the civil society must work through education, religious structures and the media to complement security agencies' operational counter-terror mechanisms.
"If the education and religious sectors do not do this, small numbers of people will join the extremists group and believe in such extremist ideologies that can harm Bangladesh in the long term," he said.
"What is most important is to explain to the public that groups such as al-Qaeda and JMB do not represent real Islam and that they are deviant, not mainstream Islamic groups," he said, adding that this has to be done by the Bangladeshi intellectuals and the private sector.
The counter-terror expert said the government must deregulate the private sector to encourage economic growth as it would significantly work to counter the militant threat here.