Jemaah Islamiyah

Islamic militant organization

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Last updated

July 16, 2026

Quick Summary

Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) is an Islamic militant organization founded in the late 1960s with the goal of establishing fundamentalist Islamic precepts throughout Indonesia and Southeast Asia. In the 1990s, JI became an al-Qaeda-supported terrorist group, engaging in violence and providing logistical support to militants.1

JI gained international notoriety after the 2002 Bali bombings, a terrorist attack that killed 202 people. Investigations identified JI as responsible for these bombings, and the U.S. Department of State designated JI as a foreign terrorist organization. The group's spiritual leader and co-founder, Abu Bakar Bashir, was convicted for his role in the Bali attacks. JI members have been implicated in other terrorist activities, and key planners of the Bali bombings received death sentences.1

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2002 Bali Bombings
…task forces—identified the terrorist organization Jemaah Islamiyah (an Islamic group) as responsible for the bombings. Suspected of having carried out several other terrorist attacks in the past, Jemaah Islamiyah was also linked by the Indonesian government to al-Qaeda, the international terrorist network founded by Osama bin Laden.
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…task forces—identified the terrorist organization Jemaah Islamiyah (an Islamic group) as responsible for the bombings. Suspected of having carried out several other terrorist attacks in the past, Jemaah Islamiyah was also linked by the Indonesian government to al-Qaeda, the international terrorist network founded by Osama bin Laden.
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Maria Ressa
…terrorist groups in Southeast Asia—particularly Jemaah Islamiyah, the militant Islamist organization al-Qaeda’s arm in the region. She published her findings in the book Seeds of Terror: An Eyewitness Account of al-Qaeda’s Newest Center of Operations in Southeast Asia (2003). In 2005 Ressa returned to ABS-CBN, as head of news and…
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…terrorist groups in Southeast Asia—particularly Jemaah Islamiyah, the militant Islamist organization al-Qaeda’s arm in the region. She published her findings in the book Seeds of Terror: An Eyewitness Account of al-Qaeda’s Newest Center of Operations in Southeast Asia (2003). In 2005 Ressa returned to ABS-CBN, as head of news and…
Read More