ABSTRACT
The blurring of lines between Islamist civil society and violent extremism in Indonesia has been gathering pace over the last five years. This chapter suggests that there will be an increasing cost to impunity for crimes committed in the course of anti-vice or other Islamist advocacy campaigns, as it may encourage more lethal violence. It describes that antipathy to the police, exacerbated in some cases by Detachment 88' methods, has become a powerful unifying force that transcends ideology and institutional exclusivism. The rise of Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) has helped forge bonds between some violent extremist groups and Islamist civil society groups, with a group of Aman Abdurrahman supporters in the Forum of Islamic Law Activists becoming the top ISIS recruiters in Indonesia by late 2014. Islamist civil society and jihadi groups have also found mutually reinforcing positions on the issue of Islam and democracy, even though they come out with different positions.
