Return of the Lost Son: Disengagement and social reintegration of former terrorists in Indonesia

Abstract

People involved in terrorism do not always survive as part of a group or fail to assimilate into society. Many former terrorists have returned to their community and even taken part in the deradicalization movement. (1) This study aims to find out: First, the background of the former terrorists’ involvement, profiles, and roles in the act of terrorism; Second, the returning process of the former terrorists as well as the conditions allowing them to return to moderate ideology and abandon terrorism, and analysis of their returning process. To the best of our knowledge, little attention has been paid to this aspect in the previous studies; (2) Methods used for the data collection were interview, observation, and documentation; (3) Results exhibited that former terrorists undergo a disengagement process from their groups and acts of terrorism. Besides, clear evidence of the former terrorists’ reintegration into society is shown. It reflects a termination of the beginning of the dehumanization symptom that causes them to be exposed. (4) Conclusion: reorientation is required to realize harmonization in the disengagement. It is further concluded that the terrorists who have been put in jail for committing terrorism may turn into people with moderate ideology and return to their everyday life in society.

Keywords

• Disengagement
• social reintegration
• former terrorists
• religious terrorism
• mediated structure