Rise of South-east Asia's female extremists: Cases in Malaysia, Philippines and S'pore

Police are seen outside a church in Solo, Indonesia, on April 1, 2021, after a suicide bombing in Makassar on March 28. PHOTO: AFP
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SINGAPORE - A Malaysian woman has created ripples among security circles in Indonesia for spreading pro-Islamic State material supporting extremist ideology such as jihad, or holy war, through her WhatsApp group.

The woman had started her online preaching in early 2020, opening and closing several WhatsApp groups, each with under 100 members who are mostly Indonesian men, Mr Muh Taufiqurrohman, a senior researcher at the Jakarta-based think-tank, Centre for Radicalism and Deradicalisation Studies (Pakar), told The Straits Times.

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