This wasn’t just any meeting—it was a reunion, a gathering of people bound by a shared past.

At the front of the room Abu Rusydan, a former JI leader, and Para Wijayanto, the group’s most recent head, were speaking, not as men who were once at the helm of Southeast Asia’s most feared terrorist organization, but as individuals reflecting on the tumultuous paths they had chosen.

Beside me were Para’s wife and grown children. Para’s daughter had even married Rusydan’s son, binding the families not just by faith, but by a legacy shadowed by JI’s history. The complexity of their shared past was palpable.

Next to me was Brig. Gen. Tubagus Ami Prindani, head of intelligence at the National Police’s counterterrorism squad Densus 88, quietly observing the proceedings. “We can’t arrest them all,” he said, “there must be another way. This isn’t about reconciliation; the group disbanded on its own. We’re here to support the process, though the journey is far from over.”

For him, Indonesia’s principle of musyawarah untuk mufakat (deliberation for consensus) held hope as a way to foster social cohesion, community resilience and sustainable development—ideals more aligned with Indonesian culture than Western individualistic frameworks.

As President Prabowo Subianto’s administration contends with the complex task of countering violent extremism, it faces an intricate landscape shaped by both regional and global forces. As the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, Indonesia holds a dual responsibility: maintaining social harmony while countering divisive threats.