National Counter-Terrorism Agency (BNPT) Head Commissioner Boy Rafli Amar met with Timor-Leste President José Manuel Ramos-Horta to encourage this cooperation. The two agreed to the effort to prevent terrorism.
The BNPT established close cooperation with partner countries, governments, and people to prevent radicalism and terrorism, he noted through a written statement on Thursday.
The misuse of religion by terrorists remains a trend. To this end, cooperation with religious organizations is necessary to align perception, given that terrorism is not part of religious teaching, he noted.
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Propaganda quickly spreads through the digital world. To address this matter, education on religious teaching that promotes tolerance and how to properly interact in social media became an effective strategy to be implemented, Amar explained.
The agency currently focuses on prevention that involves efforts to develop a spirit of tolerance, including building an understanding among people that terrorism has nothing to do with religion.
Meanwhile, Ramos-Horta lauded BNPT's action in handling terrorism effectively. Indonesia is deemed to be successful in handling terrorism.
He noted that apart from Timor-Leste, other western countries too had the same view.
Indonesia is a tolerant and peaceful country, which is commendable, considering its population reached 273 million, he affirmed.
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Western countries perceive BNPT as being active in the efforts to prevent terrorism. Indonesia is a peaceful Muslim country, he remarked.
In addition to Timor-Leste, Indonesia forged cooperation with Belgium to strengthen terrorism prevention efforts.
The BNPT inked a memorandum of understanding with the Belgian Coordination Unit for Threat Analysis (CUTA) in Brussels, Belgium.
Indonesia's BNPT and Belgium's CUTA cooperate in terrorism mitigation through information exchange, strategy analysis, as well as best practices followed by both nations.
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Translator: M Zulfikar, Fadhli Ruhman
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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