JAKARTA: Indonesian extremists are holding back attacks during the coronavirus outbreak to stay at home and wait for the end of the world as foretold in Islamic prophecies - and, perhaps, score a chance to die as martyrs and enter paradise.
According to an April 2 report by the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), some supporters of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, terror group consider the pandemic as the ta'un, or plague in Arabic, cited in various hadith, or the words and practices of Prophet Muhammad.