In Indonesia, when disaster hits it’s the Islamist militants who are first to help

The Islamic Defenders Front is notorious for smashing up shops selling alcohol and attacking minority Muslim sects

Yet over the past 15 years it has also repurposed its militia into a force that is adept at searching for earthquake victims

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Volunteers of the humanitarian wing of the Islamic Defenders Front inspect earthquake damage in Palu in 2018. Photo: AP

Published: 5:41pm, 11 Jun 2019Updated: 11:55am, 12 Jun 2019

The two flags hanging outside Anwar Ragaua’s house have landed him with police warnings in the past but the wiry 50-year-old says he is not taking them down.

After all, the police weren’t there to help when he was the only fisherman in his village to survive the tsunami that crashed into the Indonesian city of Palu on September 28. Nor was the government. Nor were the aid organisations that swept in to the stricken city.

Instead, when Ragaua felt abandoned, the people to offer him a glimmer of hope – a new boat – were from the Islamic Defenders Front, a group with a notorious past that has included smashing up shops selling alcohol and attacking minority Muslim sects.

A member of the Islamic Defenders Front paints the group's logo on a boat donated to fishermen affected by the 2018 tsunami in Palu. Photo: AP

So it is the front’s white-and-green flag that flutters outside Ragaua’s house alongside a black banner with white Arabic script. The words are a well-known declaration of Muslim faith, but similar flags have become associated with violent extremists.

Police have visited several times, suspicious he may be spreading radicalism, but Ragaua is unfazed and eager to show his support for the group getting him back on his feet.