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Mindanao translates to English as “Land of the Lakes” , a massive island in the Southern Philippines, home to more than 26 million people, and among the country’s most restive regions.
Part of that tension comes from the enduring presence of jihadist groups aligned with the Islamic State and, to a lesser extent, what remains of al Qaeda’s terrorist networks in the Mid-East.
These links operate across multiple levels: ideology, online communication, training, and cross border logistics, allowing small and fragmented groups in the southern Philippines to project influence far beyond their immediate environment.
The networks developed in Mindanao are often referred to as Islamic State East Asia (ISEA), a regional offshoot of the broader IS organization.
Local groups in Mindanao draw heavily on IS propaganda and symbols, adopting its black flags, its rhetoric of a global Muslim caliphate, and attempts to frame their conflict with authorities as part of an international campaign.
This ideological alignment helps in the recruitment of members who see themselves as part of a global movement, as well as a local or region-wide insurgency.
Online networks sustain these foreign links despite ongoing military pressure. Extremist channels on social media and encrypted messaging apps circulate IS media, tactical advice, and motivational material, resulting in a regular exchange of ideas from Mindanao, the Middle East, and other parts of the world.
In Sydney, investigators have confirmed the two gunmen who killed 16 people and injured dozens more on Bondi Beach had travelled to Davao in Mindanao in November, although what exactly they did there is not yet clear.
Australian PM Anthony Albanese told media on Tuesday "It would appear that there is evidence that this was inspired by a terrorist organization, by ISIS.”
While authorities are yet to provide specifics, previous foreign militants have used Mindanao as a location to acquire combat and bomb-making skills.
These dynamics rested on older foundations laid during the era when al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) played a more dominant role in regional jihadism.
Senior members of the JI cell that planned and executed the Bali bombing in 2002 had documented links to Mindanao’s militant networks either before or after the bombings.
Geography has also played a part - with porous maritime borders around Mindanao, Basilan, and Sulu enabling movement of people and equipment between the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Analysts in 2025 stressed that these routes allowed Mindanao based extremists to maintain regional relevance even when their numbers were relatively small.
But despite the foreign connections, most active fighters in Mindanao are Philippine nationals, whose motivations combine global jihadist concepts with more local grievances over poverty, governance, and clan politics.
Pushing back on Mindanao’s extremists in 2025 requires both strengthening governance at home but also ramping up regional cooperation to disrupt training pipelines, financial flows, and the online radicalisation that ties the region to the global jihadist movement.
Asia Media Centre
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