Weapons used by the suspected bomber at 72 National Senior High School (Source: Antara)
Warta Kema – On Friday (07/11/25), a bomb exploded at 72 National Senior High School in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta. The incident happened during a Friday prayer in the school’s mosque, after the imam’s sermon was over at around 12:15 GMT+7. Eyewitnesses reported hearing two explosions, from inside and outside the mosque. When the dust settled, around 55 victims were injured, with 11 students reporting visual and auditory impairment. The victims were then quickly rushed to the three nearest hospitals: Cempaka Putih Islamic Hospital, Pertamina Hospital, and Yarsi Hospital.
The bomb is thought to be an IED pipe bomb hidden somewhere in the mosque, thus causing it to explode inside without anyone noticing before it happens. Though the scale of the explosion is relatively small, large amount of shrapnels were launched at high speed throughout the entire venue. Wood splinters, dust, and even sharp nails were scattered everywhere, injuring many victims. As a result, as mentioned before, some students unfortunately received visual and auditory impairments.
A suspect was found near the crime scene. A twelfth grade student who studied there, laying unconscious on the ground with what seems to be an automatic rifle, a handgun, and a body vest. The rifle was then confirmed by the authorities to be a DCobra M790 airsoft gun and the handgun to be a fake plastic revolver. The suspect was reported to fall from the roof, thus lying unconscious on the ground alongside his “belongings”. He was subsequently rushed to the hospital, where a medical report suggested major head trauma.
Written on the M790 in white ink are a bunch of words and numbers. These words may seem messy and incoherent to common folk, but some observers suggest that each marking contains a specific or coded meaning that is far more sinister than meets the eye.
One of the clearest written words is located in the handguard, between the receiver and the barrel, that says “For Agartha”. Agartha is a mythological place located inside the earth, which is theorized to be hollow. It is said to be a land lost in time where a hyperintellectual ancient civilization, thought to be lost for a long time, is meant to be thriving. Some also suggested that this civilization secretly controls the inner workings of the world government to this day. It is somewhat similar to Atlantis; both are long-lost ancient hyperintelligent civilizations, both are thought to be hidden somewhere in the earth, and both have been co-opted by the Nazis, and subsequent Neo-Nazi organizations, as a symbol for white supremacism.
The secretive and futuristic aspect of Agartha was thought by 19th-century German occultists as a haven for ancient Aryans. This place, hidden from the outside world where all the “defiants” of other inferior races live, is home to the purest white-skinned Aryans. In the past, they thought, some subversive Aryans figured it would be a good idea to come up to the surface and reproduce with monkeys, thus other races were made.
Agartha, had it existed, would prove that the Aryan race is the superior one of all, a race of superhuman behind all major achievements made by mankind. Some occult white supremacists even believe that when a “pure” white person dies, that is, if that person came from a pure white family and doesn’t “intermingle” with people of other races, then his soul will be “rebirth” in Agartha.
Above “For Agartha”, the words “14 words” were written. 14 Words is a slogan used by American Neo-Nazi terrorist, David Eden Lane. This slogan reads “We must secure the existence of our people and a future of white children.” It was coined by Lane after he was incarcerated in federal prison in 1985 for conspiring to assassinate Jewish talk show host, Alan Berg. The slogan would then be heavily used by white nationalists around the globe as a coded expression of support for their ideology.
Lane was convicted of orchestrating numerous terror acts in the span of 20 years, which included bombing, shooting, and counterfeiting money, all done in the name of overthrowing the American government and replacing it with an all-Aryan government. He believed that the United States is committing white genocide and that anyone loyal to the state is a race traitor. Due to believing that the US is beyond salvable, he advocated for white people to commit domestic terrorism as to carve out a separatist state in the Pacific Northwest as a homeland for them. Lane would die in captivity in 2007 due to an epileptic seizure.
On the foregrip of the gun, the numbers “1189” were written. Although the meaning of this symbol is less clear than the others, some observers suggest that it was written to refer to the year 1189 when the Siege of Acre during the Third Crusade began. The siege marked the first significant win by the crusaders against Saladin and the Muslim troops. The city of Acre, located within Saladin’s Ayyubid Dynasty territory, was besieged on all sides by European troops. The Muslims held the siege for around two years until it was breached in 1191, scoring the first notable victory by the crusaders.
Anti-Muslim sentiments has been a recurring theme among certain European white supremacists movements. Analysts note that these views often draw on historical conflict, such as the aforementioned Crusade, and how they feel that their way of life is threatened by the migrants in the present migrant crisis. European nations, especially those in Western Europe, are the primary destination of North African and Middle Eastern migrants. The influx of numbers of migrants created a scenario in these people’s minds that they are in danger of being mass-replaced, a theory that is called the Great Replacement. It argues that white Europeans are deliberately being replaced by other non-European populations so that their number could dwindle and ultimately go extinct.
On the gun’s receiver is the name Brenton Tarrant, an Australian man responsible for the infamous Christchurch Mosque Shootings in 2019. After a Friday prayer in the Al Noor Mosque in the city of Christchurch in New Zealand, Tarrant, who was livestreaming on Facebook Live, approached the mosque and started shooting towards the prayers. There, Tarrant shot and killed 44 people in a matter of six minutes. He then fled to his next target, the Linwood Islamic Centre, located around five kilometers from Al Noor. He arrived around six minutes after he fled the first scene. In the centre, he shot and killed seven people. After he left, the police began pursuing him. The chase ended when two officers rammed his car off the road and Tarrant was subsequently arrested.
This shooting marks a prominent rise of white supremacist terrorism in the modern world. It’s also one of the very first real-life terror actions done for and by the alt-right movement, a largely online far-right movement that has since become more prominent with their actions in real life. Upon being interrogated, Tarrant admits that this act was motivated by white supremacist beliefs that he personally subscribed to. He stated that white people are currently being genocided by the Great Replacement and thus must do everything in his will power to maintain the greatness of his race. Tarrant was given a life sentence with no possibility of parole, the first-ever life sentence in New Zealand.
Below Tarrant’s name are the words “Welcome to Hell”. Below it, on the magazine well, is the symbol of the Romanian Iron Guard, also known as the Legionary Movement, a clerical fascist movement founded during the Interwar Period in Romania. Like any other fascist movements in Europe at the time, the Iron Guard was hugely anti-democratic, anti-communist, and anti-semitic. However, it placed a strong emphasis on religion, in this case the Orthodox Christian, and how the strength of the church is heavily tied to the strength of the nation. Some considered the Iron Guard to be one of the few European political movements that willingly imbued religion into their ideological structure.
The Legion was a major movement in Romania before the war. Its acting commander, Horia Sima, ordered multiple terrorist activities to be committed against current government members and the Jewish community. During the war, it officially became a branch of the government which is increasingly friendly to the Nazi regime. When in power, the Legion started to ramp up the already harsh anti-semitic legislation and activities such as pogroms and targeted assassinations towards Jewish politicians. In one gruesome episode, Jewish civilians in the city of Bucharest are hanged by meat hooks in the city’s slaughterhouse and then mutilated. These activities were fully supported by the Germans, with the SS actively helping the carnage. When the Legionaries fell out of favor with the government and were subsequently kicked, the Germans welcomed the exiles with open arms.
Below the symbol, on the magazine of the gun, two names were written, Luca Traini and Alexandre Bissonnette. Just like Tarrant, both of these people are mass shooters who targeted people of color in the service of far-right extremism. Traini is an Italian man who shot and seriously wounded six African migrants in a drive-by shooting in Macerata, Italy. Meanwhile, Bissonnette is a Canadian man who shot and killed six prayers in a mosque in Sainte-Foy, Canada. In the end, Traini was sentenced to 12 years in prison and Bissonnette with a lifelong sentence.
Lastly, on the buttstock of the gun, was written “Natural Selection”. This phrase has its origin in Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, which describes how species with advantageous traits are more likely to survive and reproduce. However, Darwin used this phrase with caution as he believed that the struggle for existence is relative, not absolute. This started to change with the introduction of Social Darwinism and eugenics in the 1870s. It is also when the phrase “survival of the fittest” started to come up to describe how the “fittest” individuals, groups of people, and races would naturally succeed. Naturally, this would later be used to justify discriminatory ideologies and, later, acts of racism and genocide.
Darwin’s theories were supposed to be used solely for biological reasons. However, Social Darwinists forced these concepts to fit in the context of sociology, economy, and politics. It is then used by ethnonationalists around the world to prove that their race is actually the “fittest” who will “survive” above all else. For example, the Nazis used this as an advocacy for a collective national movement where the state directed human breeding efforts to create a “perfect” human, what Nietzsche called the Übermensch, through eugenics. These “perfect” humans have purely white skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes and are perfectly fit to rule the world to their liking by sacrificing the “lesser” races. In other words, the perfect Aryan man is destined to rule the world because he is inherently superior to the others.
These words, written all over the rifle, signify a threat to online spaces, in Indonesia and everywhere else, that targets vulnerable young men such as the suspect of this attack. Far-right terrorism isn’t something new; some could argue that most terror acts are right-wing. However, the easy access to the internet made it easier for bigots, demagogues, and other right-wing spokespeople to spread their hateful ideas in every direction. It has been so successful, in fact, that even a non-white person successfully got convinced to carry out attacks in the name of the existence and future of the white race.
The alt-right movement has metastasized into an even more powerful version of itself in right-wing politics. What started as an online trolling campaign has birthed a new breed of dangerous right-wingers. This movement preys on insecure, lonely men that felt isolated in real life and seeks a connection with anyone who will accept them. It just happens that the only community who will accept them in the increasingly hostile online world is a bunch of racist lunatics who advocate for total obliteration of other people of a different skin tone.
Far-right extremism, notably ones who were motivated by white supremacism, has turned many antisocial men into what is essentially a version of the Hitler Youth, all done in the name of making a meaningful connection with other human beings. Unfortunately, it seems that these activities have arrived in Indonesia. As evident by the attack that happened, somehow an Indonesian teenager from Kelapa Gading is able to be convinced by the white nationalists to carry out an attack that targets his fellow Indonesians. In the end, although Indonesians on the internet seem to feel indifferent or even outright condemning the attack by mocking its ridiculous premise, it is still an obligation for us not to let such vile ideology take root in the minds of the youth.
Reporter: Maheswara Adla Wibowo
Editor: Andrea Hillary, Syafina Ristia Putri, Ammara Azwadiena Alfiantie