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Munira Mustaffa

@muniramustaffa

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Globe-trotting security maven. Mercenary. Spicy pirate. Pro Deo et Libertate. Butlerian Jihadi.

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I wasn't partial to patches at first, but @itsfuadnizam is changing my mind. I didn't think my collection of challenge coins and pins would grow either, but running Chasseur took me to some interesting places and earned me various badges of honour. The Interpol challenge coin simply pops. My favourite pin is the South Korean National Cybersecurity Laboratory one. They put a lot of thought into the beautiful design. There's one patch from Singapore Cyber Defence which I had misplaced unfortunately. The tank was given to me by one of the organisers in Ukraine because they know how much I love tanks and I couldn't stop chattering about Russia's disastrous assault at Hostomel. The beautiful Palestine embroidery was from the wonderful people at @amecrd. There's one challenge coin in my collection I wish I could talk about more for service rendered, but I'm not allowed to 😉 by @muniramustaffa

Really honoured to have spoken on the National Integrity and Security panel at the 8th World Conference on Islamic Thought and Civilization (WCIT2026), held in Ipoh and organised by @universiti_sultan_azlan_shah. It's one of the bigger Muslim world convenings hosted in the country, and this year's theme, "Where Everyone Matters," pushed for practical answers rather than theory.

Shared the panel with Dr. H. A. Hellyer (RUSI), Tan Sri Dato' Setia Haji Ambrin Buang, and Lt Col Abdul Mujib Haji Japar (RBAF), moderated by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Roy Anthony Rogers.

And obviously I had some choice words for the Network School debacle. by @muniramustaffa

Baru-baru ini, ada member FDD panas bontot tuduh Malaysia sebagai pelabuhan melindung KEMAS. Tidak kurang jugak barua-barua yang turut mencela Malaysia dengan alasan kita bersalah sebab menyantuni member senarai FTO. Tapi apa menatang FTO yang sering dibingit-bingitkan ini sebenarnya?

Meh kita kupas bersama.

Reuploaded sebab tadi kualiti ubi kentang. Sorry about that! Kalau suka content video explainer macam ini, saya cuba rakam lagi. by @muniramustaffa

Indonesia has now explicitly called out Russia for recruiting Indonesians to fight in its invasion of Ukraine.

This is a significant development on a topic that went unacknowledged for a long time, and one I always felt was risky to research and write about. @radityo_dharmaputra and I were early on this, and I’m glad our work has helped bring it to light.

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Indonesia kini secara terbuka menegur keras Rusia atas perekrutan warganya untuk berperang bagi pihak Rusia dalam pencerobohan ke atas Ukraine.

Ini perkembangan penting bagi topik yang sekian lama dipandang sepi, dan yang sentiasa saya rasakan terlalu berisiko untuk dikaji dan ditulis. @radityo_dharmaputra dan saya meneliti isu ini terlampau awal, justeru saya bersyukur penyelidikan kami turut membantu membawanya ke perhatian umum. by @muniramustaffa

Regardless of the outcome of the police press conference later, here's my interview with @beritaharian where I explained more about Misanthropic and Nihilistic Violent Extremism (M/NVE) and the True Crime Community, and how and why youths are at risk. Better knowing than not. If that makes me an alarmist, so be it.

Tak kisah lah apa hasil sidang berita polis nanti berkenaan serangan sekolah di Sarawak, saya bentangkan temuramah saya dengan wartawan @beritaharian di mana saya menerangkan apa itu M/NVE dan TCC, dan mengapa belia berisiko boleh terjebak. Elok tau daripada tak tau. Nak tuduh saya alarmist pun saya tak hairan. by @muniramustaffa

Despite the relentless, and frankly tiresome, efforts to keep me sidelined here, it’s useful to remember there is a world beyond Malaysia, one that is genuinely interested in the quality of my work, my methods, and my findings.

Many thanks to @dmkmtoday of the Australia-based Reformasi Dispatch and her co-host Kevin O’Rourke for inviting me to discuss the two headline projects currently filling my portfolio: Russia’s recruitment of Southeast Asian men for its war, and the rising emerging threat of nihilistic violent extremism (NVE) threatening public safety in this region. Have a listen as I explain the underlying logic behind these school attacks we're witnessing.

Check my Story for the link for the podcast or my bio. by @muniramustaffa

I'm quoted in this important story featured on @jakpostimages, which I expect will provoke some predictable defensive response among some folks who insist on viewing the world in terms of camps.

Read very carefully and take note that an Indonesian official is acknowledging what has been going on. This is probably the first government official of an ASEAN member state to do so. This is a significant development.

What Russia is doing is going to set precedence. I do believe it'll transform future conflicts once rogue state actors realise they can just externalise their war to the marginalised and disenfranchised. by @muniramustaffa

Had an incredible closed door session presenting my findings on Nihilistic Violent Extremism-linked attacks in the Southeast Asia region alongside fellow security consultant Jordan Newton and Katherine Keneally, the Director of Threat Analysis & Prevention at @isd.global, where I provided several case studies that happened here. The roundtable was chaired by Benjamin Ang, Head of Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS).

Many thanks to CENS @rsis.sg for the opportunity to be part of this important and urgent conversation. by @muniramustaffa

MANILA – Our bi-monthly team meeting is a chance for us to compare notes on developments across Southeast Asia. Today, Senior Fellow @muniramustaffa led us through an emerging and largely under-examined issue: the recruitment of Southeast Asians as mercenaries in Russia’s war against Ukraine.

The discussion explored what is motivating people from the region to join the conflict, why Russia is interested in recruiting Southeast Asians, and the connections between these recruitment networks and more systematic forms of trafficking, including scam-centre operations.

We also discussed what these developments tell us about Russia’s expanding diplomatic engagement with Southeast Asia and the limits of nonalignment.

We brought this up in light of recent reporting from Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service (FISU), which released a list of Indonesian and Filipino citizens suspected of serving as mercenaries in Russia.

Lots to think about and lots for our team to keep watching!

#ververesearch #SoutheastAsia #Security #Russia #Ukraine by @muniramustaffa

A challenge coin from ATAP Florida for briefing them on the Bandar Utama school knife attack last May. It just arrived today.

Coins like this one are a small tradition with real weight behind them, and receiving one for this work in particular means something. My assessment of the attack drew a concerted effort to discredit it when I published within days of the incident and I was iced out. After more than 15 years in this field, if the choice is between soothsaying and solid analytical judgement, I'll take the latter every time. The assessment held, and the counterparts at ATAP, the FBI, and OPDAT who engaged with that work were the part that mattered.

Last week's attack at another school is a reminder that this pattern is not going away. The work now is making sure the people responsible for prevention understand it before the next one, not after.

I don't chase validation, and I won't apologise for holding this work to a hard standard. I'm not afraid of calling shit out. The stakes of getting it wrong are too high for anything less. I was trained by the best, and the method they gave me is simple: do the work and let the record speak. by @muniramustaffa

Specially dedicated to @sufianabas who has been encouraging me to pick up the camera again. I haven't done street shots for a long time, but this time i decided to give it a go because I got myself a light cheapy @lumosprojector_my which many users say it's not made for street photography. So obviously I took that as a challenge. by @muniramustaffa

A few people have been asking for my slides for last week's panel. I'm usually very generous with my knowledge, but after several unpleasant episodes in the last year up until recently, I'm cognisant that people don't always act in good faith, and they will find ways to cut you down and cut you out.

Telling me I do good work is not enough if I'm not being given sufficient support to protect and defend myself.

It brings me no pleasure to have to craft this email, but there are people who would stop at nothing when they trample over me to subject me to erasure, falsehoods, and covert smear campaigns.

You could get on your high horse and tell me to ignore them, but you're not in my shoes. You don't know what it's like to have your work bastardised, your visions plundered endlessly, your labour extracted and fed into AI to create slop to make themselves sound authoritative, and you yourself erased, deplatformed, and earning nothing.

It's also very weird to tell me I'm obsessing over this. People who are "obsessed" are usually the predators, not the targeted. Having the literacy to understand power dynamics is an acquired skill, because privilege can override that. Do not diminish my grievances.

I put a lot of thought into this decision and I'm done with asking for help. I'll look after myself.

It should be okay to say no and draw boundaries. by @muniramustaffa