Though often dismissed as a fringe group, the Islamic Defenders Front has recently scored unexpected and stunning political victories — only partly due to the growth of orthodox Middle Eastern Islam in Indonesia. The group’s success can also be traced to an effort over more than 10 years to repurpose its militia into a force that’s as adept at helping the poor and searching for victims buried under earthquake rubble as it is at inspiring fear. Alexander Arifianto, an Indonesian politics expert at the RSIS in Singapore, said Indonesian groups copied Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood which pioneered Islamic charities in the 1970s and ’80s and became immensely popular.