The Baltimore Sun, October 4, 2005
War within Islam
Indonesia is an affront to the forces of extreme Islam. Its archipelago is home to more
Muslims than any other nation. It is a flourishing democracy, with its first directly
elected president having taken office just last year. And its government has taken a
stand against violent Islamic fundamentalists, hunting down leaders of the regional
version of al-Qaida, Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), and disrupting much of that terrorist
organization.
In 2002, when 202 people, including many foreign vacationers, were killed by terrorist
bombs on Indonesia's island of Bali, the attack was widely viewed in part as
retribution for Australia's backing of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Three years later, the
second such obscene act on Bali - the simultaneous suicide bombings that Saturday
killed about 20 people - represents an attack on Jakarta's moderation. The easy target
of Bali, with its uniquely tolerant Hindu-dominated culture that draws tourists from
around the globe, serves both political ends well.
Indonesia security forces - and those in much of the rest of the region - are now on
alert for more acts of terror. In the wake of the first Bali bombing, Jakarta had been
widely credited with drastically reducing the threat from JI, having convicted more than
50 terrorists involved in that and other attacks. But some JI key leaders are still at
large. The group remains very active elsewhere in Southeast Asia. And Saturday's
suicide bombings - a new mode of attack, once thought to be taboo in Indonesia -
points to an even more hard-line jihadism.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, elected last year, has shown
himself an opponent of terror and proponent of a moderate, predominantly Islamic
state. But that appears to have earned Jakarta a likely long-running war with radical
internal foes, similar, in some ways, to those that have been fought in Egypt and
Algeria. This is a war within Islam, not simply on the West, and one in which
Washington needs Jakarta to prevail.
Copyright © 2005, The Baltimore Sun
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