Posted on 10/15/2002 9:04:50 PM PDT by chasio649
Attack likely attempt to draw Hindus into conflict - expert Brisbane: The Bali bombing was most likely an attempt by international Muslim extremists to draw Hindus into religious conflict, an expert said yesterday.
The Rev Dr James Haire, president of the Uniting Church in Australia, has developed an expertise in Indonesian religious affairs over the past 30 years.
Dr Haire said yesterday he had held talks with church leaders in Bali in August following the bombing of churches this year.
"The most likely scenario is that it was one of the international Islamic organisations, perhaps in co-operation with one of the local Indonesian organisations, something like the Laskar Jihad or Jemaah Islamiyah," Dr Haire said.
"The question is why? Bali is primarily Hindu. And my hunch is that this is an attempt to broaden religious conflict, because it has been primarily Christian-Muslim and this looks like drawing Hindus into it."
Dr Haire said when the Indo- nesian army cleaned up after attempted attacks on churches in Poso in Central Sulawesi recently it found people with links to the al Qaeda terrorist network.
"I suspect if they infiltrated there then they could have infiltrated Bali," Dr Haire said.
He said it was likely the bombing was also aimed at sending a message to Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri that she was not taking Islamic concerns seriously enough.
A second scenario was that it was a Muslim extremist attack against the Hindu majority in Bali.
"International Islam has been very angry at the fighting in Gujarat in western India between Muslims and Hindus," Dr Haire said.
"This could be a retaliation for what has happened there."
Dr Haire said it was foolish to see the attack as primarily being anti-Australian.
"In fact, the largest groups of tourists in Bali are Europeans, mainly French and German," he said. - AAP
Bullsh-t.
There have already been attacks against Hindus, like the shootings at Indian temples and the raid on the Indian Parliament.
This was an attempt to kill AUSTRALIANS (and other assorted white people), not Hindus.
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