Indonesia: Islamic Radicals Attack Traditions

Islamic Radicals Attack Traditions

October 6, 2006: In East Timor, violent street gangs, many of them affiliated with political groups, continue to roam the capital, and prevent thousands of refugees from returning home. The rival politicians refuse to disband their gangs, or even admit that they influence them. So the UN is faced with the prospect of maintaining 3,000 peacekeepers and officials in East Timor indefinitely. It's another failed state, but it gives UN bureaucrats something useful to do.

October 5, 2006: An additional 800 police were sent to Sulawesi, to help prevent any more religious violence.

October 4, 2006: The wife of a wanted Islamic terrorist, Dulmatin, was arrested on the Philippine island of Jolo, along with her two daughters. Her husband was believed to be hiding elsewhere on Jolo. The American government offers a $10 million reward for the capture of Dulmatin.

October 3, 2006: An East Java women was caught with twenty pounds of high grade explosives, believed intended for a terrorist bomb.

October 2, 2006: The government has filed charges against a Moslem vigilante group, for destroying a "sacred tree." The Moslem group considered the tree blasphemous, while most Indonesians still combine ancient traditions with Islam, and considered the century old banyan tree a national treasure. But Islamic radicals consider this ignorant and incorrect. These different attitudes has caused violence between the Islamic radicals and more traditional Indonesian Moslems.

October 1, 2006: In Sulawesi, a bomb went off in front of a church. Two more went off in markets. There were no injuries. Moslems burned down another church, and stabbed a Christian.

September 30, 2006: In Sulawesi, a Christian mob, angered at the execution of three Christian terrorists, burned down a police station.