Earlier this month, after experiencing a long hiatus from violent extremism, Indonesia succumbed anew to Islamist terrorism when a family of suicide bombers struck three different churches in the country’s second-largest city, Surabaya. The coordinated attacks during Sunday services on May 13 killed at least 12. The following day, another family of extremists attacked Surabaya’s police headquarters, wounding 10. The Islamic State immediately claimed responsibility for both attacks.
Beyond the horrifying particulars, which involved the use of children as young as eight, the attacks signal a broader intent: ISIS has chosen to declare war on Indonesia’s “middle way” of Islamic culture. Indonesian Islam has long contained important cultural and ideological barriers to intolerance.
Since its independence in 1945, the overwhelmingly Sunni country’s Basic Charter has insisted on giving equal respect to different faiths, despite an embrace of Sunni Islam by over 93 percent of Indonesia’s 240 million-person population. Despite variations within the 3,000-mile archipelago, Indonesia’s bedrock culture, especially in Java, reflects and reinforces coexistence among faiths, as well as tolerance for differing worldviews. [The Weekly Standard] Read more
