Sacred Spaces and Accursed Conflicts: A Global Trend?

Abstract

On April 15, 2011, a suicide bomber blew himself in an Indonesian mosque situated inside a police compound in the West Java town of Cirebon on April 15, 2011, wounding 26 people, mostly officers. The mangled body of the suicide bomber was found at the scene.
According to the Indonesian authorities, the man was apparently wearing a suicide vest beneath his black ‚Islamic‛ robes and sitting among dozens of worshippers when he set off the bomb, shouting ‚God is Great‛ as he detonated the device. Though militants in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq have not hesitated to attack mosques where their enemies have gathered, Mardigu Wawick Prasantyo, an Indonesian intelligence analyst, said this ‚really worrisome‛ incident ‚represents a first for Indonesia‛, noting also that the bombing during Friday holy prayers points to a ‚hardening of militants‛ (Bangkok Post, April 16, 2011). Less than a week later, the Indonesian police bomb squad seized two boxes containing high explosives hidden under a gas pipeline on Jl. SK Keris in the Gading Serpong housing estate. According to a local security supervisor- Aris Setiabudi, the bombs weighed around 150 kilograms each and were equipped with timers, to be detonated to coincide with the Good Friday celebration (April 22, 2011). The bombs were placed within 50 meters of the Christ Cathedral Church (The Jakarta Post, April 21, 2011). On April 28, at a national conference in Jakarta,
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said: ‚We are witnessing radical movements in this country.‛ He warned of the serious threat of ‚terrorism‛ and advised all Indonesian stakeholders to take steps to prevent violence. (The Jakarta Post, April 29, 2011)