Support for suicide bombing surprisingly big in Indonesia

Asian Political News, March 20, 2006

JAKARTA, March 16 Kyodo

A survey released Thursday shows that terrorism acts, including suicide bombings on civilian targets, are supported by one in 10 Indonesian Muslims.

''Religious radicalism, when it is interpreted into violent methods in the name of religion, has received enough support,'' the survey on the pros and cons of Islamic radicalism shows.

''It seems small, but big enough to support extreme acts...,'' the report adds.

Since 2002, suicide bombings have killed hundreds of people in Indonesia, including attacks in Bali in 2002 that killed 202 people, many of them holidaymakers.

Based on direct interviews with 1,173 people in the country's 33 provinces, the survey found 9.6 percent of the respondents believe ''suicide bombings and other violent acts on civilian targets to defend Islam from its enemies'' are sometimes justifiable.

Of the respondents -- 87.6 percent of them Muslims -- 1.6 percent said the acts can be frequently justified, while 0.5 percent said they can always be justified.

The survey also shows 8 percent of the respondents agreed that bombing attacks committed by some terrorist suspects, such as Malaysian nationals Azahari and Nurdin Mohammad Top, are permissible as a form of opposition by Muslims against the West.

Azahari, believed to be a mastermind of a series of bombing attacks in Indonesia, was killed during a police raid in East Java Province last year.

Top, who is now the most-wanted terrorist suspect in Southeast Asia, is still at large.

Top, as Azahari was, is believed to be one of key leaders of Jemaah Islamiyah, allegedly the Southeast Asia wing of international terrorist network al-Qaida.

According to the survey, 28 percent of respondents supported anti-American sentiment by Muslims in Indonesia and 29 percent agreed that the U.S. attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq were attacks against Islam.

Although the majority of respondents interviewed in the survey did not support Islamic radicalism and anti-U.S. sentiment, 62 percent shared a similar view that Western culture has brought a bad impact for Muslims in Indonesia.