Murder in Bali

This weekend brought a horrifying reminder of the global nature of the jihadist threat with Saturday's bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali. Three suicide terrorists detonated their explosives in crowded cafes and restaurants, killing nearly 20 people and wounding over 60. Al Qaeda's Southeast Asian affiliate, Jemaah Islamiyah, is believed responsible. The goal of JI is to unite all of Southeast Asia's Muslims into a single theocratic state, to eventually become part of al Qaeda's grand Islamist caliphate.

These attacks came almost on the third anniversary of JI's most spectacular atrocity, which also took place on Bali. On October 12, 2002, a car bomb exploded in the Kuta Beach nightclub district, killing 202 people, many of them Australian tourists.

Dan Darling at Winds of Change has some good analysis of JI and these most recent bombings, as does Zachary Abuza at the Counterterror Blog. Suffice it to say that in Indonesia, as elsewhere, Islamist radicalism has had years to develop and overcoming it will not be easy. It is vital that the Indonesian authorities get serious about confronting JI.