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TAMPA, Fl (Mar. 11, 2006) - A Hindu temple
was partly destroyed and a devotee was seriously injured when
a homemade pipe-bomb exploded in Poso, Indonesia on March
10, 2006. When 40-year-old Nengiah Sugiarta opened a door,
the bomb detonated collapsing the walls and roof of the temple.
Sugiarta, who has been a guard at the temple for 15 years,
was seriously injured in the legs and waist by wood and nail
shrapnel. Officials have not yet identified the culprits of
Friday's attack but suspect Islamic militants based on a recent
history of attacks, including bombings and beheadings, against
the local Christian population.
Though the attack was the first to target
Hindus on the island, Islamic militants in other parts of
Muslim-majority Indonesia have been behind several other high-profile
bombings, especially in the predominantly Hindu island of
Bali. In 2002, three serial bomb blasts claimed the lives
of 202 people and injured another 209. In October of 2005,
three suicide bombers killed 20 and injured 129. Many of the
victims of the blasts were Western tourists and local Balinese,
most of whom are Hindu. Both attacks were believed to have
been the work of Jemaah Islamiah, an Islamic radical group
organization linked to Al-Qaeda.
Hinduism was introduced to Indonesia, experts
believe, as early as 400 CE. Several small Hindu kingdoms
merged under King Sanjaya around 800 CE in central Java. Hinduism
spread throughout the Indonesian archipelago peacefully, but
has been on the wane since Islam and Christianity were introduced
to the region. Indonesia is now predominantly Muslim, making
Indonesia the largest Muslim country in the world. However,
Hindu names, Hindu images, and Hindu ways and culture are
deeply ingrained in Indonesian society which are now being
sought to be wiped out by radical Islamists. The bombing in
Poso, coming on the heels of the multiple bomb attack in the
most holy of Hindu cities, Varanasi in India, by suspected
Islamic radicals is a dangerous portent of the spread of radical
Islam in South Asia and Southeast Asia.
The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) calls
for the Indonesian government to better protect the Hindu
minority population.
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