Indonesian Terrorism

Juan Cole leads today with an explanation of what al-Qaeda is doing in Indonesia. The JI terrorist group there is not actually part of al-Qaeda, but al-Qaeda is supporting their operations through connections similar to what I described here. Their eventual goal is to create an Islamic state in Southeast Asia, and they're taking advantage of Indonesia's complex internal composition and questionable economic stability to begin their campaign there. In his trial, one of the Bali bombing people said he felt that action was a success because it helped drive away "the corrupting influence of foreign tourists." Incidentally, Indonesian terror groups seem not to place much emphasis on the separatist campaign in Aceh, for reasons an Indonesianist could probably understand better than I.