Senseless act can't help radical Islam

The Statesman, Asia News Network, Calcutta

Acts of violence are often referred to as senseless, and for the most part that is what they are. Last weekend's bomb attacks at Kuta beach on the largely Hindu island of Bali are senseless specifically because their consequences can and will only help those that radical Islamic groups count as their enemies.

Immediately, they will help Australian Prime Minister John Howard consolidate his support to the Western alliance against terror. An Australia that strives to be multi-cultural had been struggling with its conscience these past 13 months over Howard's unstinted support to U.S. President George Bush.

Many Australians were ambivalent about their country's position in the war against terror, believing they were better off keeping as far away from the war as their location allowed them to be.

Indeed, there were in past months several and determined protests against Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock's action against the boat people -- many of them Muslim -- who sought sanctuary in Australia and were turned away.

The weekend's events can only serve to dilute such protests. While reports suggest that a few Australians reacted angrily to the attack in Bali and accused Howard of having blood on his hands, most Australians now seem to believe terror has visited their doorstep, and that they must now join the war against it without reservation.

In Indonesia, President Megawati Soekarnoputri had in the previous months walked the tightrope between Western pressures and domestic compulsions, ignoring demands for a crackdown on Islamic fundamentalism.

Now, and if she wants any outside help for her severely bruised economy, Megawati will have to act against fringe groups, and be seen to act. One report from Southeast Asia suggests that the traditionally placid Hindus of Bali are so incensed by the weekend's events that they may engineer a backlash against Muslims on the island.

This cannot be good news for a country that is already smarting at the loss of East Timor. Neighbor Singapore has received Western appreciation for its crackdown on terror. In the aftermath of Bali the "we told you so" refrain has already been heard in statements made by government leaders to the sizable Muslim community on the island.

Muslim-dominated Malaysia will similarly have to act against radical Islamic groups, or face the threat of Western disapproval. Indonesia and Malaysia were once seen in the West as presenting the softer face of Islam; they will now have to work doubly hard on that image.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has told the House of Commons that the events in Bali underscore the need to move the war against terror into a higher gear and appears to have the total support of the Conservatives. The message from the West, post-Bali, is that all agents of terror have to be dealt with severely. Blair, for instance, was at pains to emphasize that the events in Bali and the need to tackle Saddam Hussein could not be treated as separate issues, but were in fact part of the same war. Liberals who may a week ago have labeled such reasoning specious will now find it difficult to articulate their objections.

It is the lunatic fringe that is blamed for acts of violence such as those Bali witnessed. When you add up the consequences of this single act, the conclusion is inescapable -- it would have required a truly insane Muslim to plan such an attack.