ICC Note:

The parents of a four-year old child that was badly burned in Sunday’s church bombing in Indonesia have spoken about the attack. “God teaches us to forgive and not to pay revenge” the child’s parents said. The attack on the church in Samarinda occurred only days after a high-level Islamic state leader made calls for sympathizers to launch sporadic attacks. “The bomb attack…aimed to provoke religious tension in the area,” an analyst noted. However, it failed to do so. Instead of blaming another religion for the attack, the victims’ families have decided to leave the case up to the law enforcement to resolve. Amid rising tension in Indonesia over the Jakarta governor’s blasphemy case and increased cases of religious violence, this church’s peaceful reaction to this tragic event presents an amazing testimony of forgiveness.

11/16/2016 Indonesia (The Jakarta Post) – Deep sorrow: Relatives carry the coffin of Intan Olivia at her parents’ house on Jl Cipto Mangunkusumo in Samarinda before her burial at the Phutak Christian Cemetery in Loa Duri, Kutai Kartanegara, East Kalimantan, on Tuesday. Intan died from severe burns to her body hours after the terror attack on a church in Samarinda on Sunday.(Tribunnews/Christoper D)

The bomb attack perpetrated by alleged Islamic State (IS) group sympathizers at a church in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, killing a toddler and injuring three others, aimed to provoke religious tensions in the area, an analyst says.

But the terror group will likely fail at achieving this goal, as both Muslims and Christians have condemned the attack, which came at a time when the country is facing a growing threat of religious intolerance.

Instead of blaming a specific religion for the attack, religious followers have left it up to law enforcement bodies to resolve the case, a move that has prevented the emergence of sectarian conflict in the area, University of Indonesia (UI) terrorism expert Ridwan Habib said.

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