The First Bali Bombing 2002: 'Why did they do it to our Bali?'

Abstract

This paper constitutes some original research into a tragedy for many Westerners, with the instant deaths of nearly 90 Australians; as yet a largely neglected and so misunderstood example of a more localized jihad; and the musings of two Indonesian scholars long domiciled outside their native land who were able to conduct the most scholarly research into the event leading up to the bombing in Bali, Indonesian 2002. It presents a clarification of events leading to this tragedy and it seeks to explain to outside readers a brutal atrocity which was both shocking and bewildering.