JAKARTA, October 6, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – The recent Bali bombings continue to puzzle Indonesian experts as to who stands behind the attacks and what agenda they serve.

They disagreed on the motives behind the bombings, which killed 14 Indonesians and five holidaymakers, from tarnishing the image of Islam, creating unrest in the country to protesting aggressions against Muslims in Iraq and Palestine.

"It’s nothing to do with what happens in the Middle East at all," Amrozi Mohammad Rais, the director of the Center for Middle East Study, told IslamOnline.net Thursday, October 6.

He said the near-simultaneous blasts at three crowded restaurants on the resort island of Bali were not linked to what happens in Iraq and Palestine.

Amrozi, instead, accused some parties, which he did not name, of seeking to destabilize the world's most-populous Muslim nation.

"I cannot say the name but so many parties want Indonesia to be unstable," he charged.

Inspector General Ansaad Mbai, head of the anti-terror unit at Legal and Political Affairs Ministry, agreed that the motive was destabilizing Indonesia.

"They’re trying to destroy ideology first, while at the same time introducing their ideas. They need an ailing country to make it possible. Indonesia is a stepping stone," he told IOL.

"They chose Bali because they failed to do the terror in Jakarta as they expected before."

Ansaad said terrorists have been ideologically brainwashed to do so, adding his unit plans to give recommendation to the government to prevent any potential brainwashing in boarding schools or Islamic organizations by tightening Islamic curriculum.

Dr Syafii Anwar, the executive director of the International Center for Islam and Pluralism (ICIP), said the attackers were copycatting Mideast styles.

He said such people believe in two concepts of jihad; offensive and defensive adopting struggle principles of disputed countries in the Middle East. He added that what happened in Bali was an offensive way.

"But they only brave to die but not to live," Safii told IOL.

He said those individuals who believe in that way as apart of jihad think that outsider threat would destroy Islam and it is an obligation for all Muslims to prevent it.

"They are against imagining enemies. Islam even prohibits killing people and woman during war."

Safii argued that in Indonesia people understanding Islam mostly based on text not context which, he believes, lead to misunderstanding the Noble Qur'an.

Learning Islam comprehensibly must be based on context.

"But those who are committed to terror in the name of Islam never doing so."

Dr Bachtiar Efendi, a member of the Expert Board of Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI), condemned the Bali suicide bombings as a violation of Islamic tenets.

"Islamic teaching clearly prohibits someone from committing suicide. There is no excuse for such shameful actions," he told IOL.

Bachtiar said those who include suicidal action into Islamic teachings as apart of jihad must also take the responsibility of the incidence.

He charged that a number of schools teachers at certain Islamic boarding schools are preaching this.

Indonesian political analyst Dr Fahry Ali said it puzzled him that some Muslims can do such brutality.

"I feel betrayal by those Muslims – if it’s true – whoever behind the bombing. I hope it was not some of them who teach the jihad," he told IOL, adding that the incident has undermined Islam as a religion of peace.

"So who’re the enemies actually? Are they foreign tourists, Balinese or those Indonesians who were sitting and drinking at cafes? It’s very puzzling," he asked.

Fahry and Bachitar underlined the need to revise the understanding of jihad in Islamic teachings.

Fauzan Anshori, of the Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia (MMI), said the bombings were part of a scheme to smear the image of Islam.

He accused the US and its ally countries, such as Australia, of standing behind terror attacks to discredit Islam and Muslims.

"They carry out undercover infiltrating into Islamic groups to boost individuals to do terror here," he told IOL.

"In this regard, I would like to say – on behalf of Ustadz Abu Bakar Bashir – that we condemn such barbaric terror," Fauzan said, referring to the jailed Indonesian Muslim scholar.

Bashir, the MMI leader, condemned on Tuesday, October 4, the Bali terrorist blasts for targeting "innocent and unknowing victims".

Alfin Lee, a Christian-Chinese lawmaker, stressed that the recent Bali bombing had nothing to do with Islamic groups.

He said the tragedy in Bali was purely criminal to create instability in the country.