LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - On October 12, 2002, a backpack-mounted device by a suicide bomber was detonated at Paddy's Pub, a popular Balinese nightclub. A car bomb then went off near popular nightclubs in Kuta. A third, much smaller bomb then detonated outside the United States consulate in Denpasar, causing only minor damage.

Of the people killed, 88 were Australians and 38 were Indonesian citizens. An additional 240 people were injured. Damage to the densely populated residential and commercial district was considerable, destroying neighboring buildings and shattering windows several blocks away. The car bomb explosion left a one meter deep crater.
 
Members of the violent Islamist group, Jemaah Islamiyah were convicted in connection with the bombings, including three individuals who were sentenced to death.

The physical and mental scars of the survivors and relatives are still painfully present nine years later. Many feel that Indonesia was never truly the same afterwards. Security up until that point was not an important issue. Indonesia is world-renowned for its openness and laid back way of life. Religious harmony in the largely Muslim nation had been seriously tested over the years, but a live-and-let-live attitude was still one of Indonesia's trade marks. This has all changed.

While many Indonesians condemned the killings, many others kept silent or came out in support. U.S. attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq had also contributed to growing anti-western sentiments. It took years and three more bomb attacks in Jakarta to change public sentiments.

Terrorism in Indonesia is not as strong as it once was, but new recruits are never far away. A suicide bomber responsible for the most recent attack in Jakarta in July 2009 was an 18-year-old student who had just finished high school.

Regrettably, religious intolerance is on the rise, and according to the most recent surveys, and Indonesia's leadership seems unable to turn the tide.

"In Bali, the bomb site remains a hole in its bustling tourism center, like a broken tooth never replaced," Al Jazeera correspondent Step Vaessen writes.

"That empty field in the heart of Kuta's shopping district reminds visitors of a nightmare that the Balinese long have been trying to forget . As in New York, Bali finds it hard to maintain the spirit of togetherness that was so present just after those bombs changed everything."

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