Suspect Bomb Explosion in Church: Sulawesi, Indonesia

Whenever I hear or read about bombs going off I instantly think 'Here we go again'. A suspected bomb exploded in an empty church on Indonesia's Central Sulawesi province. Apparently it alarmed residents but no injuries were reported.

The police investigating the incident suspect it was a homemade bomb but they reckon just to be sure they will have to investigate onsite evidence. Smart thinking considering the church has had a sudden makeover. As always the police try and link the bombing with another situation and they feel that maybe it was because of a spate of attacks targeting Christians including market bombings and the beheadings of three schoolgirls.

Although the vast majority of Indonesia's 220 million residents are Muslim, a large percentage of central Sulawesi's population is Christian. There were fierce battles between members of the two faiths in 2001 and 2002 that killed about 1,000 people. Poso was the centre of the violence. Why then was I not surprised when the police bomb squad had not found evidence of a bombing or traces of explosives.

Something must have destroyed the church. I know, exploding prayer books!.