Family Suicide Attacks: Indonesia Must Deradicalize Mothers And Kids Too
Sidney Jones (@sidneyIPAC) is director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Indonesia is still in a state of shock after a horrifying series of terrorist attacks across the country last week. In East Java, members of three pro-ISIS families tried to carry out separate but coordinated suicide bombings.
One family of six split up and attacked three churches. All of the bombers — mother, father, two teenage sons and two daughters, ages 9 and 12 — were killed, together with 12 churchgoers.
The bomb another family was making exploded prematurely, killing the parents and teenage son. The parents and two sons in a third family died trying to bomb a police station. An 8-year-old daughter survived.
What could possibly have motivated these families to kill themselves? And will this be the new normal for
