ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with the depiction of the local dynamics of the Moluccas sectarian unrest, with special attention to the communal conflicts in Ambon and other areas of Maluku province. It also describes chronologies, stages, and changes concerning the nature of the Maluku carnage from religious-driven collective conflict to separatist movement and terrorism-motivated violence. The chapter also remains mysterious as to how the hundreds of young men and ordinary people had been mobilized to take part in the initial onslaught. The North Maluku ChristianMuslim violence, although influenced by events in the southern regions of the Moluccas, had its own dynamic, involving the resettlement 25 years earlier of a Muslim community in a Christian district and the centuries-old rivalry between the sultanates of Ternate and Tidore. Members of Laskar Mujahidin, some attracted by the Salafi jihadist ideology of Osama bin Laden, were more committed to establishing an Islamic state in Indonesia.
