On the 3rd October 2005 the Age has reported that religious leaders have condemned the Bali bombing where three bombs exploded on Saturday evening; two at outdoor cafes at Jimbaran Beach and one at a restaurant in Kuta Square. The current toll stands at 22 dead and 105 injured where two Australians are dead.
The chairman of Anglicare Australia and Anglican bishop for the northern region of Melbourne Bishop Philip Huggins said: “Prayers for the victims and the Balinese were incorporated into services. All we can do at this distance is to remember in our prayers the victims and the people of Bali with all their need to make a life with all this going on.”
The provincial of the Australian Jesuits Father Mark Raper said: “No religious belief could justify the bombings at Jimbaran and Kuta. It is ugly, brutal criminal. The perpetrators should be pursued and judged by the forces of law, not war.”
The Chairman of the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission Paul Gardner said: “The Jewish community was horrified at the random killings. It is yet one more example of how extremist groups in various parts of the world are attempting to gain political benefits through drawing attention to their rather misguided causes through the killing of innocent people.”
Waleed Aly an Islamic Council executive state: “This is the kind of barbaric criminality that is not only a crime against humanity but is actually quite profound blasphemy.”
The Prime Minister John Howard said: “I call it wicked, I call it evil, but I call it conduct…carried out by people with no scruples or morality” while the Prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clark said the bombings were an “affront to humanity”.