Suicide attacks in Africa, the Middle East and Asia

[PsB]

While much media attention in Europe has understandably been on Brussels, suicide bomb blasts have also recently targeted other groups of civilians going about their lives:
- Most recently in Lahore: 72 people killed, with a high proportion of children as the suicide bomber went for a play park at a busy time. The Taliban who proudly claimed responsibility said they were targeting Christians celebrating Easter as a message to Nawaz Sharif to get serious about implementing Sharia more rigorously, but it seems they killed mostly Muslims. (That's the problem when most religious minorities have been hounded out of a country: you're left to kill people from your own religion.)
- Last Friday (day off in Iraq): suicide bomb attack in Al Asriya, a suburb of Baghdad. IS targeted Shia adolescents celebrating their football club's victory. 32 killed and 84 wounded. The suicide bomber was an adolescent.
- Maiduguri, N. Nigeria, March 16: 25 people killed in a mosque by two Boko Haram suicide bombers. Another double suicide bombing in February killed 58 people in a refugee camp. In both cases the suicide bombers were women dressed as men. One of the bombers turned herself in when she realized her family was in the refugee camp.
- Bassam, Ivory Coast: the Maghreb franchise of Al Qaeda killed 16 people in restaurants at this beach near Abidjan. Probably thought they would find lots of foreigners, but killed mostly Ivorians.
- South Baghdad, February 28: two suicide bomb blasts claimed by IS killed 130 people, hundreds of wounded. Here again, predominantly Shia neighbourhoods.

That's just a sample from the last month. All this violence is not just about IS smiting "the West" for whatever reason. It is not just IS, it's also the Taliban and Boko Haram and Abu Sayaf and the Jaish this and the Askar that and countless other groups. It's all over Asia and Africa as well as the Middle East, and the only rationale I can see is that these groups really think they can conquer the world.

 

[TheDecameron]

It's a culture and it's been going on a long time. Anyone who doesn't toe their particular line is a legitimate target for them and they seem to favour children these days.

 

[Minstrel SE]

Im just numb to it PsB because I dont know how to react any more. I dont know what to do and I dont know how to help.

There seems to be no end to it and no defence against suicide bombers

There is also that shameful tendency for the west to react more when it happens nearer home.

As you say this mass murder is happening all over the world. I cant really compute how they think they can take over the world in a war of hate. Numb and depressed are my main feelings

 

[Mullardman]

Im just numb to it PsB because I dont know how to react any more. I dont know what to do and I dont know how to help.

There seems to be no end to it and no defence against suicide bombers

There is also that shameful tendency for the west to react more when it happens nearer home.

As you say this mass murder is happening all over the world. I cant really compute how they think they can take over the world in a war of hate. Numb and depressed are my main feelings

Pretty much my feelings.

I hate ignorance when it is unneccessary. What Muslim attacks and kills someone celebrating one of his prophets? These bombers are not Musllim.

What idiot seriously expects everyone else to think and behave like him?

What moron cannot see that tolerance allows him to be a bomber, but what he wants will not?

 

[Colin L]

Common factor. Stupid arrogant people trying to impose their self-centred views on others.

Terrorists do it with suicide bombers. States do it by destabilising other states they don't like or to get access to their resources.

 

[droodzilla]

A tiny minority of people like to kill and maim other people who do not share their beliefs. This has been going on for centuries in the name of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, National Socialism, Fascism. "the revolution", "the king", etc. Is there something unique about the present spate of killings (other than its visibility via 24 hour news)?

 

[TheDecameron]

There is the slightly broader issue of those giving doctrinal authority/ permission to those carrying out sectarian mass murder and assassination. That particular tap needs to be turned off.

 

[Cloth-Ears]

Slightly ?

 

[russel]

I hate ignorance when it is unneccessary. What Muslim attacks and kills someone celebrating one of his prophets? These bombers are not Musllim.

What idiot seriously expects everyone else to think and behave like him?

When is ignorance necessary? The bombers are Muslim, just as the Shankill butchers were Christian.

They do not have to be idiots, as in low IQ, just a psychopathic personality and a strong belief in God or a lust for power, psychopaths can be very clever and very manipulative.

 

[TheDecameron]

 

[Mullardman]

When is ignorance necessary? The bombers are Muslim, just as the Shankill butchers were Christian.

They do not have to be idiots, as in low IQ, just a psychopathic personality and a strong belief in God or a lust for power, psychopaths can be very clever and very manipulative.

It is unneccesarily ignorant for alleged adherents of Islam to fail to recognise that Jesus Christ, whose death and resurrection is celebrated by Christians at Easter, is an established prophet, and even a Muslim, within the Koran.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_in_Islam

It therefore makes no sense to target Christians in a bombing and makes even less sense to target an area where Muslims will also be victims.

This is ignorant. This is monumentally ignorant and is the height of stupidity for even terrorists. It shows none of the cunning you ascribe to psychopaths, or even a strong belief in God.

It just shows ignorance and stupidity.

BTW, I am an atheist.

 

[Tony L]

It also demonstrates just how easily frightened or disenfranchised humans can be brainwashed and led to violence. So much of Daesh ideology is at conflict with Islam, not least being the killing of innocent people, yet they are able to program many losers and misfits to carry it out. It demonstrates perfectly the danger of religion as a concept/tool for manipulation, e.g. believers will do things for a religion that if asked by a state no one would ever consider. The only example of suicide bombing I can think of other than the ugly distorted fascist Islam of today is the Japanese Kamikaze of WWII, and I suspect there was a religious aspect to that too (didn't many consider the Emperor a 'god'?). Speaking as an atheist no one will ever be able to convince me religion is even remotely rational or safe! Keep it all out of our schools! Tax it!

 

[davidsrsb]

The only example of suicide bombing I can think of other than the ugly distorted fascist Islam of today is the Japanese Kamikaze of WWII, and I suspect there was a religious aspect to that too

I think the Japanese regarded suicide as a way for a man to join his ancestors with honour.
Islam forbids suicide under any circumstance and can also see the Muslim victims of these people as martyrs.

 

[gassor]

It appears that most Daesh follow Wahhabism

a religious movement or branch of Sunni Islam. It has been variously described as "ultraconservative",[7] "austere",[3] "fundamentalist",[8] "puritanical"[9] and as an Islamic "reform movement" to restore "pure monotheistic worship" (tawhid) by scholars and advocates,[11] and as an "extremist pseudo-Sunni movement" by opponents.Adherents often object to the term Wahhabi or Wahhabism as derogatory, and prefer to be called Salafi or muwahhid.

Wahhabism has been accused of being "a source of global terrorism", inspiring the ideology of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL),[29] and for causing disunity in Muslim communities by labelling Muslims who disagreed with the Wahhabi definition of monotheism as apostates[30] (takfir), thus paving the way for their execution for apostasy. Wiki

 

[davidsrsb]

It appears that most Daesh follow Wahhabism

They are the exact opposite as they don't follow the Quran and Sunnah, which forbid their violent behaviour. The Sunnah also states that anyone who incorrectly accuses another of apostacy, is actually the apostate, so it is something to be done with extreme caution

 

[gassor]

They are the exact opposite as they don't follow the Quran and Sunnah, which forbid their violent behaviour.

The Quran like the Bible will be open to many interpretations I'm sure.

 

[davidsrsb]

The Quran like the Bible will be open to many interpretations I'm sure.

Less variation than the Bible, as amazingly the Sunnis and Shias have exactly the same Arabic text, not like the Catholics having extra books. Only the Arabic is taken as valid for reference as translation introduces ambiguity.
The Sunnah is different between Sunni and Shia. Sunnis mainly take the research of Bukhari and Muslim for authenticity

The Daeesh trade on pulling tiny sections out of context and on false hadiths. They rely on their followers not having read much

 

[Seeker_UK]

The Daeesh trade on pulling tiny sections out of context and on false hadiths. They rely on their followers not having read much

And if they do get read and challenge the Daesh interpretation, they run the risk of being accused of apostasy and dealt with accordingly.

 

[TheDecameron]

I.S is only one of a number of terror groups using the same scriptural authority for sectarian mass murder across continents. The world is facing a many headed hydra.

 

[Tony L]

I.S is only one of a number of terror groups using the same scriptural authority for sectarian mass murder across continents. The world is facing a many headed hydra.

Indeed, and it is unwise to ignore those distorting and manipulating religion for similar violent, bigoted and absolutist ends in certain parts of America and Israel where bibles and guns have also been brought together.