{"id":101321,"date":"2020-04-20T23:53:42","date_gmt":"2020-04-21T05:53:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=101321"},"modified":"2020-04-19T22:49:45","modified_gmt":"2020-04-20T05:49:45","slug":"sri-lankas-easter-sunday-attack-understanding-islamic-terrorism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/04\/20\/sri-lankas-easter-sunday-attack-understanding-islamic-terrorism\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka\u2019s Easter Sunday attack & understanding Islamic Terrorism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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On 21st<\/sup> April 2019 the people of Sri Lanka\nstood shocked. Exactly 10 years after defeating 30 years of terror Sri Lanka\nwas to face a new form of terror. What is peculiar and notable about the Easter\nSunday multiple mass murders was that the attacks on Catholic churches and\nluxury hotels by very rich Muslim suicide bombers did not have any demands. No\none still knows why they committed the attacks. This question one year on\nremains unanswered still. While we are searching for the answers and the\nmasterminds behind the attacks and inspite of two commissions being appointed\nto find the answers, while understanding the Muslim sentiment given that all\nsuicide bombers were Muslims, it is good for the Muslim minority to look inward\n& also search for answers as to why an increasing number of Muslims are killing\nmore Muslims than non-Muslims as statistics now reveal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Muslim population globally is 1.8billion making up\n24% of the world population. This also means there are 1.8billion Islam adherents.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are 53 majority Muslim nations in the 57 Muslim\norganization calling itself the OIC \u2013 Organization of Islamic Cooperation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ironically majority of Muslims do not live in the Middle\nEast but in the Asia-Pacific region (South & South East Asia) which\naccounts for 62% of the global Muslims. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Incidentally 1.2billion of the 1.8billion Muslims live in\n10 countries (Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Egypt, Iran,\nTurkey, Algeria and Iraq) Of this 10 only in India despite Muslims being\n194million, they are a minority. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A little over 600million Muslims are spread across rest of the Muslim majority countries but mostly in non-Muslim majority countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In Europe, Muslims comprise 8% of the population in\nFrance (5.8million) while in UK Muslims make up 5% (2.6m) however it is in\nnewly created Kosovo where 90% are Muslims and Albania where 82% (2.6m) are\nMuslims that make the only 2 Muslim majority countries in Western Europe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Muslim population in the US is 1% while Israel has a\nMuslim population of 18% (1.6m)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Islam spread after the 7th<\/sup> century. Islam is\nbroken into 2 main groups \u2013 Sunni & Shia with Shiites making only 10 to 15%\nof the 1.8billion Muslim population. Shiites are concentrated mainly in Iran,\nSouthern Iraq, South Lebanon and there are Shiite communities in Saudi Arabia,\nSyria, Afghanistan, Pakistan & India. Shiites also dominates where there is\noil \u2013 Iran, Iraq, Eastern Saudi Arabia. The sufi\u2019s are another group. There are\nin all around 73 denominations. Iran, Pakistan, Saudi, Afghanistan, Mauritiana,\nYemen make up the major Islamic states. Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Algeria, Malaysia, Maldives, Morocco, Libya,\nTunisia, United Arab Emirates, Somalia, and Brunei Islam\nis considered a state religion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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However, there has been a split between Shias and Sunnis\nsince 632. The split was over the question of succession after\nMuhammad \u2013 Shiites preferred succession to remain in family (Ali married to\nMuhammad\u2019s daughter Fatimah) while Sunni\u2019s wished to have the elite select a\nsuitable leader. Sunni\u2019s demand prevailed but Ali became the fourth caliph but\nhe too was killed in 661. Ali\u2019s son Hussein led the Shiites caliph against the\nSunni caliph. Shiites refer to their leaders as imam \u2013 Ali being first and\nHussein being third. The reference in usage of \u2018imams\u2019 & reverence further\ndivides the two groups. Shiites held Persia while Sunni\u2019s the Ottoman Empire<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.huffpost.com\/entry\/sunni-shiite-violence_n_5617767<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/timeline\/modern-sunni-shia-tensions<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we see two factors at odds with each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nfriction since 632 continuing through sectarian violence between Muslim-Muslims\ncausing more deaths than non-Muslims killing Muslims and then armed conflicts of\nwhich majority are committed by Muslims and majority of victims are also\nMuslims. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nreligious element to these conflicts is affecting Muslims more than others. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Muslims\n& Armed Conflict<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the\nmajor conflicts around the world majority are Muslim, majority of fatalities\nand injuries are to Muslims, majority are in Muslim nations and majority of the\nperpetrators are Muslims. This is a strange scenario \u2013 the victims are Muslim\nand the perpetrators are also Muslim. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Pew Research out of 49 Muslim countries 41%\nhave experienced civil war. Of the over 400 insurgent organizations recorded\nsince 1945 more than 200 are Muslim. Ironically all of these groups are being\narmed and trained by Western intelligence who are manipulating Muslim terror\ngroups for their geopolitical advantage. If this is well known, why are Muslims\njoining groups that end up only killing Muslims?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of 167,221 terrorism-related fatalities reported from\n2001 to 2015, almost all \u2014 163,532 or 98 percent \u2014 occurred outside the United States\nand Western Europe, according to the University of Maryland\u2019s Global Terrorism\nDatabase (GTD). GTD data on 25 Muslim-majority countries from Iraq to Malaysia\nreveal that these countries account for 75 percent of all fatalities from\nterrorist attacks from that period. The past 15 years Iraq has accounted for\nover 50,000 sectarian deaths. In Pakistan between 1987\u20132007 \u2013 Sunni-Shia\nsectarian rivalries has caused 4000 Muslim deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran-Iraq war in 1980s is said to have caused over\n500,000 deaths. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of the\nconflicts where Muslims are armed, the use of violent parts of Islam is used to\njustify their killing.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contrary to Samuel Huntington\u2019s Clash of the\nCivilizations implying a showdown between Christianity & Islam, its looking\nmore a Muslim-Muslim confrontation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leading OIC member states (Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and\nTurkey) have provided direct and indirect support (intelligence, weapons\nfinancing, territorial respite) for members of Hamas and ISIS\u201d\n(globalgovernancewatch)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While much\nfuror over anti-Muslim and Islamaphobia is projected and promoted by Muslims, the\nMuslim-Muslim killings that account for lakhs more deaths among their own is\nsilently ignored. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Libyan conflict has allegedly caused death to some 25,000 Muslims. Irrespective of whether the deaths were pro-Libyan or rebel \u2026 all were Muslims. Lakhs of people remain displaced also. It is good for the Muslims to remember that it was the non-Muslims globally that decried the manner that the Libyan leader was ousted and killed and how Western leaders laughed after helping kill him. This writer was one of the first to write against Gaddafi\u2019s murder. Karma has killed the rebel leader responsible for Gaddafi\u2019s death by coronavirus!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Syrian conflict has caused the death of over 400,000\nMuslims \u2013 again irrespective of whether they were Syrian government forces or\nrebel \u2013 all the dead were Muslims. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/20200104-syria-death-toll-tops-380-000-in-almost-nine-year-war-monitor<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yemen conflict has resulted in 100,000 dead Muslims and\nalmost 16million Yemeni\u2019s in hunger. Who are bombing Yemen? The Saudis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Saudis\u2019 War in Yemen Is a Crime Against Humanity<\/a><\/blockquote>