{"id":87944,"date":"2019-04-29T17:29:48","date_gmt":"2019-04-30T00:29:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=87944"},"modified":"2019-04-29T17:29:48","modified_gmt":"2019-04-30T00:29:48","slug":"isis-needed-no-new-excuse-for-carnage-in-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/04\/29\/isis-needed-no-new-excuse-for-carnage-in-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"ISIS NEEDED NO NEW EXCUSE FOR CARNAGE IN SRI LANKA"},"content":{"rendered":"

GREG SHERIDAN FOREIGN EDITOR Courtesy The Australian<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

In every one of these terrorist atrocities there is something new,\nsome lesson to prepare us better to prevent the next one, and to try to break\nthe syndrome. With 359 now confirmed dead in Sri Lanka, this is one of the\nbiggest single terror attacks in history. Two moments, before the carnage, were\nstriking. One of the bombers, walking towards the church where he was to commit\nmass murder, paused for a nanosecond to pat a child on the head. Another bomber\nlined up at the breakfast buffet in the hotel where he was to commit mass\nmurder, waiting to be served.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both the terrorists looked completely calm. There was not the\nfeverish agitation and nervousness that fictional presentations of suicide\nbombers typically present. Boffins talk of the martyrdom mindset\u201d , which\nIslamist terror leaders can instil in followers, the gripping conviction that\nwhat they are doing is right and will be rewarded. It indicates the tenacious\npower of the extreme Islamist ideology that lies behind these atrocities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything about these murders suggests the strength of the\nunderlying belief system. There has been no serious hostility between\nChristians and Muslims in Sri Lanka. Muslims make up a little under 10 per cent\nof the nation\u2019s population, Christians a bit less than that. The attacks on\nChristian churches and five-star cosmopolitan hotels instead reflect the agenda\nof Islamic State and al-Qa\u2019ida .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both these terror groups hate the West and very specifically hate\nChristianity. Islamic State has now claimed responsibility for the attacks and\nreleased a photo of a group of men, allegedly the bombers, of whom only one has\nhis face uncovered, pledging allegiance to the group. It would seem impossible\nthat a Sri Lankan Islamist group with no previous experience in mass terrorism\ncould organise such a big, sophisticated attack on its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If it does turn out Islamic State was involved, it is not so\nremarkable that it was able to get its Sri Lankan adherents to attack targets\neven where there was no previous local hostility. After all, Islamist groups\nhave got terror attacks organised in such peaceful countries as Canada and\nmotivated attempted attacks in equally peaceful Australia. The news that one of\nthe bombers had studied in Australia will lead to intense investigation of his\nexperience and associates here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it is right to try to probe and understand the path young\nmen take to radicalisation, the key factor really is the powerful ideology the\nIslamists propagate. It is hateful and full of falsehood but it contains an\ninner logic and a compelling though fraudulent narrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Islamic State claims the attack was revenge for the Christchurch\nkillings. We surely should not credit everything it says. And it seems\nimpossible that such a big operation could have been organised from scratch in\nlittle over a month. However, if Islamic State attributes the attack to\nChristchurch, the propaganda effect is the same as if it really was a response\nto Christchurch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, is it possible that Christchurch was the motivation for the\nSri Lanka attacks? The answer is no, but it is still possible Christchurch\nplayed a critical role. Islamic State does not need any new specific motivation\nto carry out murderous attacks. Islamic State, al-Qa\u2019ida and other Islamist\ngroups have been doing so for decades. However, it is possible the Christchurch\natrocity played into the psychology of motivating a goodly number of young men\nwith sufficient hatred that they would go to the extreme of suicide bombing.\nAll extremists feed off each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other feature that suggests the power of ideology is that at\nleast some of the bombers were very well educated, high achievers. It is absurd\nto attribute any of their motivation to social disadvantage or alienation as\nnormally understood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another striking feature of the past few days was the Sri Lankan\ngovernment\u2019s decision early on to shut down social media after the bombings had\noccurred. Concerns about censorship are understandable but this was a prudent\ndecision and probably designed to protect Sri Lanka\u2019s Muslim community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There had been some anti-Muslim abuse and violence against\nproperty last year carried out by extreme nationalist Buddhist groups. Social\nmedia played a key role in transforming rumours and lies into physical\nviolence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is common in many parts of the Third World especially. An\naccusation against some group is made of conduct that touches some especially\nsensitive religious or communal nerve. The accusation is then magnified in the\ndishonesty and hysteria of social media. Someone issues a call to action and\nsomeone else publishes the addresses of individuals in the targeted group. And\nthen you can very easily get deadly mob violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This shocking sequence of events has also led people to question\nwhether Sri Lanka is peculiarly disposed towards violence and communal\nconflict. The long civil war between the Hindu Tamil Tigers and the\npredominantly Buddhist Sinhalese government was indeed very savage. The Tigers\npioneered suicide bombers and child terrorists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this latest violence involves neither Buddhists nor Hindus. I\nthink it is a gross defamation of Sri Lanka to suggest it remains uniquely\nprone to large-scale violence. Like many Australians, I have spent time in Sri\nLanka I travelled to different regions within the country and found nothing but\nhospitality, kindness and friendship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The civil war ended 10 years ago and Sri Lanka has been at peace \u2014\nnot perfect and not without problems, but at peace \u2014 for the past decade. There\nis only one way the civil war and its aftermath may have played into this\nterrorist outrage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the war ended, Sri Lankans yearned for a normal life in which\nsecurity concerns played a much smaller role. The previous government was\nthought to overemphasise the security state when the threat had passed, and so\na new government moved to de-emphasise security. This doesn\u2019t explain the\nshocking failure to act on Indian and US intelligence that an Islamist terror\nattack was likely. It does show there is no country on earth that can ignore\nthis threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a gross defamation to suggest Sri Lanka remains uniquely\nprone to largescale violence
\n
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GREG SHERIDAN FOREIGN EDITOR Courtesy The Australian In every one of these terrorist atrocities there is something new, some lesson to prepare us better to prevent the next one, and to try to break the syndrome. With 359 now confirmed dead in Sri Lanka, this is one of the biggest single terror attacks in history. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-terrorism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87944\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}