[Andorion]

Well, regarding terrorism in the East, there was a huge bomb blast in a park in Lahore in Pakistan where many families had gathered to celebrate Easter. Around 60 dead I think, I will post a link when I can. Many women and kids affected. The blast was targeted at Christians

Cnn

bbc

This post has been edited by Andorion: 28 March 2016 - 04:12 AM

[Terez]

Yes, that is what we were discussing from Tsundoku's post.

[Grief]

Hmm, perhaps "Terrorism and the West" would be a more fitting title for the discussion?

[Tsundoku]

 Grief, on 28 March 2016 - 07:23 PM, said:

Hmm, perhaps "Terrorism and the West" would be a more fitting title for the discussion?

Maybe Terezzle wouldn't mind a title edit - to "Terrorism in and the West"?

[Cause]

To my mind the bombing in Pakistan and now a plane hijacking in Egypt does not prove that the west does not care enough about these other countries (no human mind can comprehend the whole world, its rational to care about things based on proximity) rather it proves that all this talk about doing more to integrate immigrants and the like is not the answer. How much more integration can have a Muslim have in Pakistan which is more than 90 % Muslim and has Islam as its state religion? Okay admittedly I think their is a hardcore party that wants sharia law and is not getting it but if that is the line they want crossed then Europe can expect this war to never end. Sharia law (at least my understanding of the kind they want) is the most twisted abomination imaginable and will never stand in any western nation.

I couldn't begin to guess at what creates the mind of a terrorist suicide bomber. I would be willing to bet that often their motives are not rational. I would be willing to bet that often higher up in the chain of command are twisted and sick men who manipulate others. That their motives are deeply selfish and harmful. I would also argue that once again regardless of what true Islam is or isn't and regardless of what the Quran says if you have a man kill 70 Christian people in a park on Easter and he tells you he did it in the name of Islam chances are he means what he says. If 20 000 ISIS fighters tell you they want a caliphate and are fighting for Islam chances are they mean what they say. When Africans in my country go to church on Easter Sunday and then go home to sacrifice animals to appease their ancestors I don't believe for a second in my mind that they are faking being Christian. People can be remarkably ignorant about their faith but still believe in it absolutely (in fact its a symptom of missionary practices). Maybe if it was not Islam it would be something else, what matters is that today it is Islam and we need to take a look at why that is so rather than shying away from the issue for fear of offending someone so we can actually do something about it.

We know that there are many state actors that fund this brand of terrorism (Saudia Arabia and Iran). We know they both use Islam as part of their means of controlling said terrorism. We know that hate preachers are exported from both regions and elsewhere. We know hate preachers operate worldwide. The problem is not with us. I believe we can tackle the issue without tackling all of Islam.

[EmperorMagus]

I love this quote by a Muslim Scottish minister. Explains my feelings on the issue perfectly.

Quote

Following the revelation, Humza Yousaf, the Scottish government's only Muslim minister, immediately responded in a tweet: "No ifs, no buts, no living in denial – vile cancer of sectarianism needs stamped out wherever it exists – including amongst Muslims."

This post has been edited by EmperorMagus: 29 March 2016 - 09:07 AM

[Tsundoku]

 EmperorMagus, on 29 March 2016 - 09:07 AM, said:

I love this quote by a Muslim Scottish minister. Explains my feelings on the issue perfectly.

Quote

Following the revelation, Humza Yousaf, the Scottish government's only Muslim minister, immediately responded in a tweet: "No ifs, no buts, no living in denial – vile cancer of sectarianism needs stamped out wherever it exists – including amongst Muslims."

That's a cool quote. But OTOH, to do that means homogeneity. Maybe we'll have one world culture someday, when the great melting pot has us all with tan skin, predominantly brown eyes and hair etc. But that day isn't soon.

(EDIT: on that thought, what would that race look most like in todays ethnic groups? Hawaiians? Iranians? Central Asians? Brasilians? North African/Arab mixes? Barack Obama? )

Also, I realise this is a very subjective question, but who out there is willing to lose their cultural/racial distinctiveness and be subsumed into something bigger - complete assimilation? Or perhaps not be completely subsumed by another dominant culture, but inject 10% into the mix to create something a little different?

Following that line of thought, of the whole of humanity was one culture, one race ... where's the diversity? Or have we already included all the good stuff and ditched all the bad stuff in that process - like sorting the wheat from the chaff demographically speaking?

And that's my Deep Thought for the month.

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 29 March 2016 - 11:29 AM

[Mezla PigDog]

 EmperorMagus, on 29 March 2016 - 09:07 AM, said:

I love this quote by a Muslim Scottish minister. Explains my feelings on the issue perfectly.

Quote

Following the revelation, Humza Yousaf, the Scottish government's only Muslim minister, immediately responded in a tweet: "No ifs, no buts, no living in denial – vile cancer of sectarianism needs stamped out wherever it exists – including amongst Muslims."

I am not 100% sure as I haven't researched it but I will guess that the quote is not in response to the recent Brussels or Pakistan attacks but is in relation to the murder last week of a shop keeper in Glasgow. It's probably a new one for the UK but the chap was from a minority Muslim group and the suspected culprit is from a different Muslim group. When the murder first hit the news and the police said they were investigating a racial motivation I think we all assumed it would have been a white guy.

[Cause]

Dissapointing twist on an otherwise very nice tweet. The words are still applicable but they wont get as much coverage

[Cause]

He had a fake explosive. All hostages were safely freed and he surrendered. Just a lone wolf nutcase who apparently was just depressed or something and wanted the authorities to force his ex wife to speak to him. Truly bizarre

[EmperorMagus]

 Tsundoku, on 29 March 2016 - 11:24 AM, said:

 EmperorMagus, on 29 March 2016 - 09:07 AM, said:

I love this quote by a Muslim Scottish minister. Explains my feelings on the issue perfectly.

Quote

Following the revelation, Humza Yousaf, the Scottish government's only Muslim minister, immediately responded in a tweet: "No ifs, no buts, no living in denial – vile cancer of sectarianism needs stamped out wherever it exists – including amongst Muslims."

That's a cool quote. But OTOH, to do that means homogeneity. Maybe we'll have one world culture someday, when the great melting pot has us all with tan skin, predominantly brown eyes and hair etc. But that day isn't soon.

(EDIT: on that thought, what would that race look most like in todays ethnic groups? Hawaiians? Iranians? Central Asians? Brasilians? North African/Arab mixes? Barack Obama? )

Also, I realise this is a very subjective question, but who out there is willing to lose their cultural/racial distinctiveness and be subsumed into something bigger - complete assimilation? Or perhaps not be completely subsumed by another dominant culture, but inject 10% into the mix to create something a little different?

Following that line of thought, of the whole of humanity was one culture, one race ... where's the diversity? Or have we already included all the good stuff and ditched all the bad stuff in that process - like sorting the wheat from the chaff demographically speaking?

And that's my Deep Thought for the month.

Quote

Sectarianism is a form of bigotry, discrimination, or hatred arising from attaching relations of inferiority and superiority to differences between subdivisions within a group. Common examples are denominations of a religion, ethnic identity, class, or region for citizens of a state, and factions of a political movement.

I think sectarianism can be generalized to beliefs in the inferiority of other races/religions as well.

Eliminating it doesn't mean eliminating different cultures.

[Cause]

Found This on facebook and thought it was a pretty good article.

I quite like:
“Defeating” al Qaeda was only ever going to give rise to a group like ISIS, because it was not al Qaeda that had “inspired extremism”; it was extremism that had inspired al Qaeda.

[Gorefest]

 Cause, on 30 March 2016 - 12:03 AM, said:

He had a fake explosive. All hostages were safely freed and he surrendered. Just a lone wolf nutcase who apparently was just depressed or something and wanted the authorities to force his ex wife to speak to him. Truly bizarre

And the British response to such an event:



Leeds folk, gotta love 'em.

Edit: for clarification, this is the actual hijacker and one of his actual captives, Ben Innes from Leeds.

'I figured if his bomb was real I’d nothing lose anyway, so took a chance to get a closer look at it. I got one of the cabin crew to translate for me and asked him if I could do a selfie with him. He just shrugged OK so I stood by him and smiled for the camera while a stewardess did the snap. It has to be the best selfie ever.'

This post has been edited by Gorefest: 30 March 2016 - 12:40 PM

[Cause]

What nationality is that guy? I thought he was Egyptian but does not look like it.

[Gorefest]

I believe he is Egyptian. It's the guy on the left, btw, with the bomb belt.

[Tsundoku]

So ... about those 28 pages?

http://www.news.com....0d5c84ae2d88be2

Let's face it, we all knew the Saudis were up to their armpits in terrorist funding, but noone had the balls to say it.

I wonder what has changed in the relationship between the USA and KSA for this sort of talk to become more open? Have the Yanks invented something that replaces oil in economically-viable quantities?

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 18 April 2016 - 09:35 AM

[Terez]

We can buy from Iran now. I doubt it will be a simple trade-off but that gives us a lot of leeway we didn't have before.

[Tsundoku]

Surely it can't be that simple? What if they have another falling out with their new bros a-la 1979?

It's a bit silly to put all ones eggs in one basket while busily burning bridges behind ... one. I'd apologise for the mixed metaphor but you get the gist.

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 18 April 2016 - 09:59 AM

[Terez]

I don't think we'll be attempting regime change in SA so I doubt we'll go 1979ish.

[Tsundoku]

Sorry, I meant Iran. As in what if it all goes to shit again? I dare say it wouldn't take much.

Then they'll have both KSA and Iran hating their guts.