Dreadful Terrorist Attack In Peshawar, Pakistan

[bobabode]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...y.html?hpid=z1

Taliban targets children and teachers at school.
141 dead, mostly kids.

[Dondilion]

Originally Posted by bobabode

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...y.html?hpid=z1

Taliban targets children and teachers at school.
141 dead, mostly kids.

The army fostered these people. The Pakistani army has always been sympathetic to terrorists. Now the terrorists are out of their
control.

[Rajoo]

Pakistani army probably created (or at least funded and armed) their home grown version of Taliban to fight against the western forces in Afghanistan. Now that very same force is coming home to haunt them.

This is the second high profile attack in Peshawar which is a garrison city. The earlier one was an attack on an air base in the same area.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-19278302

[merrylander]

So where is the outcry by devout muslims against this atrocity?

[barbara]

Originally Posted by merrylander

So where is the outcry by devout muslims against this atrocity?

In my area.... Muslims are fearful of speaking up.... They have a spokesperson, a leader in their community, that is working with the larger community to bridge fears and misconceptions. This effort began after a terrorist was arrested locally and convicted. Like most terrorists.... His Muslim faith was just used as a tool for his terrorist agenda.

[BlueStreak]

Originally Posted by Dondilion

The army fostered these people. The Pakistani army has always been sympathetic to terrorists. Now the terrorists are out of their
control.

Sounds familiar.

Dave

[Ike Bana]

Originally Posted by barbara

In my area.... Muslims are fearful of speaking up.... They have a spokesperson, a leader in their community, that is working with the larger community to bridge fears and misconceptions. This effort began after a terrorist was arrested locally and convicted. Like most terrorists.... His Muslim faith was just used as a tool for his terrorist agenda.

Of course we can understand the power of fear. As I mentioned in another post just this morning...Jews walked quietly onto the cattle cars because they were more afraid of what would happen right then if they did not comply than what they suspected would happen when they reached their destination.

That said...how much is it going to take for people to rise up and not only express their disgust for those who are distorting their beliefs into this sort of depravity, but take direct action to stop it. Some wackjob religious sect in this country pulls something like this and I expect to see thousands, maybe millions of Americans screaming bloody murder to anybody who will listen. Cops, politicians, TeeVee reporters. You don't think that if something like this happened in this country some quasi-religious pack of hyenas gunned down and blew up hundreds of children, that hordes of infuriated common people wouldn't descend on the headquarters of the perpetrators? And possibly with guns, knives, bricks and bats?

The people of Pakistan know who and where these people are. The Taliban is a small fanatical minority. And yet, they operate in utter open contempt of the authorities. Fear is an excuse that only goes so far.

[donquixote99]

Originally Posted by merrylander

So where is the outcry by devout muslims against this atrocity?

It has been denounced by--wait for it--the Afghan Taliban.

(The Afghan group is separate from the Pakistani Taliban, and has enjoyed a helpful relationship with Pakistani security forces, who were the target of this attack.)

But in all fairness, devout Muslims of course are as shocked and stricken by terrorism as anyone. Devout Muslims were the victims, in this and countless other cases. The call for more denunciations, every time, is a hallmark of anti-Muslim propaganda. Tour the RW sites if you don't believe me.

Here's part of an editorial from Vox on this subject:

There's a certain ritual that each and every one of the world's billion-plus Muslims, especially those living in Western countries, is expected to go through immediately following any incident of violence involving a Muslim perpetrator. It's a ritual that is continuing now with the Sydney hostage crisis, in which a deranged self-styled sheikh named Man Haron Monis took several people hostage in a downtown café.

Here is what Muslims and Muslim organizations are expected to say: "As a Muslim, I condemn this attack and terrorism in any form."

This expectation we place on Muslims, to be absolutely clear, is Islamophobic and bigoted. The denunciation is a form of apology: an apology for Islam and for Muslims. The implication is that every Muslim is under suspicion of being sympathetic to terrorism unless he or she explicitly says otherwise. The implication is also that any crime committed by a Muslim is the responsibility of all Muslims simply by virtue of their shared religion. This sort of thinking — blaming an entire group for the actions of a few individuals, assuming the worst about a person just because of their identity — is the very definition of bigotry.

http://www.vox.com/2014/12/15/739422...rrorism-sydney

Finally, you may want to review this essay, in which a Muslem activist explores this issue, and suggests the main problem is that constant denunciations of terrorism from individuals like himself are rarely reported in the mainstream media here. The pervasive drumbeat of "Where are the Muslem denunciations" from the right and others, effectively goes unanswered.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...rism-more.html

[barbara]

Originally Posted by Ike Bana

Of course we can understand the power of fear. As I mentioned in another post just this morning...Jews walked quietly onto the cattle cars because they were more afraid of what would happen right then if they did not comply than what they suspected would happen when they reached their destination.

That said...how much is it going to take for people to rise up and not only express their disgust for those who are distorting their beliefs into this sort of depravity, but take direct action to stop it. Some wackjob religious sect in this country pulls something like this and I expect to see thousands, maybe millions of Americans screaming bloody murder to anybody who will listen. Cops, politicians, TeeVee reporters. You don't think that if something like this happened in this country some quasi-religious pack of hyenas gunned down and blew up hundreds of children, that hordes of infuriated common people wouldn't descend on the headquarters of the perpetrators? And possibly with guns, knives, bricks and bats?

The people of Pakistan know who and where these people are. The Taliban is a small fanatical minority. And yet, they operate in utter open contempt of the authorities. Fear is an excuse that only goes so far.

You are right.... Fear only goes so far which is why the Muslim leaders in my area are reaching out to the community to bridge the misunderstandings and fear.

They have made a lot of positive progress.

[Oerets]

This has to do with a lack of a lack of a real middle class, education and the subjugating women thus allowing extremism to flourish.

What to do, given the fact of nukes in the country!


Barney