Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Not All Muslims are Terrorists

Most terrorists these days are Muslims, but not all Muslims are terrorists. This isn't a very subtle point, but I've run into a few blogs recently that didn't seem to have grasped the idea. I've also run into odd opinions about America's policies, but that's another matter.

If Islam was one big cult of destruction, Indonesia would be very hard to explain. Indonesia is, in terms of numbers of people, the biggest Islamic nation in the world.

As such, Indonesia should be a hotbed of terrorist activity.

Instead, Indonesia, and people visiting the country, are victims of terrorists. Almost five years ago, a tourist spot in Bali blew up and burned, with tourists inside. 202 people died.

to date, it's been the biggest terrorist attack in Indonesia. That's no 9/11, but it was serious enough to be called Australia's 9/11, since over a third of the victims were Australians.

It was the first of four attacks in as many years:
  • 2002 Bali nightclub bombings
  • 2003 bombing at J.W. Marriott hotel
  • 2004 bombing of the Australian Embassy
  • 2005 triple suicide attacks on restaurants
The 2002 attacks killed 202 people. The 2003 and 2004 bombings killed 22 in all, about twenty were killed in 2005.

The total fatalities were less than a tenth of 9/11 death toll: but those were attacks, nonetheless. In an Islamic country: the biggest in the world.

And, although news reports still use words like "alleged," Jemaah Islamiyah (الجماعة الاسل, or Islam Community, I think) is almost certainly involved. Those aren't "Crusaders."

The top Indonesian court rejected appeals that lawyers for three "Islamic militants" who "all admitted in court to planning and carrying out the attacks, which they have said were meant to punish the U.S. and its Western allies for alleged atrocities in Afghanistan. They showed no remorse and taunted relatives of the victims in court."

I can understand their lack of remorse. Ali Ghufron, Amrozi Nurhasyim. and Imam Samudra probably believe that their act of mass murder was the will of Allah, and that they'll be well-rewarded.

But, that doesn't mean that all Muslims have those beliefs. Remember: it's the courts of an Islamic nation that's sentenced them to death by firing squad.

Related posts, on tolerance, bigotry, racism, and hatred

1 comment:

Brigid said...

Looks like the Indonesians weren't Islamic enough for them.

Those poor people. It's very sad.

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Blogroll

Note! Although I believe that these websites and blogs are useful resources for understanding the War on Terror, I do not necessarily agree with their opinions. 1 1 Given a recent misunderstanding of the phrase "useful resources," a clarification: I do not limit my reading to resources which support my views, or even to those which appear to be accurate. Reading opinions contrary to what I believed has been very useful at times: sometimes verifying my previous assumptions, sometimes encouraging me to change them.

Even resources which, in my opinion, are simply inaccurate are sometimes useful: these can give valuable insights into why some people or groups believe what they do.

In short, It is my opinion that some of the resources in this blogroll are neither accurate, nor unbiased. I do, however, believe that they are useful in understanding the War on Terror, the many versions of Islam, terrorism, and related topics.