BOSSEMBELE, CAR – So-called Muslims are not the only ones massacring innocent people.
Ever since 9/11 it seems that when the average Joe (or Jill) thinks of terrorism s/he immediately turns to the Islamist variety. That is, of course, understandable, as not only was that Tuesday morning twenty years ago the single greatest act of terrorism in human history, but the fellow-minded among those 19 hijackers have been knifing, shooting, bombing and, in general, killing ever since.
Jihadis are not the only ones who use religion to call for and justify heinous acts of violence (my 2019 book When Religion Kills goes into much more detail on this issue). Hindu extremists under the guise of ‘Hindutva’ (Hindu nationalism) are attacking Muslims. Jewish extremists who see all of the land of the biblical Israel as theirs from God attack Palestinians. And there are also Christian extremists.
On this day in 2014
More than 50 Muslims were killed in two attacks by Christian terrorists known as anti-Balaka in villages north-west of Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic (CAR). The victims include at least six children, five women, and three old men. Two girls, aged seven and 18 months, were the youngest victims; the oldest was 70. Machetes and knives were the weapons of choice.
“International peacekeeping forces are failing the Muslim community. Scores of people were left unprotected from vicious anti-balaka reprisals at a time when such attacks were entirely predictable.
Joanne Mariner, Amnesty International’s senior crisis advisor in Bangui
Terrorists often see themselves as ‘heroes‘. What kind of a ‘hero‘ butchers an 18-month old?
PS Jesus wept.
Read More Today in Terrorism
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