#el-baghdadi
Following the three attacks that took place in Brussels, yesterday morning (Tuesday, March 22), and which are reported to have taken 30 lives, the people of Belgium have received massive support coming from all over the world. Some even likened the case to that of Paris (November 13, 2015). Thereafter, diverse sympathetic and reassuring articles, images and videos, have emerged on social media.
I – as a human being – condemn such barbaric and politically-motivated terrorist acts. But, Je suis Bruxelles or Je suis Paris? Well, regardless of my belongings; of where I am from and who I might be, I am neither Brussels nor Paris. Why? Because before it had occurred in Paris or Brussels, let us not forget the fact that it had actually occurred somewhere in the world. Both of Paris and Brussels belong to the world before they belong to France and Belgium. Let us not forget that those who died in Paris and Brussels where actually human beings before they ever were French or Belgian. And also, numerous other countries have known such acts. Therefore, and more importantly, terrorism is an act against humanity more than it is an act against a specific country, ethnicity religion or ideology.
Since Paris, there have been literally hundreds of terrorist attacks around the world, but sadly many of them have gone unnoticed.
Bamako, Mali (November 20, 2015): 20 dead.
A group of al-Qaeda-linked militants took 170 people hostage, ultimately killing 20, during a mass shooting at a Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako.
Tunis, Tunisia (November 24, 2015): 13 dead.
A bus loaded with Tunisian presidential guards was struck by a suicide bomber linked to the so-called Islamic State. The lone bomber killed 13 people.
Istanbul, Turkey (January 12, 2016): 13 dead.
A suicide bombing in a popular central square in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, left 13 people dead and 14 people injured.
Jakarta, Indonesia (January 14, 2016): 8 dead.
A series of suicide bombings and shootings in Indonesia’s capital left eight people dead, including four assailants. Another 24 people were wounded.
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (January 15, 2016): at least 30 dead.
A group of al-Qaeda backed militants attacked the Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou. At least 30 people were killed, and another 56 were wounded.
Ankara, Turkey (February 17, 2016): At least 29 dead.
At least 29 people were killed and another 60 people were injured. The attack was carried out by a car bomb
Mogadishu, Somalia (February 25, 2016): At least 15 dead.
After a suicide bomber detonated a bomb at the gate of the SYL hotel, at least 15 people and left others wounded.
Ankara, Turkey (March 13, 2016): 37 dead.
A second attack in Ankara this year saw the deaths of 37 people and another 127 people injured.
Istanbul, Turkey (March 19, 2016): At least 4 dead.
At least four people were killed by a suicide bomber, another 36 people were wounded by the attack on Istanbul’s main shopping street.
But why does a Western life matter more than any other one does? The world does not only revolve around the West, does it? Is Islam to blame?
As mentioned before, between the two tragedies (those of Paris and Brussels), Muslim-majority countries such as Tunisia, Mali, Egypt, Turkey and doubtlessly Syria & Iraq also suffered from such deadly ‘Islamic’ acts.
Either before or after the two tragedies, of which ISIS claimed full responsibility, Muslims have always been ISIS’ closest and main target. Especially those in Syria whom, if not affected by terrorism itself, they are being affected by 'the war against terrorism’.
According to the Syrian Centre for Policy Research, 470,000 have been killed during the time period between 15 March 2011 and 11 February 2016.
Terrorism is an act against humanity more than it is an act against a specific country, ethnicity religion or ideology.
Speaking of how ‘Islamic’ the goup is:
Raqqa, January 8th, 2016. A woman, Lena Al-Qasem, was publicly executed by her own 20 year-old jihadi son, Ali Saqr al-Qasem, the charge was : “inciting her son to leave the Islamic State and escaping together to the outside of Raqqa.”
In accordance to a hadith, the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said: ”Your Heaven lies under the feet of your mother.”
Isisorthe Islamic State In Iraq and Syria, as the barbaric group refers to itself with all complacency, is claimed to be a Salafi jihadist militant group that follows a so-called ‘Islamic’ fundamentalist, Wahhabi doctrine of Sunni Islam, which seems to be nothing but a poor justification for their politically-motivated barbarism. ‘Islamic fundamentalism, Salafism, Wahhabism…’ none of these actually existed back in the prophet’s era, nor have been mentioned in the Islamic scripture.
Where did Isis come from?
“In Syria we backed … some of the wrong people and not in the right part of the Free Syrian Army. Some of those weapons from Benghazi ended up in the hands of ISIS. So we helped build ISIS.” says the Fox News analyst and U.S. military ex-general McInerney. (See video here.)
Writing for The Guardian in August 2014, Ali Khedery states: “Principally, Isis is the product of a genocide that continued unabated as the world stood back and watched. It is the illegitimate child born of pure hate and pure fear – the result of 200,000 murdered Syrians and of millions more displaced and divorced from their hopes and dreams. Isis’s rise is also a reminder of how Bashar al-Assad’s Machiavellian embrace of al-Qaida would come back to haunt him. Facing Assad’s army and intelligence services, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Iraq’s Shia Islamist militias and their grand patron, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Syria’s initially peaceful protesters quickly became disenchanted, disillusioned and disenfranchised – and then radicalised and violently militant.”
Who is funding Isis?
“The most important source of Isis financing to date has been support coming out of the Gulf states, primarily Saudi Arabia but also Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates” says Günter Meyer, the director of the Center for Research into the Arabic World at the University of Mainz.
Isis is now funding itself, through oil sales mostly. But when it all started out, Isis was ‘seed funded’ by wealthy donors, charities and even the governments of the Persian kingdoms, Saudi Arabia and Qatar who gave money to the opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Isis included.
According to an estimate by IHS (an energy research consultancy) Isis-controlled territory produces up to 60,000 barrels per day, which is an estimated £1m every 24 hours.
Who is arming Isis?
According to a Conflict Armament Research Group study, the ammunation the group uses was manufactured mostly in America, China and Russia.
Back in 2014, Isis took possession of large amounts of kit including tanks, rocket launchers and howitzers. It is known to have smuggled in arms from places such Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Eastern Europe.
According to Reuters, the U.S. made weaponry that fell into enemy hands includes 2,300 Humvee armored vehicles, at least 40 M1A1 main battle tanks, 74,000 machine guns, and as many as 52 M198 howitzer mobile gun systems, plus numerous small arms and ammunition.
