Terrorist Attacks In Brussels

[pr126]

OK, would someone please explain what is the cause of the global jihad, and why is it called jihad if it has nothing to do with Islam.

Then there are the Muslim fighters, -  who call themselves mujaheddin, and quote from the Quran despite the fact that  this  has nothing to do with religion.

Of course we all know that Islamic theology forbids violence against innocent people.
The Quran teaches peace, tolerance and equality to all.

If it is the result of poverty, how come that only Muslims resort to jihad?
Are there no other poor people in the world?

[Baruch]

OK, would someone please explain what is the cause of the global jihad, and why is it called jihad if it has nothing to do with Islam.

Then there are the Muslim fighters, -  who call themselves mujaheddin, and quote from the Quran despite the fact that  this  has nothing to do with religion.

Of course we all know that Islamic theology forbids violence against innocent people.
The Quran teaches peace, tolerance and equality to all.

If it is the result of poverty, how come that only Muslims resort to jihad?
Are there no other poor people in the world?

Today, most of the wars are ME countries trying to conquer the world (not).  Every country gets multiple tries at conquering the world.  But the jihadis aren't soldiers ... they were in Afghanistan against the Soviets, and in Belgium against Nato.  Right now the jihadis happen to be Muslim-cultural-related.  This doesn't happen very often, so it is difficult to generalize, and some (yourself) don't choose to.

If Saudi Arabia would simply declare war against Iran or vice versa, and use their regular military to invade each other like proper savages ... then we would say this is a war, not jihad.  Of course language fails, jihad means several different incompatible things.  But you and I know it means terrorist.  Think Gavrilo Princip.  The assassins hired by the Serbian Black Hand, all had terminal tuberculosis ... otherwise they wouldn't have done what they did, they would have been like Hitler, and enlisted in a regular army.

So you are right, by happenstance (history is complicated, you make it too simple), jihadis today are Muslim-related folks.  Some other time, it will be someone else, as it has been in the past.  There were a lot of European terrorists trying to do terrorism in the 1880s to 1920s ... in Europe and the US.  And none of them were Muslim ... but they were all losers, loosely allied under the Black Flag of Anarchism (not the Black Flag of Isis).  I don't know why Anarchist terrorism died out after WW I.  Maybe a lot of their feed-stock was used up during the trench warfare.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Well..I suspect that if you lived in a country that was bombed relentlessly by a power that you had absolutely no chance of beating in a conventional war and a good number of your friends and family were killed along the way you might just want to lash out as well.  OK, so many no longer live in the countries being bombed,but they probably still have family and friends living in the places still being bombed and they either cannot return or don't want to, but look at it from the point of view of someone who's life has been completely turned upside down,  moved to a country where they're not really welcomed and treated like criminals 24/7 regardless of what they do or say.
I don't condone terrorism, but I also won't take the easy way out and blame it all on religion and pretend as if every Muslim is out to kill me.  There are always people who are going to make huge profit by making sure that war continues on and on with absolutely zero regard for human life. Take a look at the people who are making billions of dollars every year from never ending war and stop trying to blame it all on someone's belief in an ancient text.

[pr126]

Thanks for the replies.

The general belief is then that religion has no part to play in the global jihad.

However, I would like to point out a small matter.

In the affected areas of foreign interventions (Middle East, Asia) there are many people of different religions, other than Muslims.

Yet, there are only Muslims who engage in terror attacks around the world.

No Christians of any denominations found (so far) engaging in suicide bombing, beheading, slave taking, mass murders, etc.

On the contrary, those people of different religions,-  other than Muslims -  get exterminated with extreme prejudice, or enslaved.
Their places of worship are systematically destroyed. Why is that?

Could that something to do with religion?

[Shiranu]

No Christians of any denominations found (so far) engaging in suicide bombing, beheading, slave taking, mass murders, etc.

...

[pr126]

How many Christians, Buddhist, Hindus, Jews, Shiks are members of, or recently joined ISIS, Boko Haram, Taleban, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the thousands of other existing jihadi groups?

(Conversions to Islam don't count.)

[Shiranu]

Are terrorists only terrorists if they belong to Muslim groups? If that's your criteria then no, there are only Muslim terrorists. I'm not sure what the other terrorist organizations fall under then though.

[pr126]

Since it concerns Christian terrorist,  (American atheist do not bother with other religions)  how many terrorist attacks Christians have perpetrated explicitly because of their "ancient texts"?

Can they match 28 thousands + of Islamic terror attacks in the name of Allah since 9/11?


But wait. Since we do not attribute Muslim terrorism to Islam, it would be unfair to blame Christian  terrorism to Christianity.

It would be hypocrisy.
In fact, the labels Muslim or Christian in this context is totally inappropriate.
As the they say, "terrorism has no religion".

[drunkenshoe]

The general belief is then that religion has no part to play in the global jihad.

What a strawman.

[Baruch]

Thanks for the replies.

The general belief is then that religion has no part to play in the global jihad.

However, I would like to point out a small matter.

In the affected areas of foreign interventions (Middle East, Asia) there are many people of different religions, other than Muslims.

Yet, there are only Muslims who engage in terror attacks around the world.

No Christians of any denominations found (so far) engaging in suicide bombing, beheading, slave taking, mass murders, etc.

On the contrary, those people of different religions,-  other than Muslims -  get exterminated with extreme prejudice, or enslaved.
Their places of worship are systematically destroyed. Why is that?

Could that something to do with religion?

There are 20,000 girl sex workers in the US ... they were all captured and exploited by Muslims?  Are you sure they weren't atheists?  How did you pole the region of these perps?

[pr126]

@ Baruch

Are you familiar with the term non sequitur?

[drunkenshoe]

@  pr126

Are you?

[pr126]

But it has nothing to do with Islam. Has it?

http://youtu.be/hFyhY8WVCm0

[Cocoa Beware]

One thing I find conspicuously absent in this conversation is why attacking Belgium, who was vehemently opposed to the 2003 war, is an understandable response. America's actions during this time were overwhelmingly unpopular with Europeans in general.

I understand that ISIS probably doesn't bother to discriminate when it comes to western democracies, but how, and why, are people failing to make the same distinction on our side?

ISIS kills a lot of people, but a vast majority of them are Muslim. No one I know of has ever seen that as anything less then abhorrent. Their only lucid goal this entire time that I know of has been to establish some kind of Caliphate, and they have proven in abundance they don't really care who dies along the way.

[kilodelta]

Islam has a role within these Islamic terrorist groups...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/03/14/horror-at-the-beach-22-dead-in-terrorist-attack-on-ivory-coast-resorts/

“They killed a child, despite him kneeling down and begging,” one witness said, according to the BBC. “They shot a woman in the chest. I swear, I heard them shouting ‘Allahu Akbar.’ They’ve killed innocent people.”

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors radical Islamist websites.

Maiga was not the only one to claim that the gunmen spared Muslims and targeted Christians.

Marcel Guy said he saw a gunman approach two children on the beach and speak to them in Arabic. One of the kids knelt and began to pray. He was spared. The other child was not.

“The Christian boy was shot and killed right in front of my eyes,” Guy told the AP.