Sunday, November 20, 2005
Islamic Terrorism: The List
For all those who claim that terrorism is not an Islamic problem -- that we should address terrorism as a general problem, and not target or profile Muslims -- a blog called The ReligionOfPeace.com has prepared a list.
I won't attempt to excerpt the list; suffice it to say that it's a list of terror attacks, explicitly carried out in the name of Islam, resulting in fatalities, since November 20, 2004. Nearly all the entries in this list pertain to attacks on civilians and civilian casualties; a few are attacks on soldiers that are particularly outrageous.
The list is over 1100 entries long.
Follow the links, and scroll down for the list. It's sobering, at the very least.
There are similar lists for 2004, and for 2001-2003, althought he links seem to be broken at the moment.
As the site says, at the end of this unbelievable list: "Still think it has nothing to do with Islam?"
(hat tip: Girl on the Right.)
* * * * *
Just to be clear about this: I have no problem with Islam as a religion. I have a serious problem with Islam as a justification for mass murder, or for world conquest... and I similarly have a problem with Muslims who prefer to remain quiet, in the face of terror attacks committed in their name.
Islam is ironically referred to as a "religion of peace". It should be abundantly clear that, for that title to mean anything, the burden of proof is on Islam to be peaceful.
UPDATE: The Mudvilla Gazette has another extremely useful list: a chronology of events leading up to the Iraq War, with heavily-cited quotes from prominent leaders, indicating what people were saying at the time. As Greyhawk explains, this is extremely useful in providing context for today's headlines.
I wish less emphasis were placed on the Monica Lewinsky Affair (damn, what an annoying double-entendre), while other items got short shrift. For example, I would have liked to see inclusion of the thirty-nine Scuds that Saddam fired, utterly without provokation, against Israel in early 1991. (I have obvious personal reasons for wanting that included; at the time, I was living on the spot marked X. But I also think it as relevant as other bellicose and unwarranted actions of Saddam, e.g. setting fire to Kuwaiti oil fields.)
Nonetheless, it's a fine job, and well worth referring back to.
