MASSACRE IN MUMBAI
MASSACRE IN MUMBAI: THE WAR ON
TERROR - A RECAP
by
Ken Eliasberg
On Tuesday, July 11th, radical Islam continued its assault on our sensibilities by savaging hundreds of innocent civilians (yes, professor, there are innocent civilians) in multiple bombings along the commuter railroad system in Mumbai (until recently more commonly known as Bombay). Approximately 150 people were killed, and hundreds more were wounded. Are we beginning to see, if not completely understand, Islam’s problem with its more fractious elements? To assist in this process, it might be helpful to review some of radical Islam’s attention-getting events of the last 5 years. Recall the statement by 19th century abolitionist, Wendell Phillips that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. Since we have not been attacked since 9/11, there is a tendency to get both comfortable and soft—a tendency that, if not checked, could prove fatal. So let’s just hit some of the high spots of fairly recent terrorist activity; I shall not labor over the details—this will be more of a reminder than a review.
Spain.- On March 11, 2004 Islamists executed a coordinated bombing against the commuter train system of Madrid; it resulted in the death of 192 people and the wounding of in excess of 2,000 others. It took place right before the Spanish election and had the desired effect, i.e. bringing in a left-wing government that promptly called for the withdrawal of Spanish forces in Iraq.
Russia.- On September 1, 2004 a Muslim terrorist group took more than 1,200 school children and adults hostage, and, after a 3-day stand-off, Russian forces stormed their location. In the ensuing debacle, 344 people were killed (186 of them were children). As an aside, there is a bit of recent good news with regard to Chechnya; early in July, Russian forces killed the top Chechen rebel field commander, Shamil Basayev (within close proximity to the time of our getting our worst enemy leader, Zarqawi).
Holland.- In Novemer, 2004, Theo Van Gogh, grandson of Vincent’s brother was gunned down on the streets of Amsterdam, virtually decapitated, and left with a note stabbed to his chest, advising the rest of Holland that Muslims were not happy with Van Gogh’s portrayal of the manner in which Muslim women were treated.
Great Britain.- On July 7, 2005, Islamists attacked London’s commuter train system, killing over 50 people and wounding over 700 more.
Denmark.- On September 30, 2005 a Danish newspaper published several unflattering cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad which produced a delayed result—much like a time bomb. Some 6 months later, spurred on by several of Islam’s holy men, who publicized the cartoons in the Middle East, all hell broke loose. Many were killed, and many more were injured. Don’t you kind of wonder about what kind of holy man incites his flock to mayhem, and what kind of flock mindlessly carries out his directive?
Bali.- Islamic terrorists set off several bombs, killing 23 people and wounding many others.
Norway and Sweden.- Gangs of Muslim thugs went on a rape spree, apparently the manner in which they express their displeasure over certain signs of modernity.
Somalia.- Islamists have apparently taken over that God-forsaken place, deposing the reigning warlords in the process. While this might appear to be just exchanging one form of a disease for another, it is more serious than that. Somalia looks like it will become another Afghanistan, i.e. a home for Al Qaeda—a sovereign state within which it can set up its base of operations, free of the need to go from cave to cave.
India.- And there is the recent bombing in Mumbai. However, Muslim reaction in this region is not entirely new—Muslims have been going after Hindus for decades. Indeed, hostilities between the 2 led to the creation of Pakistan, a Muslim state, and later Bangladesh, another Muslim state. Also, Muslim terrorists have been operating in Kashmir for some time.
These are but the highlights of completed terrorist acts; potential acts were frustrated in Canada and in New York (the tunnels), as well as various other places. These bad boys have indeed been active, and they will continue to be until we crush them. As noted, I have just hit the highlights; for those of you who wish to find out a more detailed review of their activities, I refer you to an excellent website, www.the religionofpeace.com, where you will be overwhelmed by the scope of terrorist activities. However, let me share with you some of the more salient observations made at that website.
To put Islamist killing in perspective, the website makes the following observations: (1)” More people are killed by Islamists each year than in all 350 years of the Spanish Inquisition combined, (2) Islamic terrorists murder more people every day than the Ku Klux Klan has in the last 50 years, (3) more civilians were killed by Muslim extremists in two hours on September 11th than in the 36 years of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland; and (4) 19 Muslim hijackers killed more innocents in two hours on September 11th than the number of American criminals put to death in the last 65 years.”
Wait a minute, I thought that Islam was the religion of peace—it seems fairly clear that an awful lot of Muslims are not getting the message because they seem to be doing an awful lot of killing. If the message isn’t getting across, is it the transmitter or the receiver that’s not working—help me out here, I’m confused. Perhaps the answer is best summed up in a July 14th column by Diana West, entitled Connecting the dots on Islam, in which she makes the following observation after noting our need to resist such Islamist depredations:
“Besides the will to resist, then, we need the knowledge to resist - -
the knowledge that there is in the religion of Islam itself the historical,
inexorable and driving force behind what the entire non-Muslim
world is now experiencing as jihad terror. Whether most Muslims
wouldn’t hurt a fly is an increasingly irrelevant footnote to the
hostile aggression of other Muslims who, in a very short time,
have actually transformed civilization as we used to know it.
If the will to resist allows us to manage the threat of violence, the will to connect the dots would compel us to eliminate it. How? By carefully examining and, I would hope, reconsidering and reversing, through foreign domestic and immigration initiatives, what should now be seen, gimlet-eyed, as the Islamization of the non-Islamic
World. Such an assessment, however, is all too vulnerable to the
catcall-attacks of