Left: The remains of an army bus bombing in Damascus on October 20. Right: A victim of government shelling in Ariha in rebel-held Idlib province. |
Barely a day passes when news of terror committed by radical Muslims does not make the headlines. Wednesday morning was no exception, as flashed of a blast on an army bus in the Syrian capital Damascus, killing 14 people, the deadliest bombing in the Syrian capital in years. The attack by Islamists on Damascus was quickly followed by army shelling in rebel-held Idlib, which resulted in the death of another 12 people.
This wasn’t an attack by Israel or any other country infected by ‘Islamophobia’. It was a Muslim-on-Muslim slaughter, one that has consumed us Muslims for 1,400 years and has been exacerbated by our search for the one true Islam that has eluded us wherever we reside.
Last week we Muslims reached another “shameful milestone” when the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that the conflict in Yemen has killed or maimed 10,000 children since fighting started in the impoverished Arab country in March 2015.
UNICEF says that four children have been killed or maimed every day in Yemen.
UNICEF said that was the equivalent of four children every day. Urging all parties to the conflict to stop the fighting, UNICEF spokesperson James Elder : “Yemen is the most difficult place in the world to be a child. And, incredulously, it is getting worse.”
Speaking of the war in Yemen: Last week, the Saudi-backed coalition claimed it had killed 160 Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the battle to control the city of Marib.
This killing was not the work of the hated Hindu or the loathsome Jew, nor was it the ‘imperialist’ West that bombed the dead Muslims. It was one of us: fellow Muslims who killed them.
Boasting about the carnage, the Saudi Press Agency officials as saying: “We carried out 32 strikes ... in Abdiya over the past 24 hours,” adding that “11 military vehicles were destroyed, and more than 160 terrorist elements eliminated”.
The quest for inflicting death on our imaginary enemies is not restricted to fellow Muslims — Shia vs Sunni, Shia and Sunni vs. Ahmaddiya, all three vs. the Ismailis and all of the above united against the atheist or secular Muslim.
You may recall the recent stabbing death of British MP David Amess by 25-year-old Ali Harbi Ali, a Muslim Briton of Somali heritage. According to the BBC, Harbi Ali was once referred to the counter-terrorist Prevent scheme some years ago but was never a formal subject of interest to MI5.
Europe’s latest jihadi killers: Ali Harbi Ali (left) and Espen Andersen Brathen. |
Early investigations revealed a “potential motivation linked to Islamist extremism,” police said. What does that mean? Instead of discussing the ideology and the state of mind that turns a Muslim man into a killer terrorist, the British media focused on protection for MPs.
Amess’s death overshadowed another mass killing in Europe. This one was committed by Espen Andersen Brathen, a recent convert to Islam in Denmark who took to medievalism with such a passion, that he carried a bow and arrow the day he killed five non-Muslims in the neighbouring Norwegian town of Kongsberg.
It wasn’t just in Europe or the Middle East that Islamist radicals demonstrated their evil ways. Bangladesh, one of the few Islamic countries committed to secularism and where radical Islamic parties are outlawed, saw an outburst of radical Muslims attack Hindu temples resulting in many deaths.
A strong-willed Prime Minister Shaikh Hasina struck back with an iron fist and detained hundreds of zealots who are said to be inspired by the Jamaat-e-Islami, the South Asian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Elsewhere, dozens died in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan as jihadis sent suicide bombers to slaughter Shia Muslims offering Friday prayers.
The litany of Islamist terror and killing is endless. The question is when will the rest of us wake up and have the courage to challenge the doctrine of armed jihad?
Tarek Fatah is a Robert J. and Abby B. Levine Fellow at the Middle East Forum, a founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, and a columnist at the Toronto Sun.
