Terror attacks in Brussels

[pat fan]

we stop dropping bombs on their countries and they stop bombing us.

 

[cabanafrau]

I will say that I find it troubling that the consistent, first and loudest comment from the Muslim communities and groups in our metro area when these acts of terror occur is always, not all Muslims believe this way and we hope we aren't victimized by those who believe it is all Muslims. I am beyond impatient for the first comment, the loudest comment, the consistent comment to be a condemnation of these kinds of acts and expressions of sympathy for the victims. I strongly suspect that the vacuum created by their current primary message goes a long way towards encouraging the naive and disenfranchised Muslim and non Muslim alike into believing there is some needed correction that these murderous thugs provide.

Are there messages of condemnation and sympathy in the wake of these acts in the Muslim community? Yes. I firmly believe they need to make that the first and strongest face they show the world in light of this horror if they want their faith portrayed in a different light. It's high time the Muslim community that believes in peaceful coexistence shows itself firmly with the rest of the world's people looking to do the same. I think it will go a long way in sending a strong message to their young people about what is right and what is wrong.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Was reading something this morning. It gave a little context to the article that was posted above.

Muslims account for up to eight per cent of the Belgian population, and 25 per cent in Brussels. Sunnis make up 98 per cent of the community, and there is a significant Wahhabi element with links to conservative Saudi Islamism.

In the Sixties, hundreds of thousands of Moroccans and Turks came to the country as ‘guest workers’, often in order to labour in the mines. Many Belgian Muslims are second and third-generation descendants of the miners.

Mohammed is the most popular first name in Brussels and Antwerp.

The Brussels terror network was spread across the so-called ‘croissant pauvre’, or ‘poor crescent’ of Brussels, a Rorschach-shaped area of deprived neighbourhoods.

These included Molenbeek and Schaerbeek, where members of the terror cell operated, and Laeken, where some of Salah Abdeslam’s accomplices grew up.

The district of Molenbeek, dubbed the ‘crucible of terror’, is 40 per cent Muslim and has 40 per cent youth unemployment.

In 2012, two Muslim politicians, Lhoucine Aït Jeddig and Redouane Ahrouch, representing Molenbeek-Saint-Jean and Anderlecht – two Brussels districts with large Muslim communities – vowed to implement Islamic Sharia law in Belgium.

I think we've got to get away from this notion that it's "racist" to even look at the facts and try to understand what's happening. Belgium is in crisis now and no doubt we'll be hearing about "what went wrong". Meanwhile, things have been happening right under their noses but nobody acted because they're afraid to upset the apple cart.

 

[gina2000]

Salafi jihadism is the term most modern day jihadists relate to. It is the return to strict Sunni observance of sharia law.

 

[Suger Mag]

This has been making the rounds on social media lately and I think it provides an interesting element to the discussion. So much attention is focused on ISIS' attacks on Western targets that we do not often realize how much horror they also commit against their fellow Muslims. Many Muslims are dying at the hands of Daesh or ISIS as well as "Westerners".

 

[TLSnell1981]

I don't mean meet the terrorists half way. I mean meet the problem half way. You know, we stop dropping bombs on their countries and they stop bombing us. Because, it's no less murderous, sick and twisted when innocent people are dying by our bombs.

But, that WON'T stop them. They consider us weak. Americans have no stomach for war and THAT is why they use innocents as shields.

 

[MPB82]

This has been making the rounds on social media lately and I think it provides an interesting element to the discussion. So much attention is focused on ISIS' attacks on Western targets that we do not often realize how much horror they also commit against their fellow Muslims. Many Muslims are dying at the hands of Daesh or ISIS as well as "Westerners".

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It's the same when Al Sharpton protests a police officer who kills an "innocent angel" with a gun but doesn't even rol over in bed for black on black crime. The news likes ratings just like the Big Bang theory does but Muslims killing Muslims doesn't make most westerners blink an eye.

Me personally? What I don't oike I don't do so I find them attacking us because of our beliefs to be terrible but I also don't condone us demanding democracy across the world. If people of a nation want change let them hange on their own. I hate being part of the World Police of America

 

[rickybobby]

Yes, it has. Probably as a direct result of America meddling in the region and basically establishing Israel and all that went along with that so that the good old USA could control trade in the region via the Suez Canal.

But we're the "good guys" right?

Are we going around beheading people? Burning them alive? Oh yeah, we waterboarded a couple of hard core members. WE are the evil ones.

 

[rickybobby]

Well for one thing we can stop bombing their countries and people for the profit of our own countries and people.

You are not a big fan of America, are you?

 

[rickybobby]

So, meanwhile, it is known in intelligence circles that these mysterious entities (please be aware that they were not referred to as Islamic terrorists) are trying desperately to get their hands on some dirty nuclear weapons, while we try to come up with ways to win their hearts.

 

[AnnaFloridaLover]

You are not a big fan of America, are you?

I'm against ignorance and blatant racism against the American muslim community and muslims in general. I'm against all forms of terrorism and getting involved in wars where we don't belong. So you want to accuse me of being anti American? LOL!

 

[Unas]

Are we going around beheading people? Burning them alive? Oh yeah, we waterboarded a couple of hard core members. WE are the evil ones.

As a matter of fact, munitions purposely delivered by our aircraft (manned and unmanned) have beheaded and burned alive many more non-combatants than the number of westerners brutally murdered by IS terrorists.

 

[Magpie]

You are not a big fan of America, are you?

You know, you can love and support your own nation without agreeing with everything it does. "You're not a fan of America!" is not a winning argument (or you'd have to support every politician in power and every decision made unconditionally and uncritically).

I'm having flashbacks to, "You oppose the Vietnam war? You must hate America!"

 

[AnnaFloridaLover]

You know, you can love and support your own nation without agreeing with everything it does. "You're not a fan of America!" is not a winning argument (or you'd have to support every politician in power and every decision made unconditionally and uncritically).

I'm having flashbacks to, "You oppose the Vietnam war? You must hate America!"

No need to go back that far, look what happened to the Dixie Chicks!

 

[rickybobby]

This isn't a video game, it's real life. We need to look at the reason it's happening in the first place and figure out how to meet half way. Our big bombs vs their small bombs. Same.

You can actually learn some things from video games. They are called simulators for training purposes, and I can assure you that in every instance, when the bad guys are after one purpose, which is your destruction, you will lose every game for 1000 years if you just "study" what to do instead of fighting back.
We actually have that policy in Libya right now. Seems we heard planning was in place at least 2 years ago, with no action yet. The result, Anarchy. Mass beheadings. Throwing homosexuals off the tops of buildings. But no waterboarding, thank goodness.

 

[rickybobby]

I'm against ignorance and blatant racism against the American muslim community and muslims in general. I'm against all forms of terrorism and getting involved in wars where we don't belong. So you want to accuse me of being anti American? LOL!

Glad you could get a laugh out of this serious problem. You have now morphed this conversation into blatant racism against Muslims. Way to deflect. I responded to your post where you said we were bombing for our own profits. This is exactly the opposite of what has happened. We have actually taken the fight to these terrorists in their own country for one reason, that being stopping them before they carry out another large scale attack here. There has been no taking of the profits, which in my belief there should have been since we are providing these countries a service by taking out killers that ravage their own and are hated there as much as they are here.

 

[rickybobby]

You know, you can love and support your own nation without agreeing with everything it does. "You're not a fan of America!" is not a winning argument (or you'd have to support every politician in power and every decision made unconditionally and uncritically).

I'm having flashbacks to, "You oppose the Vietnam war? You must hate America!"

Those of us that do love our country, I can assure you, do not agree with everything it does. That is why we have elections, and supporting every politician in power is a ridiculous statement. Never happened, never will. but coming together as Americans instead of liberal vs conservative for the common good is necessary at times.
I assure you the majority of Americans do not agree with the notion, everything happening is somehow the fault of this nation.

 

[rickybobby]

No need to go back that far, look what happened to the Dixie Chicks!

The Dixie Chicks were shunned by their fans, no government involvement. That again is the American way.

 

[rickybobby]

As a matter of fact, munitions purposely delivered by our aircraft (manned and unmanned) have beheaded and burned alive many more non-combatants than the number of westerners brutally murdered by IS terrorists.

Again, (sigh), these lunatics hide in population centers for the very reason you cite. Get it? They hide behind women and children, and when innocent civilians die, it is a terrible reality of war.
Let's give an example. The Palestinians started launching large and dangerous rockets into Israel a couple years ago in one of their ongoing skirmishes. They were firing these rockets from the roof of a hospital without regard for the possible consequences to their own sick and wounded. The Israelis had no choice but to stop the onslaught of rockets, so they retaliated. The resulting headline "Israelis fire on Palestinian Hospital. Mass casualties". This was pounced on and the Israelis were held completely responsible for the civilian casualties, but who was not blamed?

 

[ASchwa]

I'm against ignorance and blatant racism against the American muslim community and muslims in general. I'm against all forms of terrorism and getting involved in wars where we don't belong. So you want to accuse me of being anti American? LOL!

I checked the FBI statistics for 2014, 16% of all hate crimes committed were against Muslims, 57% of all hate crimes were committed against Jews. I think maybe you have no idea what racism is. Your ignorance of what Islam is and how radical Islam hijacks freedom of speech shows very well. Any criticism of Islam is shut down and any support for free speech, freedom of the press is threatened with death by radical Islam. When the attack happened in January 2015 of Charlie Hebdo in Paris, that was an attack on freedom. It is happening today when in the Palestinian Territories, Mahmoud Abbas can call Jews apes and pigs, incite and glorify murder including other Palestinians and American tourists as well as Israelis, and not one national paper reports about that incitement yet accuses Israel of extrajudicial executions, it shows the willing ignorance of the world.