ISIS claim responsibility
The Herald reports:
Isis has claimed responsibility for the coordinated terror attacks in Paris which killed at least 127 people, and warned that more will follow.
A statement released by the extremist group said it masterminded the horrifying attacks on the French capital in revenge for “insulting” the prophet Muhammad.
The terror group singled out France for its involvement in the bombing campaign against Isis territory in Iraq and Syria and said it murdered French citizens because the nation ‘boasted’ about its military contribution.
Some people may argue that the way to stop such attacks is to leave ISIS alone, and make it illegal to insult Muhammad. But they are fooling themselves as you’ll see further on:
It said an attack at the Bataclan Theatre, during a rock concert, was aimed at “idolaters” who were “together in a party of perversity” and said the French are Isis’ “principal targets”. …
“The targets included the Bataclan theatre for exhibitions, where hundreds of idolaters gathered for a concert of prostitution and vice.
So the 100 people who died at the rock concert were targeted because the Islamic extremists of ISIS think rock concerts are immoral, and that if you offend their definition of morality, it is justified by their God to kill you.
There is no reasoning or political response to such thinking. They can’t be appeased.
The killers didn’t just randomly shoot people at the concert. They executed people one by one, shooting them as they lay wounded on the floor. Even more sickening is that they targeted a group of concert goers in wheel chairs:
Miss Wilson, 49, originally from New Orleans, also told how she witnessed the gunmen deliberately targeting concert-goers in wheelchairs. The gunmen hunted down disabled people who were sat in an area specially set aside for wheelchair users.
In the last year or so we have seen Islamic terrorist attacks in France, Australia, UK, Canada and the US. Our risk profile is lower than those countries, but we are fooling ourselves if we think we are immune. Sadly it is probably inevitable that our time will come. In 2015 there have been 59 Islamic terrorism attacks already. They are growing rapidly in frequency. The annual numbers are:
- 1999 – 0
- 2000 – 4
- 2001 – 12
- 2002 – 35
- 2003 – 20
- 2004 – 28
- 2005 – 16
- 2006 – 8
- 2007 – 6
- 2008 – 7
- 2009 – 4
- 2010 – 14
- 2011 – 19
- 2012 – 14
- 2013 – 20
- 2014 – 35
- 2015 – 59 to 13 November
How to reduce the incidence is a question, there is no easy answer to. I’ll blog on options later this week.