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Pakistani attorney and author Rafia Zakaria wrote an op-ed in Al Jazeera America about the Islamic extremists' war on fun, including sports, music, even dining in a fine restaurant. Zakaria points out that this apparent obsession predates the existence of ISIS by several decades (at least); he suspects this is a big reason why the attackers chose Paris, renowned worldwide for its brilliant culture and joie de vivre.
Terrorism’s targeting of the merry is universal and indiscriminate, a division of the world between those who wish to live and laugh and hope and those who kill and destroy. The latter are deadly and relentless, and they have already squeezed out the mirth from too many of the world’s cities, from Karachi, Kabul and Baghdad to Nairobi and Beirut.
Zakaria experienced this aspect of terror firsthand. A high school friend had just passed a big exam, and was out celebrating with his family at a restaurant in Karachi, Pakistan, when terrorists struck.
Al Jazeera America provides a separate analysis warning that military action alone cannot defeat ISIS (aka ISIL), which of course is not a "nation" in the traditional sense, but more of a guerilla outfit like Al Qaeda, that opportunistically seized a stronghold in chaotic regions of Syria and Iraq. The piece's author, political scientist Rami G. Khouri, recommends that both the West and Muslim nations of the Middle East spend more resources on addressing economic and political problems facing impoverished youths who are potentially attracted by the ISIS' recruiting pitch:
If the underlying threats to ordinary citizens’ lives in autocratic Arab-Islamic societies remain unaddressed — from jobs, water and health insurance, to free elections, a credible justice system and corruption — the flow of recruits to movements like ISIL or something even worse will persist and even accelerate.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 17 2015, @04:01AM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Mumbai_train_bombings [wikipedia.org] - Series of bombs placed in overcrowded trains in financial capital of... oh wait... India
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Mumbai_attacks [wikipedia.org] - A bunch of people enter Mumbai via sea route from Pakistan and do exactly what they did in Paris. World sits and says - these brown people are savages who fight each other.
(Score: 3, Informative) by turgid on Tuesday November 17 2015, @02:13PM
Those atrocities were given ample coverage in the British media at the time they happened. Britain has strong ties with India.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].