215 dead in terror attacks, Sri Lanka

[kami_ryu]

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[rsy]

Fuck

[deleted_user]

But we had a high level tournament match cast today, Game of Thrones will start soon, and I'm all gravy, baby.

P.S. had to google where Sri Lanka is

[lejend]

John 15:12 This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

18 If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQnJ3sifNQQ

Revelation 21 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDlCFqy7KG4

[deleted_user]

Lejend has been killing it lately.

[tedere12]

Im in tears

[Ashvin]

They were given heads up by Indian intelligence about the attacks but they didn't do anything. IDK what to say about their leaders.

[Dolan]

Sri Lanka is no stranger to violence. The scale of the bloodshed recalled the worst days of the nation’s decades-long civil war, in which the Tamil Tigers – a violent separatist group from the ethnic Tamil minority [which is predominantly Hindu, with small Muslim, Christian and Jainist minorities] – sought independence from the Buddhist-majority country. During the war, which ended almost exactly a decade ago, the Tigers and other rebels carried out many bombings. Few remembered similar carnage, however.

Since 2012 there have been a number of attacks against Sri Lanka's Muslim minority by the majority Buddhists.

The 2014 anti-Muslim riots in Sri Lanka were religious and ethnic riots in June 2014 in south-western Sri Lanka. Muslims and their property were attacked by Sinhalese Buddhists in the towns of Aluthgama, Beruwala and Dharga Town in Kalutara District. At least four people were killed and 80 injured. Hundreds were made homeless following attacks on homes, shops, factories, mosques and a nursery. 10,000 people (8,000 Muslims and 2,000 Sinhalese) were displaced by the riots. The riots followed rallies by Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), a hard line Buddhist group.

The 2018 Sri Lankan anti-Muslim riots were a series of religious riots targeting Muslims that began in the Sri Lankan town of Ampara on 26 February 2018, spreading to Kandy District by 2 March until its end on 10 March 2018. Muslim citizens, mosques and other properties were attacked by mobs of Sinhalese Buddhists, and mobs of Muslims attacked Buddhists Temples and Sinhalese citizens.

Despite mostly coexisting peacefully, many Sinhalese are suspicious of Muslims, believing that their slightly higher birth rates threaten their demographic supremacy, while others view Muslim businessmen as exploiting poor Sinhalese. Some political analysts believe that Sinhalese extremists are trying to transfer remaining hostility against Tamils onto the mostly Tamil-speaking Muslim population. Another factor is increasing Arab influence over Sri Lankan Muslim culture in recent years including the building of a number of mosques using money coming from Arab countries and the adoption of the niqab by Muslim women which diverges from traditional dress in the area.

Sri Lanka has seen several communally charged incidents between the majority Sinhala community and the country's Muslim minority. Ampara District had experienced tensions since 2017, with Buddhist groups accusing Muslims of forced conversions and vandalising Buddhist archaeological sites.

The Sri Lankan government blocked access to social media sites in the aftermath of the attacks that killed at least 207 people, in a bid to stop a spread of misinformation that could lead to further violence.
The social media blackout is becoming a common occurrence in the region in the aftermath of violence. In March last year, the Sri Lankan government banned Facebook and other social media sites after reports of an attack on a Buddhist temple in Abathanna triggered deadly anti-Muslim riots across Kandy, in which hundreds of homes and businesses were destroyed by hardline Buddhist groups.

Oh yeah, multiculturalism works, let's have some more of it.

[Dolan]

They were given heads up by Indian intelligence about the attacks but they didn't do anything. IDK what to say about their leaders.

Sri Lanka's Minister of Telecommunication Harin Fernando confirmed that Police Chief Pujuth Jayasundara sent an alert by his Deputy Inspector General Priyalal Dissanayake dated 11 April 2019 relaying a foreign intelligence report that suicide bombers affiliated with National Thowheeth Jama'ath (NTJ), a radical Muslim group led by Mohammed Caasim Mohammed Zahran, planned to attack prominent churches and the Indian embassy in Colombo. After initial government denials of the alert's authenticity, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe stated that "information was there," about the attacks, and that his government must, "look into why adequate precautions were not taken."

The government is probably withholding this information, because in the past, when members of the Muslim minority attacked members of the Buddhist majority, this led to riots and altercations. Now they went as far as to impose a complete lockdown on social media to avoid any kind of information being spread.

[fightinfrenchman]

You are truly dumb as a rock

[Dolan]

Well that's awkward. Going to such lengths to not call it an attack on Catholic churches and Christians from that island, just because reality is too embarrassing for these politicians to handle.

Let's see how Obama reacted to the Christchurch attack:



Hillary Clinton:



So the Christchurch attack was committed against the Muslim community, but these attacks in Sri Lanka have been directed against "Easter worshippers".

Are these people idiots or do they pretend to be? Or do they take others to be complete idiots? I'm leaning towards the latter, tbh.

[Dolan]

At least Macron is consistent in both cases:

Christchurch:


Sri Lanka:


Theresa May also does the same thing, same kind of consistency. If you're not prepared to manage the public opinion effects, better avoid any labels.

[Goodspeed]

Aaaaand it's political

Great job ESOC

[Dolan]

Well, it's official. A Sri Lankan government official has declared that the terror attacks were conducted by seven Sri Lankan citizens who were known to be members of National Thowfeek Jama'ath, an Islamist Jihadi group. The authorities also suspect foreign links.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/newslond ... ar-BBWaLa7

[fightinfrenchman]

Well, it's official. A Sri Lankan government official has declared that the terror attacks were conducted by seven Sri Lankan citizens who were known to be members of National Thowfeek Jama'ath, an Islamist Jihadi group. The authorities also suspect foreign links.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/newslond ... ar-BBWaLa7

We can't trust the government though so I guess we'll never know what actually happened.

[Goodspeed]

Yeah you can't assume something is true just because it fits your narrative @Dolan

[Dolan]

Yeah you can't assume something is true just because it fits your narrative @Dolan

So what kind of evidence do you need?

The remains of the suicide bombers were identified as belonging to Sri Lankan citizens who were members of National Thowheeth Jama’ath, a group of radical Muslism established three years ago in eastern Sri Lanka.
Considering that lots of Westerners have been killed in this attack I think the Sri Lanka government would take unnecessary risks if they lied.

Also, the same government have blocked all social media in order to avoid citizens spreading informations about these attacks, which, in their view, could lead to an escalation of violence against the Muslim minority living on the island. So if they went to such great lengths to make sure there won't be a repeat of the anti-Muslim riots that took place in 2014 and 2018, why would they not lie and say the attack was not carried out by members of that Islamic group? Wouldn't it make more sense to act consistent with their social media lockdown which was meant to avoid further conflicts and attacks against the Muslim minority? Why would they ban social media to protect Muslims and then claim the perpetrators were members of a radical Muslim group, if the latter was a lie?

How far could you push mental gymnastics to see these actions as part of a plan by the government to deceive everyone else?

[Goodspeed]

Like Ear, I was kidding, referencing your conspiracy theory posts in the Notre Dame thread.

[Dolan]

The French government hasn't really finished the investigation though, so their initial explanation is only temporary.

Neither did Sri Lankan authorities finish investigations, but they have been able to identify victims, probably because the explosive blasts didn't completely pulverise the people in those locations, so they were able to identify them based on their faces and IDs.
They've already admitted they got tipped by foreign intelligence agencies 10 days before the attacks, so I guess they already had some informations about perpetrators too.

The French government didn't get this kind of information in advance.

[Dolan]

But anyway, these attacks seem to have been coordinated or ordered from outside of Sri Lanka, because this radical Muslim group was only known to be anti-Buddhist, so an attack against Catholic churches and high-end hotels where Westerners would be expected to be does not fit their anti-Buddhist agenda.

So authorities suspect the attack may have actually been ordered and coordinated by ISIS or some other major global terrorist network that has a different agenda from that of local Buddhist or Muslim groups involved in the conflicts that have rocked the island during the last few years.

Others believe this explanation might be wrong and this small and young jihadi group may have actually wanted to bring a more global agenda on the island and create a bigger kind of division than just local, separatist squibbles between Buddhists and Muslims.

[Dolan]

A more far-out explanation could be that they wanted international/Western interests to withdraw from Sri Lanka, which would have a negative effect on the island's economy, thus punishing the Buddhist majority.
And, at the same time, serve ISIS' interests of punishing the West for its defeat in Syria and Iraq. And maybe retribution for the Christchurch attack, too.

[fightinfrenchman]

Should we start calling Muslims Ramadan worshippers in the meantime?

I mean, yeah if you want. It's still pretty clear what you mean

[EAGLEMUT]

I'm calling dibs on @easterworsher9

[kami_ryu]

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[Dolan]

What they know is who the perpetrators were, which group they belonged to. What they don't know is what was the motive and who helped them. Because a small, recent Muslim group from Sri Lanka could not have had the capability to build explosive vests and they had no ideological motive to attack Christians and Westerners, since these are such a small minority on that island and the Muslims' main archenemy is the Buddhist majority.

So, this attack is slightly atypical. It was performed by a small group which punched way above its weight for reasons that seem to be more aligned with ISIS' interests than their own. They seemed to have served interests that could not be simply understood within the context of recent conflicts between the Buddhist majority and Muslim minority in Sri Lanka.