First, the attackers threw a grenade to stop the minibus. Then they shot dead the passengers, one by one. Only the driver survived. The executioners heard him gabbling to Allah for forgiveness, realised he was not a Buddhist and spared him.
After that, communal passions erupted. Crowds of Muslims and Buddhists took to the streets to demand protection. Since the ambush a string of killings claiming victims of both faiths has taken the death toll to more than 2,100.
The insurgency is now the bloodiest conflict in southeast Asia. Yet it is a war of shadows. The militants issue no communi-qués. They have no known leaders. They have made no precise demands. If they are connected to the worldwide network of Al-Qaeda and its affiliates there is no proof.
There is a sense of siege over the hushed towns and quiet fishing villages in the palmy jungles of the far south of Thailand.
[…]
“The coup leaders continue to ask the wrong questions and refuse to take the conflict for what it is — an Islamic insurgency,” said Professor Zachary Abuza of Simmons College, Boston, the leading foreign expert on the struggle. “Many Thais think it’s only about poverty and social justice,” he added.
Abuza says that two well established separatist groups, the National Revolutionary Front and the Pattani Islamic Mujaheddin Movement, are the prime movers.
Intelligence officers from Thailand and its allies are not wholly convinced. Interrogations have produced stories of tall, hooded terrorist trainers who are not Thai. Eavesdroppers have picked up radio chatter in Indonesian.
This comment from Mel Welch, Minneaplis, (in the comments below the article);
As [earlier commentor] Usman Ali illustrates, there will always be a valid justification for Islamic violence against anyone (oh, except civilians, of course, though if they’re infidel civilians it will be alright) – a right to an insurgency, though no palpable enemy or oppressor is visible. The very existence of non-Islamic ideology presents a credible threat to the oppressive Islamic Theo-tyranny that would rule your thoughts and your actions.
It is an insult and disingenous article that the Times would call this murderous action an “insurgency.” It is what it is – terrorism and murder by a tunnel-visioned worldview that will, when able, convert or kill all opposition.
Kate, sorry for the OT,
but I know this topic is big for you:
Dion won’t respct the farmer plebicite vote.
He says its “tainted” but then says he would “gaurantee” a monopoly, no voting for farmers.
It’s on National Newswatch.
Yes, I saw that. Thanks, but it was completely anticipated, though the crack about the “neoconservative” in his speech (up at Liberal.ca) was kinda special.
“Executioners”???
WTF! They are murderers, nothing more, nothing less.
The Times and any other Left Wing rag that you can name, for reasons that elude me, refuse to all a spade a spade in the Islaminc war on “everyone else.”
Still can’t figure why they do it, unless they figure that Capitalism will die and then they can negotiate with the Satanists.
Pat
islamic violence will not stop until islam is subdued worldwide
Dear,dear…. the “broad strata of society” is acting up again….
And Rosie O’Fat will blame George W. and on and on….
Radical Islamists are TERRORISTS, nothing else can describe what they do in the name of Islam.
Of course the Left has a much nicer sounding name for them,”insurgents” sounds much more legitimate, somehow makes their ’cause’ sound less radical.
They blow up innocents, behead people on TV, basically have no respect for human life.
We will be forced to take more drastic action very soon everywhere it raises it’s ugly head if we are to have peace in this world. This can’t go on.
They’re TERRORISTS, they’re blinded by hatred to the point of INSANITY.
The British hostages now in ‘custody’ in Iran is another example of our weak-kneed approach to those Bastards. They know they can do it without any real consequences. We need some better leadership in the real world. The wretched factions of radical Islam have to be taken down.
It can’t be done with kid gloves.
The religion of peace forges on spreading peace in its wake.
So after murdering those persons in cold blood now their demanding protection? how about a firing squad or a noose around thier necks
“Radical Islamists are TERRORISTS, nothing else can describe what they do in the name of Islam.”
The problem with this view is that all Muslims are exposed and trained from the same war manual and hate literature. It’s called the Quran.
How can anybody know what a radical Islamist is, other than after the violence has been commited?
Spontaneous jihad is happening throughout the world by otherwise unassuming Muslims. In America, the Salt Lake City Mall Masacre was the most recent case.
On top of that, these animals commit crimes that Hanibal Lector would probably cringe at. The recent kidnapping of a Christian Assyrian baby in Iraq is a good example of how low these savages are as life forms. When the parents couldn’t afford to pay the ransom, the Muslims, based on a common Iraqi recipe for lamb, cut off the baby’s head, broiled him and sent him back to his parents served on a bed of rice.
The only people who had overwhelming success against the savage nation of Islam were the Mongols. They defeated the Muslims everywhere, because they were even more savage, without any morality, compassion or remorse. They basically killed them all. conquering right into Arabia. The mongol army didn’t carry food, it was sustained by eating off the land and what they killed (mainly the females, after rapine) – then they piled up their skulls as a testament.
The Muslims were petrified of the Mongols.
That’s dark ages justice where these savages come from.
Appeasement, negotiation, compassion, capitulation, the Geneva Convention does not work.
Total war, zero tolerance and most of all, absolute fear works.