Islam: A Peaceful Religion
February 26, 1993 - World Trade Center
6 dead, 1,000 injured
October 4, 1993 - Black Hawk Down Incident (Somalia)
18 dead
June 25, 1996 - US Base in Saudi Arabia
19 dead
August 7, 1998 - East African Embassies
220 dead
October 12, 2000 - U.S.S. Cole
17 dead
September 11, 2001 - World Trade Center
3,000 dead
December 22, 2001 - Richard Reid (the Shoe Bomber) Captured
disaster averted
April 11, 2002 - Tunisian Synagogue
19 dead
October 12, 2002 - Bali Nightclubs
202 dead
November 28, 2002 - Israeli-Owned Hotel in Kenya
16 dead
May 12, 2003 - Riyadh Compound
at least 34 dead
May 16, 2003 - Casablanca (three targets)
45 dead
December 15, 2003 - Istanbul Synagogues
at least 23 dead, more than 300 injured
December 20, 2003 - British Consulate and HSBC Bank in Istanbul
27 dead, over 450 wounded
March 11, 2004 - Madrid Trains
191 dead, at least 1,800 injured
May 29-30, 2004 - Khobar Siege
22 dead
Summer 2004 - Beheadings in Iraq
at least 10 dead
July 7, 2005 - London Transit System
52 dead, 700 injured
July 21 2005 - London Transit System
no fatalities
This list is just attacks that have been attributed to Al Qaeda (at least in part). It does not include the independent work of the Abu Nidal Organization, Abu Sayyaf Group, Al-Gama’at al-Islamiya, Armed Islamic Group, Asbat Al-Ansar, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Harakat Mujahideen, Hezbollah, Islamic Army of Aden, Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Jamah Islamiyah, Lashkar e Tayyaba, Mujaheddin e Khalq, Palestinian Islamic Jihad or Salafist Group for Call and Combat.
“…slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captive, and besiege them, and prepare to ambush them.” (Quran 9:5)
~I AM~
July 22nd, 2005 at at 12:23 am
Before anyone else gets to it, no, I don’t think today’s attack was Al Qaeda. If it was directly and completely inspired by Al Qaeda (which it clearly was), it makes the list.
July 22nd, 2005 at at 12:53 am
Good post (though unfortunate that it needs to be said at all). Perhaps try to do something with the other religions? Most people know about Islam, but how many people are aware of other religious violence? Though it might be harder to come up with a recent list for Christianity, though there are always abortion clinic and KKK killings, as well as Christianity’s horrible past. Is Hinduism dangerous at all?
Anyway, that’s a lot more deaths than I would’ve expected… and it’s only one organization. How can anyone support Islam at all, especially with a quote like that in the Quran, though Christianity makes a lot of those things too.
Man, religion sucks.
July 22nd, 2005 at at 3:02 am
You missed the large part.. from here in India.
Here is a partial list:
1990s: Violence intensifies in Kashmir. Islamic militants carry out ethnic cleansing in the Kashmir Valley, terrorizing non-Muslims, mainly Kashmiri pundits, causing large numbers of people to flee, mainly to Jammu. Pakistan supports the cross border infiltration. The Indian military responds with repression to the terrorism, foreign infiltration, and the domestic insurgency, which are now all mixed up. There are serious human rights abuses on all sides.
1998: India and Pakistan carry out nuclear weapons tests and declare themselves nuclear weapon states. Pakistan announces that it may, under certain circumstances, use nuclear weapons first to neutralize India’s conventional superiority, making reference to NATO’s Cold War doctrine of potential first use in case of a European war with the Soviets. India says it will not use nuclear weapons first.
1999: Indian Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, travels to Lahore, Pakistan for a peace meeting with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. There is great hope for peace. Three months later Pakistan-based militants invade the Kargil area in Indian-controlled Kashmir, with the support of the military. A military confrontation, with the possibility of nuclear war, ensues. Nawaz Sharif travels to Washington and President Clinton convinces him to withdraw Pakistani forces from Kargil. Confrontation ends. Nawaz Sharif is overthrown in a military coup led by General Musharraf, one of the architects of the Kargil war. (Musharraf proclaims himself President of Pakistan in the year 2000.)
March 20, 2000: Lashkar-e-Toiba killed 35 Sikh and Hindu civilians at Chattisinghpora
October 1, 2001: A terrorist attack on the Kashmir state legislature in Srinagar. 38 people are killed.
December 13, 2001: A terrorist attack on India’s Parliament. Fourteen people (including five attackers, as well as security guards and two civilians) are killed
May 14, 2002: A terrorist attack on families of Indian servicemen. More than 30 people killed.
July 5, 2005: Five terrorists attacked the disputed temple site in Ayodhya. All five were shot down in the ensuing gunfight with the security forces guarding the area while one civilian died in the bomb blast triggered by the terrorists to breach the cordon wall. Security forces suffered three casualties, of which two were seriously injured.
July 22nd, 2005 at at 3:11 am
Some other events which I missed.
December 24, 1999: Indian Airlines Airbus-300 flight IC-814 hijacked from Nepal to Kandahar. The hijackers demanded release of certain specific prisoners. One of the passengers was killed by the militants. The drama ended after eight days when the then Home minister flew to Kandahar with the prisoners who were to be released.
October 24, 2002: Two terrorists holed up in the Akshardham temple complex in Gandhinagar for over 14 hours and Black Cat Commandos of the National Security Guards had to be flown in to annihilate them. There were more than 30 casualties on the final count.
July 22nd, 2005 at at 6:17 am
If my math is correct, which it probably isn’t, that makes at least 3,921 senseless deaths and at least 4,250 senseless injuries.
July 22nd, 2005 at at 7:30 am
Wow, Uberkuh. If that is correct, those numbers add up. I think it’d be a lot more shocking to tell someone, “3,921+ deaths have been because of religion, and that’s just by one organization.” Add some emphasis on the “just by one” part, make sure you know some other numbers and I think you’re set on some scare tactics!
July 22nd, 2005 at at 8:02 am
If you’re just looking for sheer death toll from religion, try 2-4 million deaths from the French Wars of Religion (1562–1598), 3-8 million deaths in the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) or 6 million Jews killed in the holocaust.
Wikipedia has a fun page with death tolls from all kinds of things, including wars, natural disasters and terrorism. This is not where I got the numbers for this post. They are collected from several sources.
I had the idea about amonth ago to do a post about the death toll of religion. I abandoned it when I realized that 1) several other places have done this, 2) it’s way too hard to decide what qualifies and 3) the estimates for historical events vary tremendously (like 15,000 to 9 million for the Inquisition). I had reached 13.3 - 34.2 million before I gave up.
July 22nd, 2005 at at 8:53 am
You also have right wing Hindu’s attacking Muslim’s and their sites in Kashmir.
Catholics vs. Protestants in Ireland
Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma
Eric Rudolph’s(sp?) bombings of gay night clubs, abortion clinics, and the Olympics
The crazy cult in Japan that used poison gas on the subway
Fundamentalis Mormons killing family members because ‘god’ spoke to them (along with myriad of other frightening things happening in ‘communities’ such as Colorado City)
I could go on……….and on…………and on………..
Check out The End of Faith by Sam Harris
July 22nd, 2005 at at 9:40 am
Yeah, but you all know how these turn out: Religious people all say “They do not represent TRUE [insert religion here].” And they say this even though the “holy” texts specifically calls for such actions. I agree religion sucks.
Oh, and The End Of Faith is great!! Also check out The God Who Wasn’t There (www.thegodmovie.com) by Brian Flemming (which includes interviews w/ Sam Harris)
July 22nd, 2005 at at 12:52 pm
GeneralZod, you beat me too it.
Certainly these were not real Muslims. Just like any Christian who sins is not a real Christian, except for Eric Rudolph, who is the next coming of Jesus.
July 22nd, 2005 at at 7:52 pm
To fight Islam is to fight Christianity. That’s why we have such a leadership vacuum in this country.
“We need to stop these crazy religious folk”
“We need to stop these people who believe in the invisible man in the sky”
“Anyone who think they are in with god are idiots”….oh waitaminute.
You’re not going to hear any of this from politicans. What we need is an atheist canidate that can run without religion and win. That’s the kicker.
The problem is this country has been bred for generations to not think and to do what your told. That’s tough to overcome.
July 23rd, 2005 at at 12:29 am
Do we add 49 for Egpyt now? *sigh*