Islamic terrorist attack in Bangladesh

[McHrozni]

"Westerners" is not a geographic designation.

Under which definition of "Westerner" do Bangladeshi who can't recite the Quran fall?

McHrozni

 

[McHrozni]

So is Christianity and Judaism. That doesn't make Christians or Jews bad, nor does believing in a crock of **** make a particular Muslim bad. There are plenty of moderate Muslims who live peacefully in the U.S. who have come to terms somehow with ignoring the really vile stuff and focusing on the more spiritual parts of the Koran, just like no Christians anymore want to stone witches.

Stoning in particular never was a Christian thing. I seem to remember a passage in the Bible that was somewhat averse to stoning altogether. Something about the one with no sin should cast the first stone, and no one else, that avoids a woman being stoned? The passages makes for a fairly good joke involving the protagonists' mom spoiling the moment.

Incidentally, why do you think "Christianity and Judaism are bad too!!!11" is somehow relevant? Why not focus on some other religion, like the Aztecs? Surely ritual human sacrifice is really, really, really bad, right? Even if it was for a really, really, really good cause of making the Sun rise next morning, it's still bad, right? Why don't you mention the Aztecs instead?

McHrozni

 

[Hlafordlaes]

So is Christianity and Judaism. That doesn't make Christians or Jews bad, nor does believing in a crock of **** make a particular Muslim bad. There are plenty of moderate Muslims who live peacefully in the U.S. who have come to terms somehow with ignoring the really vile stuff and focusing on the more spiritual parts of the Koran, just like no Christians anymore want to stone witches.

True. I agree. They all suck, and any follower can still be a decent person, regardless. Yet the ideology one follows does tend to color behavior.

• How would you approach someone who supports democracy and equality under the law, as opposed to someone who follows a totalitarian political philosophy? I'd wager the teachings of the actual ideology would be one place to look, and act as guide to probable behavior by many followers.
• Taking current events as some indication of the tendency of followers to implement a given creed in violent ways, would you make any distinctions? I'd wager the teachings of the actual religion would be one place to look, and act as guide to probable behavior by many followers.

I took a look at Islam. Holy cow. I heartily suggest others doing their own due diligence, but carefully. Akin to snorting mind poison.

 

[A'isha]

Under which definition of "Westerner" do Bangladeshi who can't recite the Quran fall?

McHrozni

The kind where they're students at US universities and one is an American citizen.

with no other possible motive other than a belief in Islam, committing terrorist acts.

It would seem Islam is, indeed, a steaming load of crock. No excuses left!!

Their version of Islam, which (as I pointed out above) has no compunctions about killing other Muslims who don't follow it.

 

[Fudbucker]

Stoning in particular never was a Christian thing. I seem to remember a passage in the Bible that was somewhat averse to stoning altogether. Something about the one with no sin should cast the first stone, and no one else, that avoids a woman being stoned? The passages makes for a fairly good joke involving the protagonists' mom spoiling the moment.

Incidentally, why do you think "Christianity and Judaism are bad too!!!11" is somehow relevant? Why not focus on some other religion, like the Aztecs? Surely ritual human sacrifice is really, really, really bad, right? Even if it was for a really, really, really good cause of making the Sun rise next morning, it's still bad, right? Why don't you mention the Aztecs instead?

McHrozni

I think you can find some stuff in the Old Testament (and New) that is pretty beyond the pale. Just no one takes it seriously anymore.

 

[newyorkguy]

Some chilling details have emerged about the four Bangladeshi ISIS attackers in the Dhaka terrorist incident. Reported by a New York Times correspondent, Julfikar Ali Manik, who is himself Bengali and was reporting from the scene.

Manik interviewed a number of people who were in the restaurant, the Holey Artisan Bakery in the diplomatic district of Dhaka, when the attack took place. Bangladesh is primarily Sunni Muslim and the ISIS attackers were said to have been "looking for foreigners." A young Bengali cook, Sumir Barai, hid from the attackers in a bathroom with other restaurant employees but were soon discovered and ordered to come out. “You don’t need to be so tense,” one of the ISIS attackers told them. “We will not kill Bengalis. We will only kill foreigners.”

Baraj spoke with Manik the Times reporter.

Even as they killed the foreigners, the attackers were unfailingly polite and solicitous with the restaurant staff and other Bangladeshis, Mr. Barai said. They took the staff into their confidence, complaining that foreigners, with their skimpy clothes and taste for alcohol, were impeding the spread of Islam. “Their lifestyle is encouraging local people to do the same thing,” a militant said.

The gunmen, he said, seemed eager to see their actions amplified on social media: After killing the patrons, they asked the staff to turn on the restaurant’s wireless network. Then they used customers’ telephones to post images of the bodies on the internet.

They asked the staff to make coffee and tea and serve it to the remaining hostages. At 3:30 a.m., when Muslims eat a predawn meal before fasting, they asked the kitchen staff to prepare and serve dishes of fish and shrimp, he said.

The Bengali cook expressed his shock that the attackers were gregarious, seemed well-educated and well-spoken. In the early hours, as they waited for the police or military to counter-attack he said the ISIS attackers lectured them on religion, and urged them to say daily prayers and study the Quran.

Although the attackers had repeatedly given assurances they would not harm any of the Bengali Muslims present, that turned out not to be true.

Early in the morning, the gunmen released a group of women wearing hijabs and offered a young Bangladeshi man, Faraz Hossain, the opportunity to leave, too, said Hishaam Hossain, Mr. Hossain’s nephew, who had heard an account from the hostages who were freed.

Mr. Hossain, a student at Emory University, was accompanied by two women wearing Western clothes, however, and when the gunmen asked the women where they were from, they said India and the United States. The gunmen refused to release them, and Mr. Hossain refused to leave them behind, his relative said. He would be among those found dead on Saturday morning.

The attack came to a climatic close:

Shortly after sunrise, dozens of armed personnel carriers formed columns in the lanes around the restaurant. Mr. Barai said the surviving hostages sensed that the siege was ending. During the long hours that passed inside the restaurant, the gunmen made it clear that they expected to die, Mr. Barai said. One of them calmly said as much. “You see what we did here,” the militant said, pointing to the bodies around. “The same thing is going to happen to us now.”

At 7:30 a.m., he said, the militants told them: “We are leaving. See you in heaven.” They were getting ready to walk out the door, he said, when the commandos stormed the restaurant. Link

 

[applecorped]

Isn't it a pity.

 

[Darth Rotor]

The gunmen refused to release them, and Mr. Hossain refused to leave them behind, his relative said. He would be among those found dead on Saturday morning.

Dude was strong. As was once said in a play by the Bard

And say to all the world, “This was a man."

Yeah. Strong.