• Ever thought it'd be cool to have your art, writing, or challenge runs featured on PokéCommunity? Click here for info - we'd love to spotlight your work!
  • Our weekly protagonist poll is now up! Vote for your favorite Trading Card Game 2 protagonist in the poll by clicking here.
  • Welcome to PokéCommunity! Register now and join one of the best fan communities on the 'net to talk Pokémon and more! We are not affiliated with The Pokémon Company or Nintendo.
    Register

Brussels bombings

Another bombing from ISIS? My music professor was trying to teach us that Islamics aren't horrible nor is their religion violent, because he has visited the Middle East before and was amazed by its culture. These bombings aren't making it easier for everyone else to forgive the Muslims, as like gimmepie said, ISIS is trying to promote further aggression and racism towards their own people in order to gain more recruits.
 
Nagi said:
it's certainly a dire situation... likely a retaliation for the arrest a few days ago.
still, at this rate, Amsterdam is next in line. it seems safety measures are already being taken here as well :/

hearing about another bombing like this isn't making dealing with the refugee crisis any easier either. i guess i just can't understand what the point of these attacks is. fear mongering perhaps, but what are they hoping to accomplish that way?
Click to expand...

I may be crazy, but it is my opinion that they're simply to prove that they can. That even with all the security, raids and such they can still hit where it hurts. I also believe that like I've said before it was simply in retaliation Goethe arrest a few days ago. A "if you hurt us we will hurt you' situation.

All this stuff is making me super excited for my plane trip to a super busy airport...
 
From the glimpses of what I've read, it looks like the nature of the bombs was similar to what happened during the Boston marathon, because a lot of people have had to have their legs amputated and there are a lot of shrapnel injuries as well. There was speculation about whether nails were involved in the bombs today, and nails and ball bearings were used in the pressure cooker bombs in Boston as well.

Regardless, it looks a little obvious that this is retaliation for the arrest of Salah Abdeslam in Brussels a few days ago, considering that ISIS did step forward to claim responsibility. It's sickening.
 
gimmepie said:
If I had to guess, I assume they want to promote further aggression and racism towards the middle east to make it easier to recruit. So in essence, you probably hit the nail on the head with "fear mongering" I'd guess.
Click to expand...
It's a classic move and, if you'll all permit me to give minor praise to the devil, it's quite a genius tactical move for recruitment.

Terrorist organization needs more recruits. They target places with considerable prejudices towards their own race/religion/etc. The public gets even more scared, angry, and suspicious with the people they've already distrusted. Marginalization occurs, causing anger in the refugees, making them more susceptible to being tempted into joining terror organization. Rinse and repeat.

It's a vicious cycle that hurts a lot of people.
 
CarcharOdin said:
It's a classic move and, if you'll all permit me to give minor praise to the devil, it's quite a genius tactical move for recruitment.

Terrorist organization needs more recruits. They target places with considerable prejudices towards their own race/religion/etc. The public gets even more scared, angry, and suspicious with the people they've already distrusted. Marginalization occurs, causing anger in the refugees, making them more susceptible to being tempted into joining terror organization. Rinse and repeat.

It's a vicious cycle that hurts a lot of people.
Click to expand...

That's pretty much it to a tee.
 
Times like these it's really hard but even more important that people don't give in to prejudice.

I have some family who are in the Netherlands and even though they weren't, I was worried they might have traveled or been traveling near Brussels which they've done before. Attacks like this make me worried and upset and want to lash out, but that doesn't really solve anything and can cause more division and potentially more attacks. I hope this doesn't lead to more Islamophobia in Europe and elsewhere.
 
Esper said:
Times like these it's really hard but even more important that people don't give in to prejudice.
Click to expand...

I agree with this 100% but sadly alot of people I know have already started blaming muslims calling them terroists.
Literally there are a couple of really nice muslim girls in my class who are super friendly and very open to British Culture and also are very faithful to their own religon.

Though something that I just remembered now was a boy from my primary school has fled to fight with ISIS as it was the talk of my school and there was a photo of him holding guns in a desert like area.

But still I give out my heart to those who have lost loved ones or are hurt. As the others said its obviously an attack for what we did.
 
Pinkie-Dawn said:
Paul Joseph Watson of infowars.com has posted a video explaining what he considers as "the truth" about the Brussels attack. He says the only way to stop these terrorist attacks from happening again is to stand up against the Islamic belief system, because it's not a "religion of peace" (and it's not a race either).
Click to expand...

We really should have a discussion in the feedback thread on people using sites like infowars.com and Daily Mail as sources. Saves us a lot of time if there were to be a list drawn up suggesting sources people should stray away from for the good of their argument.

I'll be brief. Islam is not a race, neither is Muslim. Race is a social & political definition, as we should know. However, people who say 'Islam isn't a race, so I'm not being racist!' are typically the same kind of people who say 'I'm not homophobic, I'm not frightened by gay people!' because their wilful ignorance allows them to not think critically. Aside from that fact that most people who tend to be 'against Islam' tend to hate Middle Eastern people outright, Islamophobia is rooted in a kind of cultural racism than explicitly to do with skin colour. It's a condescending, cultural hatred that extends far beyond the biological makeup of the average Muslim. The perception that Western culture/society is superior to Islamic culture and the perceived need to 'stand up to Islam' or 'liberate them' is just as insidious as the typically defined idea of racism based on skin colour alone. It existed long before ISIS and has only been exacerbated by ISIS in order to cause further division between the two 'worlds'. Let's not have any misconceptions about what 'standing up to Islam' really means.
 
Last edited:
Terrorist attacks, or "ISIS/extremists". That's all I can really say. I hate to say it, but religion needs to be destroyed (the ideology's of religion was created to separate man). It's obvious different ideology's and beliefs cannot connect or get along in society. This ISIS crap is simply over "religion".

Yet everybody thought I was crazy 3 years ago (those that know, knows exactly what I'm talking about)... Kinda glad humanity is waking up to what is actually going on though, as they need to (if you have questions PM me).
 
Last edited:
ShinyUmbreon189 said:
Terrorist attacks, or "ISIS/extremists". That's all I can really say. I hate to say it, but religion needs to be destroyed (the ideology's of religion was created to separate man). It's obvious different ideology's and beliefs cannot connect or get along in society. This ISIS crap is simply over "religion".

Yet everybody thought I was crazy 3 years ago (those that know, knows exactly what I'm talking about)... Kinda glad humanity is waking up to what is actually going on though, as they need to (if you have questions PM me).
Click to expand...

Religion was made to bring people together towards a better goal. So are countries, nations and every other kind of group that were ever made.
No one can't outright say religion is bad, because there are a vast majority of people who are religious but do not think such actions are right.
In every such group of people, there will be extremists that will think their group is the superior, and will sometime forget the roots of their ideology. There are many such groups, if society needs to think about something in this age of global interaction, it is not about us VS them, but us and them.
 
ShinyUmbreon189 said:
Terrorist attacks, or "ISIS/extremists". That's all I can really say. I hate to say it, but religion needs to be destroyed (the ideology's of religion was created to separate man). It's obvious different ideology's and beliefs cannot connect or get along in society. This ISIS crap is simply over "religion".

Yet everybody thought I was crazy 3 years ago (those that know, knows exactly what I'm talking about)... Kinda glad humanity is waking up to what is actually going on though, as they need to (if you have questions PM me).
Click to expand...

I'm not overly fond of religion personally, but I want to say that one of my friends is Muslim and she is one of most decent and kind people I've met. Her heart is bigger than mine by several degrees. She is a teacher and works with underprivileged kids. I don't see any reason to deny her her faith if she wants to keep it. She's done nothing wrong, nothing to deserve any punishment.

The problem I see with ISIS and similar groups is around opportunity, disenfranchisement, poverty. People who don't feel they have anything to live for, anything they can invest in, people who feel they can't put down roots, people who feel they don't have a future, they're vulnerable people and extremist ideologies can be pretty appealing to someone in that position. The fact that Islam is at all tied up is sort of incidental. It just happens to be the majority's religion in much of the middle east. The terrorist extremist leaders are just taking the violent parts of their existing culture. Every culture has something like it. Look at the KKK in America for one example.
 
Esper said:
I'm not overly fond of religion personally, but I want to say that one of my friends is Muslim and she is one of most decent and kind people I've met. Her heart is bigger than mine by several degrees. She is a teacher and works with underprivileged kids. I don't see any reason to deny her her faith if she wants to keep it. She's done nothing wrong, nothing to deserve any punishment.
Click to expand...

The Islam religion is supposed to be the religion of peace, these "extremists" aren't even Muslim if they demand war and terror if you disagree with their ideology, that makes them a trader. Blowing yourself up and killing hundreds is not "peaceful", it's "evil". Your friend is following her religious beliefs as a Muslim. The ones blowing themselves up aren't.

The problem I see with ISIS and similar groups is around opportunity, disenfranchisement, poverty. People who don't feel they have anything to live for, anything they can invest in, people who feel they can't put down roots, people who feel they don't have a future, they're vulnerable people and extremist ideologies can be pretty appealing to someone in that position. The fact that Islam is at all tied up is sort of incidental. It just happens to be the majority's religion in much of the middle east. The terrorist extremist leaders are just taking the violent parts of their existing culture. Every culture has something like it. Look at the KKK in America for one example.
Click to expand...

ISIS has NOTHING to do with opportunity or poverty. ISIS ideology is "it's my religion or no religion" and if you disagree with their religion and don't worship Allah as your God they kill you. ISIS is seeking a one world religion, they believe Islam is the only religion and Allah is the one and only God. We're fighting a war over religion. America and the Middle East is involved in a war that's impossible to end, you can't force or change an ideology. Bombings will continue to happen over the globe and ISIS will continue to get stronger, once they're strong enough they'll have the power to take over. They must be eliminated ASAP, they're a global threat.
 
ShinyUmbreon189 said:
ISIS has NOTHING to do with opportunity or poverty.
Click to expand...

ISIS was ultimately born out of decades of Western imperialism destabilising the Middle Eastern region, so it very much has to do with opportunity and poverty indeed.

Bombings will continue to happen over the globe and ISIS will continue to get stronger, once they're strong enough they'll have the power to take over. They must be eliminated ASAP, they're a global threat.
Click to expand...

You give far too much idea of power to the ISIS military/standing forces, which is exactly the fearmongering tactics they've been using to rise to international prominence. They don't have a military as we traditionally know it. They can cause continued fighting and further destabilisation in places like Syria, but they cannot possibly obtain the military and strategic power to outright take over any country. They're radicalised militants, not an army. That's why they've lasted into 2016 and will last into 2017, because they're not an army that can just be hunted down and defeated on a battlefield. Even if they did somehow take over Syria and remove Assad, Western retaliation would be swift and border close to extermination. Outside of that scenario, ISIS does not have the sheer strength necessary to 'take over' a country. That's why they stick to causing terror, because causing fear in the hearts of Westerners via terrorist attacks is the only thing they can do to the countries they despise.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top