Death by Fanaticism.

Nine days ago, wait, has it really only been nine days? Nine days ago I was scrolling through facebook when I noticed a friend posting that he was OK. He had been in the Belgium airport on his way back to the states when the bombs went off. He is one of those casual acquaintances who end up as one of your hundreds of facebook “friends” so I can’t really say I was shocked and worried. After all, I was finding out about the Brussels bombings through a facebook feed in which he explicitly said he was OK. The real shock was that I even casually knew someone directly related to the incident. This would be expected in the bombing of Istiklal Caddesi just days earlier since it was only miles from my home but Brussels?

As I was later reading up on the incident I decided to change my facebook profile to include a Brussels flag filter. Although I didn’t do it for any of the Turkey bombings I did do so for the Paris and beirut bombings. It is a small way to show that I saw and know and care. There are more personal ways I can do the same with the more local bombings and, honestly, I am more likely to throw up a Kurdish flag filter than a Turkish flag. Some five days later I was being called out. I had changed my profile for Belgium, why wouldn’t I do the same for Pakistan? Well, now my facebook filter sports green and white rather than red yellow and black.

Actually, if I were to keep up with that, I am already out of date. There have been suicide bombings in Syria and Iraq and a car bombing in Russia since Monday’s tragedy in Pakistan. The truth is, since such incidents happen on an almost daily basis, they have ceased to be news. The sheer volume and frequency of such things is absolutely horrifying when you take a step back and look at it. How can we live in such a world and not revolt at the inhumanity of our fellow men?

Below is a list of incidents that I have come across. I am fairly sure this list is not complete and I would not be surprised that by the time I hit publish it would already need an addendum. (Actually, as I was looking up more information on the January 2 Somalia bombing, I already have another to add to the list in the same nation just hours ago) These are the suicide bombings that have occurred in the first three months of 2016:

January 1 – Kabul, Afghanistan – 2 killed, 15 injured – Taliban claimed responsibility.
January 1 – Ankara, Turkey – None killed or injured – ISIS terrorist caught before detonation planned at Kazily Square.
January 2 – Mogadishu, Somalia – 3 killed, no reported injured – Al-Shabaab (Al-Qaeda) blamed.
January 3 – Tikrit, Iraq – 15 killed, 22 injured – 5 suicide bombers, ISIS claimed responsibility.
January 4 – Kabul, Afghanistan – 0 killed, 30 injured – Taliban claimed responsibility
January 4 – Ramadi, Iraq – None killed or injured – 3 ISIS members wearing suicide vests held more than 20 civilians hostage but they were killed by a British sniper before they could act.
January 4 – Al-Sidra Libya – 2 killed, no reported injured – during a battle with port guards and government soldiers, two ISIS terrorists detonated their suicide vests.
January 5 – Jalalabad, Afghanistan (Indian consulate) – 0 killed, 1 injured – ISIS claimed responsibility for simultaneous attack on Pakistan consulate.
January 5 – Al-Shirqat, Iraq – 1 killed, 0 injured – ISIS strapped a suicide vest to a 4 year old boy and then remotely detonated it in response to the boy’s father participating in an attack on an ISIS stronghold.
January 6 – Gwoza, Nigeria – 7 killed, No reported injuries – Boko Haram blamed.
January 7 – Benghazi, Libya – 6 killed, 2 injured – ISIS blamed.
January 9 – Es Sider, Libya – 47 killed 100+ injured – ISIS claimed responsibility.
January 11 – Muqdadiyah, Iraq – 48 killed*, 106 wounded* – (*Compiled total from multiple separate, simultaneous attacks.) ISIS claimed responsibility.
January 12 – Istanbul, Turkey – 11 killed, 14 injured – ISIS blamed.
January 13 – Jalalabad, Afghanistan – 7 killed, 7 injured – ISIS related Khorasan claimed responsibility.
January 13 – Quetta, Pakistan – 15 killed, 25 injured – Tehrik-i-Taliban and Jaishul Islam both claim responsibility.
January 13 – Kouyape, Cameroon – 12 killed, 1 injured – Boko Haram blamed.
January 14 – Jakarta, Indonesia – 4 killed, 24 injured – This was a bombing + gunfight involving 7 terrorists. ISIS responsible.
January 17 – Jalalabad, Afghanistan – 14 killed 13 injured – ISIS blamed/claimed responsibility (different news reports conflict)
January 17 – Aden, Yemen – 10 killed, injured unreported – AQAP blamed but one source, others say unknown
January 18 – Nquetchewe, Cameroon – 4 killed, 2 injured – Boko Haram blamed.
January 19 – Peshawar, Pakistan – 11 killed, 42 injured – Tehrik-i-Taliban claimed responsibility.
January 20 – Charsadda, Pakistan – 20 killed, 60 injured – Gunmen opened fire at a university. Although were all wearing suicide vests, every terrorist was killed before any detonated. Tehrik-i-Taliban claimed responsibility.
January 20 – Kabul, Afghanistan – 7 killed, 25 injured – Taliban claimed responsibility.
January 21 – Mogadishu, Somalia – 20 killed, 17 injured – Suicide vests in addition to gunfighting and a car bomb. Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility.
January 23 – Maiduguri, Nigeria – 0 killed, 1 injured – Three Boko Haram terrorists wearing suicide vests were intercepted at a checkpoint on the way into the city. When discovered they attacked the guards and were killed.
January 24 – Jerusalem, Israel – 0 killed, 0 injured – Conflicting reports. Either a suicide vest or a pipe bomb exploded early when a Palestinian attempted to attack a checkpoint into the city. He had connections to Hamas.
January 25 – Bodo, Cameroon – 32 killed, 65 injured – Boko Haram blamed.
January 25 – Aleppo, Syria – 23 killed including 3 children – Syrian government suspected.
January 26 – Homs, Syria – 29 killed, 100+ injured – ISIS claims responsibility.
January 27 – Chibok, Nigeria – 13 killed, 30+ injured – Boko Haram blamed.
January 28 – Aden, Yemen – 7 killed, 6 injured – ISIS claims responsibility.
January 29 – Balochistan, Pakistan – 0 killed, 7 injured – Tehrik-i-Taliban claimed responsibility.
January 29 – Aden, Yemen – 7 killed, 7 injured – ISIS claimed responsibility.
January 29 – Kerawa, Cameroon – 4 killed, 12 injured – Boko Haram blamed.
January 29 – Adamwa, Nigeria – 20 killed, 30+ injured – Boko Haram blamed.
January 29 – Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia – 4 killed, 18 injured – No reported claim or blame but it was a Sunni attack on a Shiite mosque.
January 29 was a busy day. It was also the final day of the intensified fighting and forced evacuation of Kurds by the Turkish government that can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC8gGeXVauQ
January 30 – Damascus, Syria – 60 killed, 110 injured – ISIS claimed responsibility.
January 31 – Guie, Chad – 1 killed, 31 injured – Boko Haram blamed.
January 31 – Miterine, Chad – 2 killed, 24 injured – Boko Haram blamed.
February 1 – Kabul, Afghanistan – 20 killed, 29 injured – Taliban claimed responsibility.
February 3 – Aden, Yemen – 0 killed 7 injured – ISIS claimed responsibility.
February 5 – Topeka, Kansas – 0 killed, 0 injured – This one doesn’t really count, but it does make for some humorous reading. (He pledged allegiance to ISIS on facebook)
February 6 – Quetta, Pakistan – 9 killed, 40 injured – Tehrik-i-Taliban claimed responsibility.
Fenruary 6 – Ramadi, Iraq – 15 killed, 21 injured – ISISS claimed responsibility.
February 8 – Paktika, Afghanistan – 9 killed, 23 injured – No reported claim or blame.
February 8 – Mazar-i-Sharif,Afghanistan – 3 killed, 14 injured – Taliban claimed responsibility.
February 9 – Dikwa, Nigeria – 60+ killed, 78+ injured (many not expected to survive at time of report) – Boko Haram blamed.
February 9 – Damascus, Syria – 8 killed, 20 injured – ISIS claimed responsibility.
February 9 – Nguetchéwé, Cameroon – 10 killed, 45 injured – Boko Haram claimed responsibility.
February 13 – Helmand, Afghanistan – “dozens” killed – Taliban claims responsibility.
February 17 – Ankara, Turkey – 28 killed, 61 injured – TAK (Kurdistan Freedom Falcons) blamed.
February 17 – Aden, Yemen – 13 killed, 60 injured – ISIS claimed responsibility.
February 19 – Meme, Cameroon – 24 killed, 112 injured – Boko Haram blamed.
February 22 – Parwan, Afghanistan – 14 killed, 11 injured – Taliban claimed responsibility.
February 25 – Baghdad. Iraq – 15 killed, 50+ injured – ISIS claimed responsibility.
February 26 – Mogadishu, Somalia – 20+ killed, injured unreported – Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility.
February 26 – Benghazi, Libya – 5 (or 4 or 25 but probably 5) killed, injured unreported – ISIS claimed responsibility.
February 27 – Asadabad, Afghanistan – 13 killed, 40 injured – Taliban blamed.
February 27 – Kabul, Afghanistan – 9 killed, 13 injured – Taliban claimed responsibility.
February 28 – Baroda, Somalia – 15 killed, 27 injured – Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility.

After two days working on this, I just cannot continue. It is just two depressing and as I compare one news report with another time and again to try and keep my facts accurate my mind is growing numb. I have been walking around tired and angry all day. Maybe later I will come back and finish this but for now. Enough is enough.

This list counts 62 separate bombings, sometimes using multiple attackers, sometimes coordinated with non suicide attacks. With the exception of that 4 year old boy, each attacker claimed to be Muslim. Not all, but a huge majority come out of groups or organizations that specifically cite their religion as the motive and rationale for their bombings. While researching this, I also came across another article that claimed that there were 452 suicide bombings in 2015. Of those 450 were carried out by Muslim extremists and the two exceptions were one by the Kurdish underground and a woman part of a Turkish leftist group. So these two Muslim bombers were somehow not “extreme?” I am not by any stretch saying all Muslims are like… whatever. But suicide bombing is a very real cancer in our modern world and it is a cancer that exclusively infects the Muslim population. One might argue that other groups, like Russia, America, Israel etc do not need to rely on suicide bombers since they have plenty of other means and resources at their disposal to commit their atrocities. There may be some legitimacy to the argument but even still, there is far more than one suicide bombing a day for years on end and virtually every single one is carried out by Muslims. Something needs to change.