Massive Terract campaign in India

[Dr Strangelove]

According to the Indian government there were only 10 attackers.

[Sirotnikov]

Originally posted by GePap
Beyond the superficial similarities between orthodox Judaism and Islam (dress codes, dietary laws, lack of worship images),

While that is true, it bears no relation to the susceptibility of either religion to violence, either based on core values, or based on current religious-political mood.

there is what I see as a shared commitment to laws governing daily life based on the religion. Again, you can be a good Christian alone, in a sea of non-Christians, because all you are required to have is your own internal faith that Jesus was the Annoited one and the sacvior of mankind, and that brings salvation.

Obviously being a perfectly religious Jew would be difficult in the lack of a Jewish community (jews to raise kosher produce, jews to give circumcision).

I'm not enough educated on Christianity, on whether such rites as sunday church are required, nor do I know enough of communions and their affection on religious life.

The community aspect however does little to reflect on things such as political violence, extremism and so on.

Judaism is a religion that is not only about internal faith, but about one's relation to a community. Salvation from God comes to the Jewish people, not to individuals. As a member of the community you have deep religious commitments to each other, commitments that then rule your interactions with those you live in. That is very similar to what you have in Islam, and again, different from what you see in Christianity.

I do not know enough about the basics of christian community works to respond.

In any case, I fail to see how that is relevent to the point of which religion is more likely to cause conflict with other religious groups or other nations.

Islam is much more militaristic, absolute and expansive. It requires to be spread, and taught and enforced on other peoples.

This is while Judaism is the exact opposite. Becoming a Jew is a difficult work, and not anyone can fit. Other nations are mostly treated with respect and there is never a requirement to expand, or spread or use violence, except for self defence.

Since the time of the Babylonian diaspora Judaism existed under a foreign rule, and usually only sought religious freedom and judicial autonomy.

While idolilst religions were looked down upon, Jews were usually perfectly OK with everyone else doing what the hell they want. IIRC all the Jewish uprisings were responses to limits placed on Jews in keeping their own laws.

Christianity is different in that , similar to Islam, it requires to be spread, and the religious rulership always demanded that it be spread.

I think the growth of Haredi parties in Israel points to the possibilities of political Judaism within a self-described Jewish state. While you are correct that Zionism began and mainly is a secular movement, once the Jews are back ruling the holy land, its hard to think that no one will start demanding that the covenant be strictly followed again, to prevent future diasporas.

I certainly agree, but this does not reflect on the argued point of externally directed political violence.

[KrazyHorse]

Can we shift the discussion back from how crappy your religion is to one about how crappy the Indian security services are?

[Sirotnikov]

They are crappy.

[Sirotnikov]

What kind of an indian retaliation are we going to see?

[TCO]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
Can we shift the discussion back from how crappy your religion is to one about how crappy the Indian security services are?

Does me thinking about putting .45 next to the head of one of those Muslim ****ers and blowing his brains out like that famous photo from Vietnam fit in your "on topic"?

[KrazyHorse]

Which "Muslim ****er" are you talking about? The captured terrorists/murderers in India?

[KrazyHorse]

How the **** does it take two and a half days to chase down those ****ers when they're trapped in a ****ing hotel?

[TCO]

Wouldn't it be on topic either way?

[Asher]

Originally posted by onodera

Jew, Judaist
What do you call a man, Asher, who was born to a Jewish mom and a Jewish dad, but became a Scientologist?

A scientologist.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
How the **** does it take two and a half days to chase down those ****ers when they're trapped in a ****ing hotel?

Especially when there are fewer than twenty of them.

[KrazyHorse]

I was hearing news reporters comment that there weren't enough tactical forces in Mumbai to deal with all the sites simultaneously, so they had to deal with each in order.

Are you ****ing kidding me? It's a city of 18 million people. There are 20 *******s with guns holed up in 5 locations. WTF?

[KrazyHorse]

How many people died because the security response was pathetically slow and mismanaged?

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by aneeshm

And that is bad. Very, very bad. Because as a nation, we never stay terrorised for long. We act. If the political elite does not take action, I am afraid that the people will. There have been, in the last few months, one or two "retaliatory" attacks on mosques by Hindu radical groups. If the state is perceived to be weak, the old Hindu psychological response of the common man taking things into his own hands will start to come into play. And I fear that the "Muslim" will be the one who will be target of our collective ire.

But these are not the old days of myth. The issues are not so simple and clear-cut. There isn't even a definable "enemy". I am afraid that if this continues, and the state does nothing, then we as a people may do something which we will later regret.

I've been trying to figure out what the purpose of this raid was. Normally, terrorist target civilian targets to create fear and thus alter policy. But here, we're not even sure of the real name of the group; there was no set of demands or any manifesto published.

My best guess is that this is a reaction by Islamic terrorists in the tribal regions of Pakistan to the increasing pressure put on them by the Pakistanis. If the terrorists can stir up hatred between India and Pakistan, Pakistan's focus will turn east and the pressure on the tribal regions will lessen.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Or attempting to get India to retaliate amongst the country's Muslims and force the Pakistani government's hand in making a choice.

Of course, this is one of the perils of Democracy, as I'm sure part of the calculation may be that if Pakistan doesn't "defend the Muslims" they can get fundy parties to make gains in Parliament.