This Easter Sunday, nine churches were subject to acts of terrorism all across Sri Lanka. More than 200 were killer and 450 others were harmed. It is being described by the Sri Lankan defense ministry as a "coordinated act of religious extremism." At 8:45 am in Sri Lanka, attacks began in the cities of Colombo, Negombo, and Batticaloa. Churches were the main target of the attack, but Christian-owned hotels were also targeted. Several foreigners, including US nationals, were casualties in the attacks. While the government begins investigations, (in which 13 suspects have already been aprehended, although it is thought that the attacks were mainly carried out by suicide bombers) many social media sites have been temporarily blocked in order to stop misinformation.
It is no mistake that the attacks were executed on Easter Sunday while targeting churches and Christian-run, American associated businesses. Sri Lanka suffered through a long civil war until 2009, and it has been theorized that these attacks are the actions of the disgruntled minority who lost the civil war to the incumbent, American-supported majority. Many witnesses to the attacks called them reminiscent of the civil war, and fear that this will signal the resurgence of conflicts across Sri Lanka.
Questions:
1. What action should the Sri Lankan government take? What action should the greater world take?
2. What does it take to change culturally ingrained political dissatisfaction?
3. What other current world events does this remind you of?
https://www.cbsnews.com/live-news/sri-lanka-bombings-explosions-easter-sunday-colombo-churches-hotels-2019-04-21-live-updates/
Honestly, I don't know what the Sri Lankan government can do in the face of such blatant hate and destruction. This reminds me of the recent attacks on mosques in New Zealand. This type of hate and terror knows no color or religion. The trend of mass violence has been increasing over the past 20 years, but especially most recently. I'm not sure what it is, or if people have simply been inspired by other acts of terror, but there is a new normalcy surrounding these events, with little action taken. I genuinely believe that if someone is that mentally unstable, not much can stop them from carrying out whatever it is that they want to do. However, in the case of Sri Lanka, if the attacks are related to a larger political issue, then it would behoove the Sri Lankan government to address these political differences instead of marginalizing a clearly enraged minority.
ReplyDeleteI think that there is not and never has been a clean cut way for a government to respond to a terrorist attack. Like Yasmina said, there have been so many bombing and shootings in the media recently, and it is horrifying just how normalized such events have become. There isn't an easy solution, but there are some options like increasing national security measures as the US did after 9/11. However, there is something I wanted to address that is slightly unrelated, but still very important. I find it quite sad that the media publicized other events highly such as the New Zealand attacks, yet these Sri Lanka bombings are not as major news as far as I can tell. In my eyes, I think it is a bit of an issue with the US media only portraying certain foreign countries in modern news.
ReplyDeleteLike Yasmina and Anna said above, I do not think that there is going to be an effective solution to this trend of mass violence. However, as of right now, all that the Sri Lankan government can do is try to recover from this incident and increase its national security measures. Unfortunately, these mass attacks only seem to be on the rise, especially during the last several years. It will be difficult to find solutions to these acts of terror since people are copying other acts of terror from all around the world. This tragedy reminds me of similar attacks that have been religiously motivated such as the New Zealand mosque attacks and the several attacks on Jewish synagogues that have also been on the rise recently.
ReplyDeleteThe horrific attacks of terrorism targeting the churches in Sri Lanka remind me of the recent mosque shooting in New Zealand, among many other cases of hate and terrorism throughout recent times. While I think that there is not much for the Sri Lankan government to do at this moment, I believe that it could be important for them to consider what exactly caused the attack, thus giving insight into where such violent actions could be originating from. Other than that, there really is not much the government can do, since terrorism attacks have become almost a normalcy in today's world. As sad as this reality is, I think that focusing on unity and the root of such hate crimes can be a step in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteThe Sri Lankan government can only take additional safety measures. As a country that is predominantly Muslim, there is no action that can be taken especially when there are those who pray religiously in the mosque. It is evident that this was plotted by either a hateful person or a radical individual. The government should focus on education of the younger generation in hopes of those that will not turn out to be similar to those who committed these crimes
ReplyDeleteI don't believe that there is a preventable measure that the Sri Lankan government can take in order to prevent these kinds of attacks. This reminds me of the mosque shooting in New Zealand as well as the other attacks in the past that have targeted religious establishments. To change culturally ingrained political dissatisfaction, I believe there has to be more education and awareness made among young scholars. There will always be believes based down from generations, but I think that education at a young age about issues is a possible solution.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the comments above that there is no clear way to address acts of terrorism such as these, but I believe the most the government can do at this point is merely increase security measures at highly religious locations such as churches. Graham’s post also noted that the Sri Lanka government restricted social media postings for obvious safety measures, however I find it difficult to have a definitive stance on this preventative action since our own Constitution and government so strongly defends a freedom of speech and press in America. Lastly, I found Anna’s comment extremely eye opening in that although this event resembled the New Zealand bombing, America’s media did not seem to cover it in as much, and the victims therefor did not receive as much consolation from the public. Although I defend the idea of avoiding showing the faces of the shooters to prevent glorification for possible future perpetrators, I still think it is important for the media in first world countries to cover incidents such as this for education towards solutions and serious awareness of the state our world is in today.
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