Islamic Violence – The Speaker News Journal

3D Printing Against Daesh: “We Will Recreate What ISIS Destroyed”

July 14, 2017June 27, 2017 by Pauline Schnoebelen

Share this

3D technology comes to the rescue after the destruction of several world cultural treasures by the militant group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

According to the United Nations, ISIS has destroyed and damaged 200 world heritage sites along with hundreds of statues and artefacts since 2014.

ISIS’ plan is simple. It is about erasing all traces of previous cultures to establish their own and take advantage of the media coverage following massing destructions of historic sites to grab the world’s attention. In addition, this cultural cleaning is a way for Daesh to finance their activities by selling to dealers and private collectors.

Yet those lost treasures that some call “blood artifacts” may not be lost forever.

Through her digital fabrication and 3D printing project “Material Speculation : ISIS”, Iranian artist and activist Morehshin Allahyari chose to focus on the reconstruction of selected artifacts and statues destroyed by ISIS in Iraq in 2015.

In addition, to repair history and memory, each 3D printed object comprises a flash drive and a memory card. The data in these flash drives contain materials: maps, images, videos and pdf files on the destroyed artifacts and sites. They were gathered thanks to a collaboration with different archeologists and historians, including and museum staff.

“Like time capsules, each object is sealed and kept for future civilizations.”
– Morehshin Allahyari

Just like Murehshin Allahyari artifacts, Palmyra has suffered numerous act of vandalism. The Syrian desert city known as the Venice of the Sands lost the triumphal arch from 2,000-year-old Temple of Bel.

Devastated, many archaeologists talked restoration and reconstruction such as American lawyer/archaeologist Roger Michel. Indeed, as the founder of Oxford’s Institute for Digital Archaeology, Michel has built a 3D facsimile arch from Palmyra’s destroyed Temple of Bel.

Thanks to 3D technology, Pamlyra’s rose again in London’s Trafalgar Square last April to coincide with world heritage week. It should then travel on to Times Square in New York City.

This 3D replica of the 15-meters arch that formed the temple’s entrance is a gesture of defiance against ISIS’ desire to erase cultural and historical evidence.

“My intention is to show Islamic State that anything they can blow up we can rebuild exactly as it was before, and rebuild it again and again. We will use technology to disempower ISIS.” Roger Michel

Moving for some or uncanny for others, this incredible public display of 3D reconstruction is the proof that new technology can restore entire parts of 20th-century historical sites. Although out of their original context and site, 3D monuments or artefacts might still conserve their precious sense of place and craftsmanship, thus preserving everybody’s heritage.

By Pauline Schnoebelen

Iraq: Suicide Bomber Targets Western Entrance of Fallujah

January 27, 2017 by The Speaker Editors

Share this

NEWS BRIEF: A security source in Anbar province has reported that a car bomb targeted the western entrance to the city of Fallujah Saturday.

The source , who asked not to be named, said that “security forces cordoned off the scene and prevented public access.”

Via: AlSumaria (Arabic)

Wurzburg Video Message Warns of Attack

March 1, 2017July 24, 2016 by The Speaker Editors

Share this

The video, released by the Islamic State shortly after the train attack in Wurzburg, Germany, has been confirmed by the Bavarian interior minister to be the attacker, a 17-year-old Afghani asylum seeker Muhammad Riyad.

The video the Islamic State published shows the youth explaining the motive for his actions, placing his attack in the context of perceived injustices committed against Muslims by Western nations.

He also explains that he planned the attack well in advance, while living in Germany

Translation by Gatestone Institute

Islamist Violence Numbers This Month: March

May 2, 2016 by The Speaker Editors

Share this

In the month preceding April 1, 024 people were killed and 1,498 injured.

The attacks — 133 total — took place in 20 countries around the world, according to The Religion of Peace, which records Islamic attacks.

Among the 133 attacks were 25 suicide attacks.

Largescale attacks took place in Iraq, Syria, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Thailand, Israel, Egypt, Libya, Turkey, Somalia, and Philippines.

Islamic Violence Kills 1,508 In First Month Of 2016

January 26, 2021February 1, 2016 by The Speaker Editors

Share this

In the first month of 2016, Islamic attacks in 23 countries took the lives of at least 1,508 people and injured 1,714 others, according to Islamic violence watch group The Religion of Peace.

Among the 138 attacks that took place in January, 38 were suicide blasts.

Since the World Trade Center attack in 2001, when TROP began its count, there have been 27,712 attacks that have resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths around the world.

Islamic Extremists Killed 27,000 People In 52 Countries In 2015

January 26, 2021January 1, 2016 by The Speaker Editors

Share this

In the previous year, Islamic violence took the lives of over 27,000 people and critically injured another 26,000, according to an extremism watch organization that tracks Islamic attacks. 2015’s attacks took place in 52 countries worldwide, and included 475 suicide attacks.

The Religion of Peace, an organization that collects information about attacks motivated by Islamic ideas and tallies various statistics, published their yearly figures Friday on their website.

The December figures — 225 deaths and 273 critically injured in 47 separate attacks, brought the totals for the 2015 year to 27,435 deaths and 26,144 critically injured in 2,849 separate attacks in 52 countries.

The numbers provided by TROP are actually lower than what the total deaths would be, the organization’s editor Glen Roberts told The Speaker, because the organization relies on news reports for their tallies. Not all deaths are reported in the news, and deaths that occur after news has been published are usually not included.

The numbers have remained fairly consistent since TROP’s first entries, which date back to the September 11 attacks on the Twin Towers in 2001.

“It looks like there have been only 12 days since the beginning of 2005 without at least one Islamic attack,” Roberts noted.

There are an average of 5 separate attacks every day that result in at least one death, motivated by Islamic ideas, according to TROP. The numbers tallied do not include deaths like honor killings, although the group does monitor these incidents as well.

Sources: TROP

Islamic Violence Kills 1,500 In 30 Countries In November

January 26, 2021December 4, 2015 by The Speaker Editors

Share this

In the month of November, Islamic violence in 30 countries took the lives of over 1,455 people and critically injured 1,706. The record, kept by watch group The Religion of Peace, has been maintained since the attacks on New York’s World Trade Center in 2001.

Several attacks took place every day of the month in the countries of Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, France, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Syria, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, the United States, and Yemen.

TROP editor Glen Roberts noted on his webpage that in light of the spotlight on Islamic violence following the attacks in Paris last month and California this month, although anti-Muslim attacks have risen in Western countries, still just one Muslim has been killed by a targeted hate crime in America since the September 9/11 attacks. In the same amount of time, Islamic terrorists have killed 73 people in 33 attacks in the U.S., not including Islamic honor killings within the country.

The tallies do not include honor killings or deaths that result from motivations other than religious attacks, although honor killings are recorded by TROP. The numbers are also expected to be low compared with actual deaths and injuries because TROP can only count attacks that are reported, and is not able to count deaths that occur some time after an attack has taken place.

Roberts has written extensively on the subject of Muslims and the violence associated with the Muslim population as compared with other populations. He has stated that no Muslim should be harmed, harassed, stereotyped or treated any differently anywhere in the world solely on account of their status as a Muslim, but that the consequences of ideas associated with the ideology and culture of Islam should be recognized.

“The recent attacks are growing proof that Muslim migration is an unnecessary risk,” Roberts told us. “There is no benefit to Westerners that outweighs the inevitable security costs, cultural strain and sporadic loss of life.”

World Terrorist Group Kill Numbers Ranked

January 26, 2021November 19, 2015 by The Speaker Editors

Share this

According to the 2015 Global Terrorism Index by the Institute for Economics and Peace, five Islamic groups topped the list of the deadliest forces on earth deemed “terrorist.”

Islamic group Boko Haram, which operates mainly in Nigeria, but also in Cameroon and Chad, killed the most people in 2014: 7,512 — up 300 percent from 2013.

Islamic group Islamic State killed slightly less — 6,073 — in its Middle East conquests in 2014.

Islamic group Taliban took 3,477 lives the same year in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Islamic group Fulani Militants killed 1,229 in the Central African Republic, up from less than one hundred in 2013.

Islamic group Al-Shabaab — a group affiliated with al-Qa’ida — killed 1,021 people in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia in 2014.

The Institute for Economics and Peace noted a rise in militant attacks globally — up 80 percent in one year and up 900 percent since 2000. In 2014 there were a total 32,658 deaths due to militancy, compared with 2000’s 3,329.

Terrorist attacks were up everywhere last year. While 80 percent of deaths took place in five countries — Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria — countries in which over 500 terrorist attacks took place within the year rose 120 percent. Sixty-seven countries experienced at least one terrorist attack resulting in death in 2014.

Many Western countries experienced terrorist attacks in 2014, including Canada, France, Austria, Australia and Belgium, but most of these killings were ascribed in the report to “lone wolf” attacks — contrasted against “Islamic fundamentalism.” The group cited right wing extremism, nationalism, anti-government elements, and other types of of political extremism and supremacism for these attacks. However, attacks numbers were relatively low in Western countries and all countries without an ongoing armed conflict.

Tony Blair Warns US To Take Muslim Extremism More Seriously

October 25, 2015October 6, 2015 by The Speaker Editors

Share this

In a speech delivered at New York’s 9/11 Memorial Museum Tuesday, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair told Americans that there is significant support for Islamic extremists and their beliefs among Muslims around the world.

Blair said that while the majority of Muslims “detest extremism,” the percentage that harbor “dangerous” religious prejudice is still large and would have to be rooted out if the threat of Islamic violence were to be quelled.

“The conspiracy theories which illuminate much of the jihadi writings have significant support even amongst parts of the mainstream population of some Muslim countries,” said Blair.

“There are millions of schoolchildren every day in countries round the world – not just in the Middle East – who are taught a view of the world and of their religion which is narrow-minded, prejudicial and therefore, in the context of a globalized world, dangerous.”

Blair also said that attempts to attack Islam’s prejudicial ideas may be considered to be attacks on all Muslims — not just attacks on extremists — but that those concerns have to be overcome in order to address the issue.

“If large numbers of people really do believe that the desire of the USA or the west is to disrespect or oppress Islam, then it is not surprising that some find recourse to violence acceptable in order to reassert the ‘dignity’ of the oppressed,” he said.

“If young people are educated that Jews are evil or that anyone who holds a different view of religion is an enemy, it is obvious that this prejudice will give rise, in certain circumstances, to action in accordance with it.

“The reality is that in parts of the Muslim community a discourse has grown up which is profoundly hostile to peaceful coexistence. Countering this is an essential part of fighting extremism.”

By James Haleavy

Islamic Violence Numbers For September: Attacks, Deaths and Critically Injured

January 26, 2021October 2, 2015 by The Speaker Editors

Share this

“Large-scale massacres in the name of Allah were down that month, as were the overall numbers,” The Religion of Peace editor Glen Roberts told The Speaker.

Over the course of September, Islamic violence globally left 1,580 dead and 2,436 critically injured in 187 attacks, according to TROP, which keeps a record of attacks that have taken place since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.

The month’s totals were much lower than the spike in Islamic violence that occurs around the time of Ramadan, Islam’s holiest month. This year, almost 3,000 deaths from religiously-motivated attacks took place during that period.

September’s 187 recorded attacks took place in 27 countries around the world, and included 31 suicide attacks.

Islamists Kill 2,297, Injure 2,246 This Month In 240 Attacks Globally

January 26, 2021September 1, 2015 by The Speaker Editors

Share this

Islamists killed 2,297 people and injured 2,246 in 240 separate attacks in 22 countries around the world in August, according to terrorist watch group The Religion of Peace, which has kept regular statistics on Muslim religiously motivated violence since September 2001.

The attacks took place in Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Cameroon, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Kenya, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Syria, Thailand, Turkey, USA and Yemen,according to TROP editor Glen Roberts.

The attacks included 36 suicide attacks.

Worldwide, Muslims have commit an average of five separate acts of religiously motivated violence per day since TROP began its work. Roberts suspects terrorism has increased since the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001 when he began.

“Terrorism before 9/11 was bad in Algeria and Kashmir,” Roberts told us. “I think the numbers have been worse since, just in other places — Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Syria.”

Canadian Muslim extremists foiled in plot to kill Jews in synagogue

September 1, 2015July 27, 2015 by The Speaker Editors

Share this

Two known Canadian Muslim extremists, who had previously been found guilty of plotting to detonate homemade bombs in the British Columbia legislature during Canada Day two years ago, have been charged with new extremist crimes.

Amanda Korody and husband John Nuttal are currently on trial at a BC Supreme Court for plotting to infiltrate a synagogue and kill Jews.

The court Monday heard testimony written by undercover RCMP officers who thwarted the plan over a months-long undercover sting operation. The couple, according to the undercover officer, planned to become “regulars in the synagogue.”

“They will gain the trust of everybody. And once they have everything they will get enough guns and ammo to go ahead with their mission,” Crown lawyer Sharon Steele read from the undercover RCMP officer’s notes.

The couple believed they would be able to infiltrate the synagogue because “they were both white and could pass for Jewish,” Steele read.

However, the couple were themselves infiltrated and arrested by RCMP who began their investigation after receiving a tip-off from Canada’s spy agency in late 2012.

James Haleavy