User:ThePagesWriter/Islamic terrorism in Europe
Major lethal attacks on civilians in Europe credited to Islamist terrorism include the 1985 El Descanso bombing in Madrid, the 1995 Paris Metro bombings, 11 March 2004 bombings of commuter trains in Madrid, where 191 people were killed, the 7 July 2005 London bombings, also of public transport, which killed 52 commuters, and the 2015 Charlie Hebdo shooting, in Paris, where 12 people were killed in response to the satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo depicting cartoons of Muhammad. On November 13, 2015 the French capital was victim of a series of simultaneous attacks, claimed by ISIS, that killed 129 people in restaurants, the Bataclan theatre and the Stade de France.[1] On 22 March 2016, ISIS terrorists bombed the Zaventem Airport and a metro station in Brussels, Belgium, killing 32 people.
In 2009, a Europol report showed that more than 99% of terrorist attacks in Europe over the last three years were, in fact, carried out by non-Muslims.[2][3][4] Out of 1,009 arrests for terrorism in 2008, 187 were in relation to Islamist terrorism. The report showed that the majority of Islamist terror suspects were second or third generation immigrants.[5] Swedish economist Tino Sanandaji has criticised the use of these statistics, as they count window-smashing and property damage as acts of terrorism on par with terrorist mass killings.[6]
The majority of deaths by terrorism in Europe from 2001 to 2014 were caused by Islamic terrorism, even while not including Islamic terrorist attacks in Russia.[7]
France
[edit]Le Monde reported on 26 July 2016 that "Islamist Terrorism" had caused 236 dead in France in the preceding 18-month period.[8]
Eastern Europe
[edit]Russia
[edit]
Politically and religiously motivated attacks on civilians in Russia have been traced to separatist sentiment among the largely Muslim population of its North Caucasus region, particularly in Chechnya, where the central government of the Russian Federation has waged two bloody wars against the local secular separatist government since 1994. In the Moscow theater hostage crisis in October 2002, three Chechen separatist groups took an estimated 850 people hostage in the Russian capital; at least 129 hostages died during the storming by Russian special forces, all but one killed by the chemicals used to subdue the attackers (whether this attack would more properly be called a nationalist rather than an Islamist attack is in question). In the September 2004 Beslan school hostage crisis more than 1,000 people were taken hostage after a school in the Russian republic of North Ossetia–Alania was seized by a pro-Chechen multi-ethnic group aligned to Riyad-us Saliheen Brigade of Martyrs; hundreds of people died during the storming by Russian forces.[9]
Since 2000, Russia has also experienced a string of suicide bombings that killed hundreds of people in the Caucasian republics of Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia, as well as in Russia proper including Moscow. Responsibility for most of these attacks were claimed by either Shamil Basayev's Islamic-nationalist rebel faction or, later, by Dokka Umarov's pan-Islamist movement Caucasus Emirate which is aiming to unite most of Russia's North Caucasus as an emirate since its creation in 2007.[10] Since the creation of the Caucasus Emirate, the group has abandoned its secular nationalist goals and fully adopted the ideology of Salafist-takfiri Jihadism[11] which seeks to advance the cause of Allah on the earth by waging war against the Russian government and non-Muslims in the North Caucasus, such as the local Sufi Muslim population, whom they view as mushrikeen (polytheists) who do not adhere to true Islamic teachings. In 2011, the U.S. Department of State included the Caucasus Emirate on its list of terrorist organisations.[12]
Balkans
[edit]Turkey
[edit]Hezbollah in Turkey (unrelated to the Shia Hezbollah in Lebanon) is a Sunni terrorist group[13] accused of a series of attacks, including the November 2003 bombings of two synagogues, the British consulate in Istanbul and HSBC bank headquarters that killed 58.[14] Hizbullah's leader, Hüseyin Velioğlu, was killed in action by Turkish police in Beykoz on 17 January 2000. Besides Hizbullah, other Islamic groups listed as a terrorist organization by Turkish police counter-terrorism include Great Eastern Islamic Raiders' Front, al-Qaeda in Turkey, Tevhid-Selam (also known as al-Quds Army) and Caliphate State. Islamic Party of Kurdistan and Hereketa İslamiya Kurdistan are also Islamist groups active against Turkey, however unlike Hizbullah they're yet to be listed as active terrorist organizations in Turkey by Turkish police counter-terrorism.[15]
Attacks
[edit]| Date | Location | Country | Dead | Injured | Means | Perpetrator | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 April 1985 |  Madrid
|
 Spain
|
18 | 82 | Improvised Explosive Device | Islamic Jihad Organization | 1985 El Descanso bombing |
| 25 July 1995 |  Paris
|
 France
|
8 | 150 | Improvised explosive device | Armed Islamic Group | 1995 Paris Métro and RER bombings |
| 3 December 1996 | Paris
|
France
|
4 | 85 | Improvised explosive device | Armed Islamic Group | 1996 Paris Métro bombing |
| 11 March 2004 | Madrid
|
Spain
|
191 | 2050 | Improvised explosive devices | 'Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigade part of Al-Qaida | 191 people were killed and over 600 others were wounded when ten bombs detonated in Madrid on the train line. At least one of these bombs detonated at El Pozo, a small commuter station in Madrid. It is impossible to disaggregate the casualties from any of the blast sites because of poor reporting. The bombs were detonated by cell phones and were left in backpacks. At first the Spanish government blamed the separatist group, the Basque Fatherland and Freedom (ETA) for the attacks, but later the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigade claimed responsibility on behalf of Al Qaeda. By the end of March 2004, authorities had arrested over twenty people in connection with the attack. The suspects hailed from Morocco, Pakistan, Syria and Spain. In their claim of responsibility, the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigade says that Spain was targeted because of their cooperation with the US in the war in Iraq. In response to the attacks, the ruling Spanish party was defeated in elections mainly because they lied about those attacks (which took place four days after the incident) and the new Prime Minister vowed to remove Spanish troops from combat in Iraq. On April 3, as the police were closing in on four suspects, including Serjame ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, who they believe was the ringleader in this incident, the suspects blew themselves up in their apartment in Madrid. This blast also killed a police officer. One suspect managed to escape the apartment explosion, as he was taking out the trash at the time of the raid. Abdelmajid Bouchar escaped to Serbia, where he hid out until he was captured in August 2005. |
| 8 October 2004 | Paris
|
France
|
- | 10 | Improvised Explosive Device | Armed French Islamic Front | Bomb attack against the Indonesian Embassy in Paris by Algerian Islamist militants.[16] |
| 7 July 2005 |  London
|
 United Kingdom
|
56 | 700 | Suicide bombings | 'Al-Qaeda' | Suicide bombers attack one double-decker bus and three London Underground trains, killing 52 people and injuring over 700, occurring on the first day of the 31st G8 Conference. The attacks are the first suicide bombings in Western Europe.
References[edit]
|