PERISCOPE

Any person with only moderate amount of common sense would know that the Sri Lanka bombing was done by Jihadist Fanatics the moment it happened. No other entity or group of men would do such mindless act except for a Jihadist Fanatic group.

The Western countries for last few months have been issuing travel warnings in South Asia for their citizens. It is now known that India alerted Sri Lanka about this specific attack about a month ago, they even gave names and addresses of people who were behind it. Sri Lanka has a President and a Prime Minister, who do not get along well, and one of them did not share the Indian information with the other.

Besides the obvious fanatics, Sri Lankan government has to accept a lot of the blame for failing to protect its citizens and tourists, by ignoring credible/specific warnings. And Muslims from peaceful countries should stop sharing and talking about conspiracy theories.

8 men and 1 woman carried out the Sri Lanka bombings on Churches. Most of them, if not all of them, were from the educated middle class of Sri Lanka. One of the suicide bombers studied in UK and then did graduate studies in Australia. These were not men and women born out of poverty. It is quite possible that they may not have faced much injustice or prejudice in their personal lives. They just chose to do what they did. They chose to be suicide bombers, because they were inspired by a twisted, conspiracy minded world view, which is not only stupid and false , but also 100% Un-Islamic.

Educated, affluent, and mostly non-practicing Muslims are now the target of terrorist recruiters. Some of these types of educated, conspiracy minded recruitable folks are among us, alive in our social space and social media. Talk to them when you see them making crazy claims or discussing absurd concepts. Try to change their world views, if you can. They need your help.

Shafquat Rabbee
Dhaka