Sunday, April 21, 2019

Thoughts on The Easter Sunday Terrorist Attacks in Sri Lanka

More than 200 people have been killed in a series of suicide bombings across Sri Lanka. Three bombings took place at churches during Easter Sunday services while another three bombings occurred at hotels in Colombo, Sri Lanka's capital. There were also two other bombings carried out at housing complexes. At least 27 of those killed today were foreign tourists.

Of course, the Sri Lankan government was in civil war with the Tamil Tigers for more than 25 years and the Tamil Tigers were known for utilizing suicide bombers. They are probably best known for the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in May 1991. However, the Tamil Tigers disbanded in 2009.

At this point, no one has claimed responsibility for the attacks. However, Sri Lanka's top police chief warned government officials 10 days ago that Islamic extremists that suicide bombers were planning to target "prominent churches" on Easter Sunday. However, the Sri Lankan government is only describing the attackers as "religious extremists."

I'm aware that extremists among Sri Lanka's Buddhist majority have been responsible for attacks against Muslims and Christians. Notwithstanding this history, if the "religious extremists" in question were of any religion other than Islam the whole world would know about it by now.

With that said, whoever is responsible for this attack, what we know for certain is that Sri Lankan Christians were murdered in worship on Christianity's holiest day.

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