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MUMBAI EXPLODES
The death toll following terrorist bombings in India is now beyond 160:
A synchronised series of bombs ripped through packed commuter trains and stations in the evening rush hour in Mumbai yesterday, killing more than 160 people and injuring more than 400.
The volley of seven blasts in 15 minutes brought chaos and carnage to the railway backbone running through India’s commercial hub. It was the deadliest attack in the country for more than 10 years.
No word yet on who may be responsible, but you can probably rule out Presbyterians.
UPDATE. Toll rising:
The Press Trust of India news agency said early Wednesday that police had increased the toll to 190 killed and 625 injured. In the hours immediately after the attacks, officials put the toll at 147 dead and 439 injured.
UPDATE II. Interesting theory from Brendan O’Neill:
Could it be that, whomever carried out these various attacks, what they really instinctively hate about Mumbai is its growth (as symbolised by its financial centre, which has been bombed) and its transformation into a teeming, modern city of millions (as symbolised by its often overcrowded railway system, bombed yesterday and in 2003)?
Perhaps the rising number of attacks on Mumbai over the past decade actually symbolises the broader shift from violent political campaigns of the past towards nihilistic terrorism today that simply screams at modernity.
UPDATE III. Death toll now said to be well over 190.
UPDATE IV. Another attack:
At least five Indian tourists were wounded on Wednesday when suspected Muslim militants threw a grenade at a bus station in a resort in Indian Kashmir, police and witnesses said.
UPDATE V. Conrad: “I’m sure the Mumbai bombers represented a ‘broad strata’ of Indian society.”
They’ve veeb ID’d by the Indian authorities as Muslims.
There is nobody these people won’t try to kill.
Waiting for Addamo and Gustov…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 07 12 at 12:03 AM • permalinkveeb = been in Urdu. ‘smy story and I’m sticking to it…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 07 12 at 12:04 AM • permalinkAnalysts agreed the most likely culprits were Lashkar-e-Taiba, or Army of the Righteous, and Jaish-e-Mohammad, or Army of Muhammad
I’m going for Lashkar-e-Taiba, I couldn’t imagine an organisation with the word “Muhammad” in it being at all involved.
Posted by Whale Spinor on 2006 07 12 at 12:11 AM • permalinkIndia should have never invaded Afghanistan or Iraq.
No….Wait.
Umm… India should never have oppressed the Palestinians…
No… Wait….
Well, I’m totally out of ideas what the ‘root cause’ was.
East Timor?
Posted by AlburyShifton on 2006 07 12 at 12:19 AM • permalink#5 daphne
Anthony Loewenstein also said that the Australian government will be guilty of genocide for changing the high school social studies curriculum. Perhaps he has completely cast of his vestigial moorings with reality and can be ignored forthwith?
#7 Got it in one, AlburyShifton.
From OBL’s 23/4/2006 tape:
“What was the aim of the pressure against Indonesia by the Crusaders countries until East Timor, 24 hours after a warning by the UN? A Crusader-Zionist-Hindu war against Muslims.”
Full text here
Posted by MentalFloss on 2006 07 12 at 12:43 AM • permalinkLashkar-e-Taiba
The same crowd that Australia’s most famous inmate of Guantanomo Bay hung out with straight after graduating from Al Queada school. The one he fired hundreds of rounds with every night.
The bloke Alec Mitchell wants as Australian of the Year
Crusader-Zionist-Hindu
That’s pretty much the bulk of the planet isn’t it?
—Nora
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2006 07 12 at 12:47 AM • permalinkCrusader-Zionist-Hindu
That’s pretty much the bulk of the planet isn’t it?
Well, they haven’t gotten around to the Shintoists yet, but if they somehow ever manage to share a border with Japan (yes, I know), you can bet they will.
Because, you know, everybody picks on their Muslim neighbors. Poor dears.
Pretty much, Nora.
And, what with the month-long bombardment of the Bamiyan Buddhas (yes, it took that long to destroy them), and this view of the Q’uran on the “Protector of Tibet” from Harun Yahya:
“With eleven heads and several arms, Chenresig has several names in Tibetan Buddhist tradition. But no intelligent person could ever believe the nonsense that a statue made of wood or stone could have any strength or power.”
(So, a half million ragheads circling the Ka’aba and throwing rocks a “Satan” is not idolatry? Piss myself laughing.) More from this dickwad:
“For this reason, a person who repents of his error of associating other things with God should abandon his idols without a moment’s hesitation. Those who believe that Buddha is a god (God is surely beyond that!) who sees and hears all things, gives strength, gets angry and forebears, must change their minds and abandon their perverse understanding. And those who are caught up in the unfounded idea of karma and reject the existence the everlasting afterlife, must use their intelligence to save themselves from this error, because “What these people are doing is destined for destruction. What they are doing is purposeless.(Qur’an, 7: 139)”
I’d say we can include Buddhists as well in OBL’s list. Actually, if he were truly thorough, OBL’s hyphenated hit list would probably break Andrea’s rule and the page.
Posted by MentalFloss on 2006 07 12 at 01:11 AM • permalinkMay the souls of the departed meet in the bardo, find favour with the Yama Kings and return to us speedily.
Frankly, I really think LET or AQ absolutely under estimates the collective rage that India may direct their way.
The story of Arjuna, the fabled bowman of the Mahabharata, brings out Lord Krishna’s view of war in the Gita. The great battle of Kurukshetra is about to begin. Krishna drives Arjuna’s chariot drawn by white horses into the centre of the battlefield between the two armies. Arjuna is hesitant.
Krishna in order to persuade him to fight, reminds him that there is no such act as killing.
He explains that the “atman” or soul is the only reality; the body is simply an appearance, its existence and annihilation are illusory. And for Arjuna, a member of the “Kshatriya” or the warrior caste, fighting the battle is ‘righteous’.
It is a just cause and to defend it is his duty or dharma.
If the ancient ways return, there will be many Muslims facing the Yama Kings.
Posted by MentalFloss on 2006 07 12 at 01:22 AM • permalinkThen there is this horror. - “Children in England Turn To Islam”.
#22 What? What? Have you seen the thread topic?
Posted by MentalFloss on 2006 07 12 at 01:31 AM • permalinkLet’s see. The Crusaders, The Hindus, The Buddists, The Zionists, The officially secular, The Atheists…
They keep talking about how they are a billion Muzzies strong…but at the moment they’re at war with 5 billion of everyone else.
As there are no moderates among them, the only way they will stop is if they are facing extinction….and they seem to be driving the world to it.
OT, Gitmo Detainees covered under Geneva. Just breaking.
Back on topic, Surprise! RoP strikes again!
Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 2006 07 12 at 01:43 AM • permalink#25
Let’s see. The Crusaders, The Hindus, The Buddists, The Zionists, The officially secular, The Atheists…
They keep talking about how they are a billion Muzzies strong…but at the moment they’re at war with 5 billion of everyone else.
As there are no moderates among them, the only way they will stop is if they are facing extinction….and they seem to be driving the world to it.
They’re making the same mistake that totalitarian megalomaniacs always make: fighting on too many fronts at once. By not allowing anyone to be moderate or nuetral in this battle, they will eventually find themselves outnumbered on all fronts.
Posted by AlburyShifton on 2006 07 12 at 01:45 AM • permalinkThe real threat to civilisation are Aussie Nazis - Darp told me.
Posted by Islam/cancer-Chuck Norris/answer on 2006 07 12 at 02:09 AM • permalinkLets not jump to conclusions. Could be the works of a militant Train Conductors Union.
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2006 07 12 at 02:18 AM • permalinkShame…I have no idea when, in fact if at all, the sane part of the world will wake up and make a concerted effort to rid the planet of this cult, called Islam.
One really hates to call for the total elimination of somewhere in the range of 1.2 to 1.8 billion cultists, so I like everyone else seems to will not. The fear and shame of being called a genocidal manic is to great. May as well lie and feign as do the cultists.
I’ll just commit to eliminating half of the above number or numbers, whichever is greater. For now.
Followiung the Columbia space-shuttle disaster, well-known British cleric Sheik Abu Hamza commented:
“It carried Americans, an Israeli and a Hindu, a trinity of evil against Islam” (Reported in The Spectator, 8 February, 2003)
Posted by Susan Norton on 2006 07 12 at 02:48 AM • permalinkIndia looks for Mumbai clues BBC SPINS EXCUSES
it must be the work of rogue tamils and if not, just revenge for the Mo cartoons.The Islamists simply cannot win this war.
For one - they have just completed an attack on probably the busiest transit system in the world. It seems to have been well co-ordinated and is in an area which probably doesn’t have the security resources of other places. The result was 500 deaths, which while individually tragic is pissing in the ocean. Train accidents (sans any bombings)claim that many lives in India every year.
Secondly, they are pissing too many people off. Why they would want to add 1 billion Hindus to their hate list is just stupid. And why attack Canada, that is like picking on a disabled kid (no offence to Canadians, but disabled kids don’t usually fight back).
They will end up fighting on more fronts than Hitler and be gobbled up by people who just will not take any more shit.
It will not be an easy fight, but they will not win.
Posted by The (WHMECDM) President on 2006 07 12 at 02:51 AM • permalinkMumbai Blasts of July 11, 2006 by B. Raman, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, India.
Extract: “While in the past, the Pakistani pan-Islamic organisations and the ISI [Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence - tmc.] have been taking advantage of the pockets of anger in the Indian Muslim community for their strategic objectives against India, since March this year, Al Qaeda has been trying to take advantage of them for its own pan-Islamic and anti-US objectives. In view of the increased interactions between the US and India, it is likely to look upon India as providing a fertile soil for its anti-US operations. [...].”
In view of the increased interactions between the US and India, it is likely to look upon India as providing a fertile soil for its anti-US operations.
But building sophisticated networks that take advantage of this “fertile soil” takes time and patience. Why build when you can destroy? Killing people’s a whole lotta fun, and once these Jihadis get it in their blood, they don’t shake it easily.
So instead of waiting patiently and working secretly, what do they do? They blow something up and kill people, alerting both India and the USA of their presence in India. Brilliant work, Sherlock!
Posted by AlburyShifton on 2006 07 12 at 05:49 AM • permalinkPresbyterians??? On behalf of the NY Times, Fairfax press I demand that the police interrogate all religious groups starting with the Christians who caused so much mayham 1,500 years ago when several fratboi roadtrips to the Holy Land turned ugly, then we should interrogate the Buddhist! and the Eskimos and the goat herders of Monglolia, and the rat catchers of Mumbai, the fish catchers of Goa, the hoons who drive in Phillip Island, and… maybe ... just maybe after much deliberate thought and navel gazing- turn to the Muslims for some advice!
Posted by Wylie Wilde on 2006 07 12 at 06:24 AM • permalinkIn London right now. Absolutely astonished at how virulently anti-American the media and populace is. The SMH has nothing on these grubs.
Last night on C4 news, re: attacks in Mumbai, the reporter said the following:
“As India moves closer to the United States, they are in increasing danger of attacks like this…”
U-N-F-U-C-K-I-N-G-B-E-L-I-E-V-A-B-L-E-!-!-!
Howard should take this opportunity to announce the sale of uranium to India.
Gee, 2dogs… do ya think that’s safe? Some of the stuff might fall into enemy hands.
On the other hand, surely we would be punishing the victim by adopting a prejudicial view toward trade relations in response to Islamist terror. A bit of a test, that one.
A letter from Bombay which started circulating the Net this evening:
From: “Jaydeep Patil” <jaydeep_patil@sifycorp.com>
Subject: A Letter from Bombay
Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2006 15:50:54 +0530Dear Terrorist,
Even if you are not reading this we don’t care. Time and again you tried to disturb us and disrupt our life - killing innocent civilians by planting bombs in trains, buses and cars. You have tried hard to bring death and destruction, cause panic and fear and create communal disharmony but every time you were disgustingly unsuccessful. Do you know how we pass our life in Mumbai? How much it takes for us to earn that single rupee? If you wanted to give us a shock then we are sorry to say that you failed miserably in your ulterior motives. Better look elsewhere, not here.
We are not Hindus and Muslims or Gujaratis, Marathis, Punjabis, Bengaliies, Keralites or Tamilians. Nor do we distinguish ourselves as owners or workers, govt. employees or private employees.
WE ARE MUMBAIKERS
(Bombay-ites, if you like) We will not allow you to disrupt our life like this. On the last few occassions when you struck (including the 7 deadly blasts in a single day killing over 250 people and injuring 500+ in 1993), we went to work next day in full strength.
This time we cleared everything within a few hours and were back to normal - the vendors placing their next order, businessmen finalizing the next deals and the office workers rushing to catch the next train. (Yes the same train you targetted)
Fathom this: Within 3 hours of the blasts, long queues of blood donating volunteers were seen outside various hospital, where most of the injured were admitted. By 12 midnight, the hospital had to issue a notification that blood banks were full and they didn’t require any more blood. The next day, attendance at schools and office was close to 100%, trains & buses were packed to the brim, the crowds were back.
The city has simply dusted itself off and moved one - perhaps with greater vigour.
We are Mumbaikers and we live like brothers in times like this. So, do not dare to threaten us with your crackers. The spirit of Mumbai is very strong and can not be harmed.
Please forward this to others. U never know, by chance it may come to hands of a terrorist in Afghanistan, Pakistan or Iraq and he can then read this message which is specially meant for him!!!
From the people of Mumbai (Bombay)
- end -
the “Protector of Tibet” from Harun Yahya . . . Good lord! Sounds like something from Wodehouse. Fellow sounds a bit of a tick to me.
This was a vastly immoral act, but one that underscores the application by terrorists of what one may call “the new situational ethics”. All humane concerns, all justice, all sanity cast to the winds for the sake of a monomaniacal cause. You cannot reason with or appease such fanatics. You can only kill them in battle, or surrender - fast or slow, but either way, definitively.
another sad, vicious, callous attack on innocent people just going about their business of living. admit, had a thought about the times i’ve been a bit abrupt to those telephone callers from India.
maybe we should stop treating Islam as a religion and tackle it as the political system that it is. that’d put a whole different slant on the vilification issue
This is nothing new. There has been hostility between Muslims and Hindus for centuries, ever since the first Islamic raiders forced their way in. What’s new is the current politics (al-Quaeda).
But then, I guess you could say there’s been hostility between Muslims and… well, everybody… since Mohammed first invented Islam. So, again, nothing new.
I refuse to call it the Religion of Peace anymore, even in jest. It’s the Religion of Hostility.
And, yes, gson, whoever the hell you are, I’m sorry for the Mumbaikars. They didn’t deserve this despicable, cowardly action any more than the rest of Islam’s victims have.
I doubt that this will make any difference. It’s not exactly a secret how muslims behave, and how few among their number object. Yet all we have seen for the most part is appeasement, grovelling, insults to our intelligence and victim-blaming. It will end with non-petroleum-powered transport or nukes, whichever comes first.
Posted by Jim Geones on 2006 07 12 at 09:46 AM • permalinkFifty-odd comments. And how many express sympathy or sorrow?
Including you. Interesting that.
And, yes, I have sympathy and sorrow for the victims. But everyone here is raging against the effing Islamic terrorists. I guess we need a bigger cluebat for you, gson.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 07 12 at 10:03 AM • permalinkI expressed sympathy on the thread above this one.
So now can I please make my point?
Never before tonight’s SBS news heard of an affluent railway line.
and yes there was talk of a Hindu conspiracy against Muslims.
Plus blaming the evil Americans from Dr Yasmeen -several times-for trying to “force” India and Pakistan to draw closer together and be more friendly.Don’t know about this feller, O’Neill. This is from another article by him, linked on the web site: “In fact, this is better understood as a shadow war. It is not a clash between an expansionist Israel and a determined resistance in the shape of Hamas; instead, both sides are executing media stunts aimed at impressing their own domestic audiences and, crucially, an international audience too.” Just the world’s most violent “reality TV show”, eh? Sorry, not buying it.
And there’s this, from the article Tim linked: “Whatever political rationale some opportunist terror group attaches to yesterday’s bombings, it strikes me that, at root, this is like a more violent version of that age-old teenage complaint about the ‘rat race’ and how horrible our big ‘soulless’ cities are.” Hey Ushie, are you still out there? There’s your root causes for you: it’s just extended teen angst.
O’Neill’s essays struck me as measured and thoughtful, but distinctly wrong-headed. Yes, there is much fear among large groups of people in developing nations of the technologically-advanced world, and the sometimes ruthless discipline of the marketplace; however, in downplaying the political and religious motivations that drive the terrorists (by their own admission, mind you), O’Neill seems to be setting up a mere strawman composed of some nebulous, general fear of change. I think it is prudent, generally, to take people - especially fanatics - at their word, and act accordingly.
So Osama’s Schutzstaffel have had their day in Mumbai, but I can only hope that they have awoken a sleeping giant.
As for gson, one word - prat.
Posted by Whale Spinor on 2006 07 12 at 10:52 AM • permalink#39 thanks for that link just the stupid bbc doing what it does best, muddying the waters.
#51 i no longer watch ch4 as the sight of posturing liberal sophisticates makes me want to heave the contents of my stomach accross the room.
#53 you are obviously some kind of a terrorist symp who thinks everything is our fault all of the time…....................good day to you
#22,#56 Daze speaks:A vain attempt to change the subject, the usual ploy of anti-western valued trolls. Please excuse, since, by his self-description on another post, he is retarded.
#53,gsonof* cannot grasp what even a child understands, that rage at the perpetrator is the surest sign of pain and sympathy for the victims.
Waiting for Addamo, gustav.. No need to wait. To sum up their observations; (1) attack was done by the Indian government to inflame population against muslies; (2) attack by muslies was provoked by India sucking up to Bush (3)the Israelis did it to take the world’s attention away from its invasion of Gaza and Lebanon, and so forth.In view of the increased interactions between the US and India, it is likely to look upon India as providing a fertile soil for its anti-US operations. [...].”
I knew it was Bush’s fault. I don’t know how apt it is considering India’s long history with Muslim “unrest”, but this does seem to be the emerging conventional wisdom:
India’s secularism, democratic traditions and commitment to free markets make it a favorite of President Bush, who, more than any American president in modern history, has advanced bilateral diplomacy and strengthened the economic corridor between the two countries. His advocacy of India as a democratic counterweight to Asia’s other giant, China, and to India’s military rival and theocratic Islamic state Pakistan, has invited implacable opprobrium from America’s enemies.
N.Y.C., India Are Joined In the War
In London right now. Absolutely astonished at how virulently anti-American the media and populace is.
I think it’s time for the rest of the world to shun the United States. Allow us to whither and die. All manner of world problems would be solved: CO2 pollution would decrease by 25% and Mother Gaia will be saved. A new Renaissance will blossom and flourish absent our puerile, repugnant culture. Without the imperialist hegemon, there will be no need for the rest of the world to take up arms and all conflict will end. Lacking US support, even the Zionists will be vulnerable to a concerted world effort to complete the work begun in the 1930’s. The United Nations can finally take it’s rightful place as the World’s Absolute Moral Authority. Crass commercialism and vulgar consumerism eventually will fade away followed by a complete collapse of Capitalism thus allowing an equitable system of social and economic justice to prevail. Christianity might well find itself deservedly relegated to the ash heap of history. In short, there’ll be peace and understanding, all troubles then will cease. I say it’s worth a try.
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 07 12 at 02:13 PM • permalink#74 Odd, I don’t recall the targets of this “painter from Bavaria”‘s plan ever declaring total war on him or his people…
Also, he failed, true (as have all the other decendants of Amalek over the millenia), to complete his design—but tens of millions of people died nevertheless. He and his cult were only stopped by a “coalition of the willing” such as has never been seen in history.
Where are the “willing” now? On which side do you stand, if you are able to stand at all?
Posted by MentalFloss on 2006 07 12 at 07:59 PM • permalinkDid you actually read the link you posted?
As to your use of the term “untermensch”, I object. Misguided, deluded, fanatical, backward, yes—but your terminology (as well as your complete misunderstanding of the link you posted) paints you with the very brush as Shickelgruber.
Your motives and goals are highly suspect.
Posted by MentalFloss on 2006 07 12 at 09:49 PM • permalinkI posted that link deliberately, lest I be accused of linking to a ‘biased’ site.
Your motives and goals are highly suspect.
really?, I’m not the one calling for the extermination of Palestinians and other brown people.
I love Mumbai, and am saddened by this latest atrocity. And yes, this is a good time for the Australian government to show India some real love. If we can embrace a communist dictatorship in the interests of keeping our economy from falling off a precipice, surely we can spare some real, concrete affection for a pluralist, rapidly modernizing democracy. If there’s a silver lining to these terrorist attacks, it is that they throw the shared values of free societies into sharper relief.
Nor do I. Yet I remain unconvinced, daza, of your agenda.
Posted by MentalFloss on 2006 07 12 at 10:32 PM • permalink#81 You’re the one who claimed that it was (the Jews) who declared total war on Hitler and the Germans. And then linked to a site that directly contradicted this comical and obscene claim. You could get work writing foul jokes. Probably you are one.
And then for dessert, you are now claiming that you did it on purpose to show you weren’t biased, or something. Just demented apparently.
Nor do I have to troll the thousands of coments on Tim’s sight by others to find something that, out of context, might be twisted into something that supports what I am saying. Your splendid work is there for all to see at # 76.
There is nothing suspect about your motives, goals and agenda at all. You’ve made them very clear.
What we have in the postings of daza—here and elsewhere—are a fine examples of, among other things, Cartoon Law VII, which states:
Certain bodies can pass through solid walls painted to resemble tunnel entrances; others cannot.
This trompe l’oeil inconsistency has baffled generations, but at least it is known that whoever paints an entrance on a wall’s surface to trick an opponent will be unable to pursue him into this theoretical space. The painter is flattened against the wall when he attempts to follow into the painting. This is ultimately a problem of art, not of science.
Paint away, daza.
By the way, I believe ACME has been the subject of a hostile takeover by Paco Labs (“Better Living Through Dubious Gadgetry”), a subsidary of PACO Enterprises, so if you need any more ways to make yourself look ridiculous—order now and avoid the rush.
Posted by MentalFloss on 2006 07 13 at 02:21 AM • permalinkBy the way, I believe ACME has been the subject of a hostile takeover by Paco Labs
Where do these rumors come from. Is Robert Novak covering business news, now? There was nothing “hostile” about it at all. As soon as we came to terms, Paco Labs’
paratroopersnegotiators stacked arms and released the Acme executives’ families. Handshakes all ‘round.
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No word yet on who may be responsible, but you can probably rule out Presbyterians.
The synchronization of the volley is enough to do that.