Andrew Klavan, on should we be silent in a world going mad?

. . . at Hillsdale:



Food for thought. END

Updates overnight on the Sri Lanka bombing -- 290 dead 500 injured,

. . . and claims of it being retaliation for the recent lone wolf mad man who attacked Mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. 

This is of course agit prop nonsense, peaceful Christians in Sri Lanka (or in New Zealand for that matter) have utterly nothing to do with what a demonically deranged man does in New Zealand. But by projecting blame, one creates a false sense of justification. Murder is murder, period.

Sri Lanka's Daily Mirror gives us a map, which also ups the incident count to eight:

The same source reports:

An improvised explosive device was detected inside a van near the St. Anthony’s Church, Jampettah Road, Kochchikade, and was disposed in controlled explosion at the site by the Bomb Disposal Unit  . . . .

Islamic State supporters are celebrating the Sri Lanka suicide bombings which killed 290 people on Easter Sunday and left around another 500 injured, Daily Mail Online reported. 

The SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks extremist activity online, said ISIS fanatics were praising the terror attacks as revenge for the Christchurch mosques shooting.

No group has officially claimed responsibility for the blasts at five-star hotels and churches but Sri Lankan police say a previously unknown Muslim extremist group were the subject of an intelligence warning ten days before . . . . 

The police today informed Colombo Chef Magistrate’s Court that the suicide bomber of the Shangri-La hotel had been identified as Insan Seelavan and owned a factory in Avissawella- Wellampitiya road.

Nine employees of the said factory were arrested by the Wellampitiya Police and were remanded till May 6 after being produced in the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court.

The Police also informed the court that the suicide bomber was suspected to have links with other suicide killers died in the Dematagoda blast . . . .

The Government Analyst today confirmed that yesterday’s attacks on three churches and three hotels were carried out by suicide bombers.

“All the attacks were carried out by suicide bombers,” Government Analyst A. Welianga told the Daily Mirror.

 Breitbart adds:

A local Islamist terrorist group called National Thowfeek Jamaath was responsible for multiple Easter Sunday suicide bomb attacks against Christians and luxury hotel guests in Sri Lanka, government officials on Monday revealed.

Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne told a news conference that all the bombers were Sri Lankan citizens. Earlier, a government forensic crime investigator said an examination of the Islamist attackers’ body parts showed that they were suicide bombers.

Senaratne, who is also a Cabinet minister, added that the government was investigating whether the group had “international support” . . . . 

The U.S. State Department, meanwhile, warned of further attacks in a revised travel advisory, urging increased caution and adding: “Terrorist groups continue plotting possible attacks in Sri Lanka.”

The bombings, Sri Lanka’s deadliest violence since a devastating civil war ended a decade ago on the island nation, killed at least 290 people with more than 500 wounded, on Easter Sunday.

Most of those killed were Sri Lankans. But the three bombed hotels and one of the churches, St. Anthony’s Shrine, are frequented by foreign tourists, and Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry said the bodies of at least 27 foreigners from a variety of countries were recovered.

 This is the world we now live in, and that is what we must soberly face as a region. END

Easter Sunday suicide bombings etc in churches and hotels in Sri Lanka

The timing and nature of the attacks leave little doubt that this is the demonic spirit of antichrist at work, raging in murderous riot against those who (however remotely) represent the gospel of Jesus the risen Christ. 

Let us note the Daily Mail bullet-point as a handy summary:

Sri Lanka makes it more difficult to infer the specific attackers, as the Tamil Tigers have also been known to carry out suicide bomber attacks. It is still most likely that these are Islamist terrorists picking a soft target to grab global headlines, but that is not a certainty; no-one has come forward to claim responsibility for this latest outrage.  However, the Daily Mail article has a significant note, a warning in advance from the national Chief of Police:

According to reports, Sri Lanka's police chief made a nationwide alert 10 days before Sunday's bomb attacks in the country that suicide bombers planned to hit 'prominent churches'.

Police chief Pujuth Jayasundara sent an intelligence warning to top officers on April 11 setting out the threat.

'A foreign intelligence agency has reported that the NTJ (National Thowheeth Jama'ath) is planning to carry out suicide attacks targeting prominent churches as well as the Indian high commission in Colombo,' said the alert.

The NTJ is a radical Muslim group in Sri Lanka that came to notice last year when it was linked to the vandalisation of Buddhist statues.

The following RT video has a Sri Lankan spokesman who speaks of rising polarisation along religious fracture-lines in recent years after the end of the civil war about ten years ago:



As we celebrate the risen Christ today, let us remember the suffering church, and let us remember that the Prince of Peace answers to all fracture lines. END