Islam - Current Day > The Top 5 Terrorist Groups of 2022 were all Islamic; Muslim Migrant pushes Swiss family into traffic

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The five most dangerous terror groups in 2022, and they are all Islamic

The Global Terrorism Index released on Tuesday found more than 3,500 deaths

caused by the groups last year

Al Shabaab fighters have struck at regular intervals even though their influence in the region has been waning. AP

The National, UAE

Mar 14, 2023

Four of the terrorist groups that killed the most people last year were ISIS affiliates, ending the lives of 1,833 people in 643 attacks worldwide, a new report has shown.

Those numbers are a drop from 2021, when 2,194 people were killed in 865 attacks.

The Global Terrorism Index (GTI) from the Institute of Economics and Peace released its annual report on Monday, detailing trends in terrorism around the world, including a list of the deadliest groups.

Here's what you need to know:

1. ISIS

ISIS continues to be the world's deadliest terrorist group with its main arm and affiliates responsible for 27 per cent of terrorism deaths last year.

Although the number of attacks fell compared to 2021, the group struck in five of the world's nine regions: South Asia, Mena, sub-Saharan Africa, Russia and Eurasia, and Asia-Pacific.

Iraq and Syria recorded the most attacks by the group. In northern Syria, the Al Sina'a attack involved 100 members of the group storming a prison holding 3,500 inmates, many of whom were members of the group. A week-long battle to regain control of the area and capture the escaped members killed more than 370 ISIS fighters in the Ghwayran neighbourhood of Hasakah.

2. Al Shabaab

Police and military officials comb the scene of an Al Shabaab militant attack, in Mogadishu, Somalia. Reuters

Al Qaeda-affiliate Al Shabaab killed 784 people and injured 1,016 in East Africa last year. Based mainly in Kenya and Somalia, the group predominantly uses bombing tactics, the GTI found.

In 2022, the group made efforts to gain a foothold in Ethiopia's Tigray region, subject of a recently resolved civil war between the government and Tigray People's Liberation Front. The only two attacks by the group in the area had no injuries or deaths.

3. ISIS — Khorasan Province (ISIS-K)

Taliban inspect the scene of an operation against the ISIS militants at a hideout on the outskirts of Kabul. EPA

ISIS is expanding outside of Iraq and Syria. Its Afghan affiliate ISIS Khorasan Province killed 498 people and injured 832 — the most of any arm of the group — in 2022.

Recruiting from the eighth-deadliest group, Tahrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and a weakened Al Qaeda, the group has exchanged its main enemies of the Afghan military and US troops to the Taliban group, who took over in 2021.

ISIS-K has repeatedly attacked minorities in Afghanistan, including the Hazara people, at mosques, schools and public institutions.

4. Jamaat Nusrat Al Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM)

JNIM, formed in 2017 in the Sahel, killed 279 people in 2022, and injured 215 — a 28 per cent drop compared to 2021.

The GTI says it is a coalition of Salafi extremist groups Ansar Dine, the Macina Liberation Front, Al-Mourabitoun and the Saharan branch of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. The group is rapidly expanding outside of the Sahel, taking advantage of grievances against various governments to recruit and attack in Benin and Togo last year.

The GTI report warned that the fastest growth in terrorist groups is taking place in the Sahel.

5. Balochistan Liberation Army

Pakistani Army soldiers and relatives attend the funeral of Cpt Dr Bilal Khalil, who was killed in a gunfight with the BLA in Balochistan. EPA

Operating mostly in Pakistan, the Balochistan Liberation Army emerged in 2000 with the aim of independence for the province.

In April 2022, a suicide attack claimed by the group killed three Chinese citizens and a Pakistani driver — part of a supposed policy to target China as its economic and security interests in Pakistan. Explosives and grenades are the weapons of choice for the group, GTI found.

Unlike many of the groups on this list, the amount of killings attributed to the group are at their highest for 20 years, with 233 deaths recorded last year. Only 26 were killed by the group in 2021.

Included somewhere in the top ten would be Boko Haram and The Fulani Herdsmen. Both operate in and around Nigeria. Both kill hundreds, mainly Christians and mostly farmers and fishermen, and kidnap hundreds of women, girls, and boys every year. The Muslim government of Nigeria does little to disturb their slaughtering. 

"For well over a millennium, Islam's message of peace, compassion, and grace has inspired people the world over. Every great faith and tradition summons the imperatives of tolerance, respect, and mutual understanding" Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary General.  

Can one of the most powerful people in the world be so stupid? Don't answer that - I forgot about Biden.

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Switzerland: Muslim migrant pushes mother and children in front of car,

says he’s not violent, assaults translator

MAR 17, 2023 4:00 PM 

BY ROBERT SPENCER

Jihad Watch

What happens when you bring people over from a culture that glorifies and sanctifies violence and make no attempt to require them to accept the mores of the welcoming country?

“Afghan (26) pushes a mother with two small children

in front of a moving car,” 

Translated from “Afghane (26) stößt Mutter mit zwei kleinen Kindern vor fahrendes Auto,” 

by Michael Koch, Exxpress, 

March 16, 2023 

In his opening statement, the public prosecutor called for the law to be fully harsh on the accused Afghan. It was pure luck that the mother and the two children (5, 7), who were walking on a sidewalk in Biel, survived the attack with only minor injuries. Out of frustration and without any prior warning, the asylum seeker pushed passers-by onto the road. It was only thanks to the quick reactions of a BMW driver that the deadly tragedy did not occur. With an emergency stop he saved the mother and the children.

As a witness in court, the BMW driver was still under the influence of the dramatic events. “I couldn’t avoid it at all, a bus was coming towards me on the opposite lane. That I still managed to brake is a miracle. I’m so grateful,” he said.

The accused came to Switzerland with the wave of refugees in 2015 and has drifted further and further since then, addicted to alcohol. He had no explanation for his baseless attack on the defenseless family, as he explained in the dock with the help of an interpreter in Farsi: “It went silly, I just pushed someone aside.”

I don't think 'silly' is the appropriate word here.

And he’s not a violent person at all. Which may be doubted after the course of the process so far. After a short interruption of the trial, the trial day had to be called off. During the break, the accused had physically attacked his translator. The Afghan, who is facing a long prison sentence, was led away in handcuffs.

The verdict is expected to be handed down on Friday.