Thursday, October 31, 2013

Blog 8 : Tiananmen Square Terrorist Attack

This past Monday there was a terrorist attack on well known Tiananmen Square.  Police said it was a carefully thought out attack which killed five people and injured dozens more.  In the attack, a man, his mother, and his wife drove a jeep into the square.  All three of the jeep's occupants died when they set fire to gasoline.  In the jeep police found two knives, steel sticks, and a flag with extremist religious content.  It is important to note that lately tensions have been rising between the Han Chinese and the largely Muslim Uyghurs.  Sometimes these tensions result in violent outbursts.  However, it is unclear if the Uyghurs had anything to do with what took place.  Some are saying that this incident is considered a loss of face for Beijing's leaders.  Police are believing that this incident could possibly have something to do with the 139 arrests they made earlier this month for spreading religious extremism online.

An issue that is continuously going on today is people unleashing terrorists attacks on their own people and community.  Even though we don't for sure know who the culprits are, either way it is still an act from a local group.  Similar to the tensions between the Sunni and Shiite Muslims, feuding like this can start to tear a city apart.  As of right now everything seems fine and under control.  However, if things get out of hand, there is always the possibility of this blowing up the way it has in the Middle East.  The feuding in the Middle East is much more severe and is more of a worst case scenario, but their problems had to start somewhere before it escalated to what it is.  It will do the people of this world no good if different groups around the world continue to send violent messages to their enemies.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/30/world/asia/china---tiananmen---arrests/index.html?hpt=wo_c2

Kaelin Graham
10/31/2013
12:47 p.m.

No comments: