Nowadays, there have been lots of terror attacks in a short time all over the world. The Istanbul airport terror attack happened on June 28th, and the Dhaka cafe attack happened on July 1st in Bangladesh. The Karrada bombing happened on July 3rd in Baghdad, Iraq, and the Nice attack happened on July 14th in France. There are still a number of other attacks.
  36 people died and about 140 people were wounded from the Istanbul airport terror. The criminals were at least 3 Central Asian people who followed IS, and they blew themselves up after a shooting spree. The Nice attack happened during a festival for Bastille Day. A truck suddenly appeared and rushed the crowd with a speed of 60~70 km/h. Dozens of people were hurt, and at least 70 people died. The criminal was Mohamed Lahouaiej-bouhlel, who was 31 years old and he was presumed to follow IS. The Kabul bombing’s criminal also followed IS. It was a suicide bomb which targeted a Hazera’s demonstrators. About 310 people died or were hurt by two explosions. Hazaras, which make up about 9% of Afghanistan, have been discriminated against for a long time.
  Experts think IS was born because of Operation lraq Freedom in 2003. After punishment of the Saddam Hussein government in Operation lraq Freedom by the United States, the Shia ruled Iraq and suppressed the Sunni. Accordingly, the Sunni started to resist, so Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the future emir of IS, al-Baghdadi made IS in Feb. 2014. IS occupied several small cities and occupied Mosul, which was the second biggest city in Iraq in June, 2014.
  Many people are afraid of terrorism. One student said about IS terror, “No terror attacks must happen because innocent people can get terrible damage. If we have a chance of cutting out terrorism by force, we have to do it. Also, terrorism destroys not only people but also historic sites and heritages, which can never be accepted.”
  However, experts said that terror is not an independent act. They analyze terror as the result of complex causes. In this view, capitalism can be a cause of terror. Through capitalism, economic boundaries among countries have faded away. Anybody can target any place or any country in a market, if they expect benefits from there. However, the actual boundaries are still strong. The conflict is made between two different boundaries.
  Experts see this conflict in the competition to have oil, which is in the Middle East. One CBNU professor said, “After countries realized that one country’s power is decided by oil, many countries started to compete to occupy the oil of the Middle East. The United States, the UK, France and China began to engage in controlling the Middle East. Through these engagements, the situation of politics in the Middle East and related countries has been complex. IS terror has arisen from this situation.”
  However, he said that it is difficult to simply make IS collapse. “Just like the case where IS arose after the United States drove out Osama bin Laden and weakened Al-Qaeda, if IS gets removed, it can bear evil again.” We should examine carefully France’s case. France has more disharmony with Muslims than the other countries. At the same time, many IS participants formed a group in France. Experts pointed out, “Regarding every Muslim as a latent terrorist can increase the possibility of terror. Stability of society can be a solution. To avoid involvement of the Western nations in the Middle East or to find peaceful coexistence can be solutions too.”


Vocabulary

The Sunni & the Shia: Islam is divided into two major sects of Sunni and Shia. The Sunni occupies more than 80%, and the rest is Shia. The difference is in the view of the successor of Muhammad, who delivered the Koran to mankind. Ali ibn Abi Talib, who was the cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, couldn’t be the caliph. Later, he was the fourth caliph, but he was killed by an opposition group. The opposition group was the Sunni, and the group that thought Ali as successor was the Shia. One of the causes of the occurrence of IS was the conflict with Sunni and Shia. However, it is not the essential cause because the Sunni and the Shia have a good relationship among general Muslims. They do worship together at the same time in the same mosques.

By Shin So-hyeon
sh36@cbnu.ac.kr