Anti-Christian terrorism in Sri Lanka at Easter

This 21 April 2019 video is called At least 280 injured in multiple blasts at churches & hotels in Sri Lanka.

From the Economic Times in India:

Sri Lanka Blasts Live Updates: 129 dead, over 400 injured in six explosions on Easter

Serial blasts occurred at around 8.45 am as the Easter Sunday masses were in progress in churches

Updated: Apr 21, 2019, 12.26 PM IST

Other sources claim at least 160 dead.

With all of my heart, I wish strength and recovery to the survivors of these terrible crimes.

At least 129 people were killed and more than 400 other injured after six near simultaneous blasts hit three Sri Lankan churches and three five-star hotels on Easter Sunday. These are the first major attacks since the end of the civil war 10 years ago. According to local reports, the blasts in hotels and churches in different parts of the country occurred at around 8.45 am (local time) as the Easter Sunday masses were in progress in churches.

Explosions rocked three churches and two hotels in Sri Lanka on Sunday morning as Christians celebrated Easter. Please pray. pic.twitter.com/xEwI4cGxgu

— Max (@techspacer) April 21, 2019

* In just one church, St. Sebastian’s in Katuwapitiya Colombo, more than 50 people had been killed.

* Media reported 25 people were also killed in an attack on a church in Batticaloa in Eastern Province.

* At least nine foreigners dead in the blasts

…

* Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attacks yet in a country which was at war for decades with Tamil separatists until 2009 during which bomb blasts in the capital were common.

So we don’t know yet which apparently terrorist group committed these crimes.

Tamils? Improbable, as this mostly Hindu minority group suffer from extremist Buddhist violence and would not probably attack other minorities.

Sri Lanka Muslims? Also improbable, as this minority group also suffers from extremist Buddhist violence and would not probably attack other minorities.

If this would have happened in Iraq, then I would guess that the perpetrators were most probably violent extreme Muslims, unleashed by George W Bush’s 2003 invasion of Iraq.

However, Sri Lanka is not Iraq; and the situation of all religious groups is not the same all over the world. A creed which is a state religion in country A may be a persecuted minority in country B.

There are violent fringes in probably all religions, whose violence is rejected by non-violent co-religionists.

In, eg, the USA, New Zealand and Europe, there are violent self-styled Christians attacking Jews and Muslims; and sometimes Sikhs and Hindus.

In India, violent self-styled Hindus attack Muslims, Christians, atheists and Buddhists.

Though most Buddhists are peace-loving people, there is an extremist fringe among them as well. In Myanmar, a monk calls himself ‘the Buddhist Bin Laden’ and instigates violence against the Rohingya Muslim minority.

So, we don´t know yet who today’s perpetrators are. As religious violence is most often by violent fringe people of majority religions in their countries, this might be extremist Buddhist violence. Like there has been earlier in Sri Lanka against Hindus and against Muslims.

One should hope that the Sri Lankan government will not abuse this terrible bloodbath as a pretext for attacking civil liberties, like other governments did after criminal acts.

However, it seems like the Sri Lankan government has announced a curfew and blocked social media. It does not seem to work yet.