Holiday Celebration Bombing

Victims of Sunday's bombing attack are in critical condition.

In the midst of a holiday celebration several Shiite Muslims were killed and many more were injured. On Sunday hundreds of Shiites were gathering outside of a mosque to kick off the annual Ashura holiday, when a bomb was denoted. The bombing attack was denoted in the hands of Taliban extremist. According to the New York Times, “More than 100 people were wounded in the attacks just before the holiday, which commemorates the death of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson in the seventh century. The schism between Sunnis and Shiites dates back to this time”. The Taliban extremist mainly associate with the Sunnis, so these attacks are in protest of the Shiites celebration practices for this particular holiday. Unfortunately these were not the only attacks the Taliban has conducted in protest. According to SFGate, “Since Wednesday, at least 31 people have been killed in bombings aimed at Pakistani Shiites and claimed by the Taliban, which espouses an extremist interpretation of Sunni Islam.” These attacks are expected to continue throughout the rest of the holiday celebration. In response to these attacks security and authorities have tightened up their protection. Stated within The National, “Mobile phone service has been shut down in all major cities to prevent such bombings, which officials say often use cellular phones as remote detonators.” That is just one of the ways the security has been increased in order to protect the citizens and Shiites during their religious celebrations. Although security has been increased, attacks are expected to continue. According to CNN, “A spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban said the group was behind Sunday’s bombing on the procession and warned of more attacks.” These and other expected attacks have put fear in many citizens as well as many Shiites and this may hinder their holiday celebrations.

Security is tightened up due to increased threats during the Ashura celebration

            In order to dissect the problem here, let us first take a look at the definition of terrorism.  Dictionary.com defines terrorism as, “The use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for a political purpose.” Within my philosophy course we came up with a similar definition. Our definition had three basic features, which consists of targeting and attacking innocent people, to instill fear in a population, and to advance a political agenda. Now, the current bombings in my opinion would constitute as terrorist activities. One the Taliban is targeting innocent people who are the Shiites. By targeting this small group of individuals it is causing widespread fear throughout the rest of the population, especially among the Shiites. In terms of promoting a political agenda, I propose that these followers of the Shiite Islam are seen as threat to the Taliban. The Taliban believes the ways of the Sunni is the only way to practice their religion. So the Taliban is trying to either dwindling down the Shiite population, or instill fear within the Shiite followers so they either move out of the Pakistan area or they convert to Sunni Islam. But regardless of whatever their intentions are they are practicing terrorist practices.

            Upon further reading and understanding I would like to introduce some points made by Andrew Valls, assistant professor of political science at Oregon State University. Within Valls statements, he argues that terrorism administered by both state and nonstate actors can be justified. However, the bombings above would fail his conditions for the justification of terrorism. Valls believes that terrorism is acceptable and that innocent people as a result will die in terrorist attacks. But the deaths of these innocent people must not be the intended effect. In the case stated above the Taliban is directly targeting innocent people. Also the attacks and deaths of the innocent must not be in vain and the good must be accomplished. Which in this case the innocent deaths have accomplished nothing and are only carried out for the sake of killing people. The two principles in which Valls stated are associated with the Doctrine of Double Effect. The Taliban is indeed a terrorist group but their actions are not permissible or justified.