UPDATE:
As of November 29th at 8:30pm, the death toll is 195.
As of 10:30am est, the death toll is estimated at 125, the number of wounded as 327, and the number still trapped or held hostage at 100. The Indian Government believes that the terrorists, (one of whom was reportedly speaking Urdu with a Kashmiri accent), came by sea in three weapons-laden speedboats. (Shades of the Somalian pirates!) Three to four terrorists are still holding hostages at several hotels. Hostage numbers range from 20-30 to 100 and are thought to be British, American, and Israeli citizens.
Of course: Israelis. As I reported here last night, Nariman House is the Chabad House in Mumbai. The terrorists targeted it. (C’mon, if Quranic Islam is not involved, why target religious Jews and Israelis? Are they behind the dispute over Kashmir?) Various estimates suggest that eight, hostages, presumed to be Israelis, are being held at Chabad House. They are presumed to include Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivki. Their two-year old son, Moishe, was rescued by the cook who fled. These hostages are presumably unconscious. Anywhere from 10 to 30 Israelis are being held at the Trident-Oberoi Hotel.
This updated information is based on Ha’aretz, The India Times, The New York Times, CNN, and on blogs written by Pamela Geller, Andy Bostom, and Robert Spencer.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Islamic radicals keep declaring war upon the West and upon everyone who is not a Wahabi-style Muslim. Islamic fundamentalists have attacked Western civilians in Bali, Tanzania, Kenya, Cairo–and in London, Madrid, New York City, and Washington D.C. Today’s terrorist attack in India targeted Westerners, mainly Americans and British, in an upscale area of Mumbai, India’s financial center.
The West and non-Muslims around the world, have chosen to treat each attack separately, and not as part of a global war. What else will Islamic fundamentalists have to do to be dealt with as the enemy army they truly are?
As I write, the Taj Hotel, a major five star hotel for western tourists in Mumbai is still on fire. Islamic terrorists, who carried out well-coordinated attacks in ten separate locations in the city, are believed to have Western hostages in both the Taj and in the Oberoi Hotel. It is important to note that Mumbai is also the home of Bollywood, (the Indian film industry), and is a major tourist center.
UPDATED FACTS: As I write, 101 people are reported dead, 185 injured, and 40 human beings, mainly Westerners, possibly American and British citizens, are being held hostage. (The hostages at the Taq hotel have been released but anywhere from 100-200 hostages remain at the Oberoi). The Indian anti-terrorist chief in Mumbai has been murdered. Ten separate locations were targeted for almost simultaneous attacks. The locations included hospitals (!), cafes, five-star hotels, and a railway station. Terrorists also sprayed gunfire into street crowds.
According to the Israeli media, an Israeli family was being held hostage, Nariman House, or Mumbai’s Chabad House, was targeted. As yet, the Chabad rabbi and his wife cannot be located. (The Chabad rabbi’s wife and child have escaped unharmed). Israeli sources tell me that some Israeli families are being held hostage.
An unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahadeen has claimed responsibility for these heinous attacks but this has not been confirmed. About an hour ago, the Indian government alleged that a Pakistani/Kashmiri separatist Islamist group, Lashkar-i-Toiba, was behind this. Another possible contender is the Indian Mujahadeen which is an offshoot of the banned SIMI (the Student Islamic Movement). The Indian government is also considering the possibility that the governments of both Pakistan and Bangladesh may have assisted this new terrorist group.
Whoever did this was obviously inspired by, if not trained in, the diabolic art of simultaneity in Bin Laden’s Arab training camps in Afghanistan. However, this time, the approach was not through human bombs or truck bombs (pioneered by Palestinian terrorists against Israeli civilians and by Sri Lankans). Today’s attack involved the use of AK-47s, other types of machine guns, and grenades. The terrorists may have commandeered at least one Indian police truck and police uniforms.
But the modern era of global terrorism really took wing when, in 1964, the late Yasir Arafat unleashed his bloody, relentless attacks against Israel, the only western-style democracy in the Middle East. That was the era of airplane hijackers who, over the decades, turned into deadly human bombs. In my view, since the world did not stop this terrorism in its tracks, we have now all reaped the whirlwind.
But Islamic terrorism is not new to largely Hindu India. There is certainly a Muslim minority who live there still. Since 2001, in India, 666 civilians have died in mainly Islamist terrorist attacks. There is only one instance in which a Hindu terrorist organization attacked a mosque; at least thirteen people died. For example, Islamic terrorists have attacked the Parliament in New Delhi, a temple in Gujarat, a commuter train in New Delhi, an army camp in Jammu; they have launched simultaneous car bomb attacks in Mumbai, attacks in New Delhi right before a major Hindu festival, many bomb blasts in railway stations and parks, in Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat, etc.
Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Bahaii, atheists, most Muslim civilians are no longer safe in Muslim countries. Earlier today, a Muslim mob in Cairo attacked a Coptic church. The Middle East and central Asia are almost completely “judenrein;” Muslims governments and mobs have forced out all the Jews.
Simultaneously, Muslim immigrants have populated Europe and North America. Some are in flight from Islamism, many support it. Those who do, all expect, even demand, “sensitivity” and tolerance from Western countries, including an acceptance of polygamy, female face veiling, honor killing, a separatist life.
Jews and Christians cannot pray in Mecca or Medina. If I were the Princes of Saudi Arabia, (who are most responsible for Bin Laden’s ascent), I would start building churches, synagogues, and Hindu temples right now in those two cities–and I would offer monetary aid to India and to today’s victims and their families, most of whom will probably turn out to be Indian Hindus.
India is a major American ally. It is a democracy armed with nuclear power. Will Europe and America continue to stand idly by? Will Russia and China?
Since 1993, I just counted 26 separate terrorist attacks, launched mainly by Islamic fundamentalists against India.
Of course, Israel has a much, much higher count of terrorist attacks, both launched and intercepted.
Is it time for India to learn from Israel which was able to staunch the bloody terrorist attacks only by building a “security wall?”
Or, rather than be walled up, is it time to take the fight to the enemy? How might democracies best do that without getting bogged down in a hopeless nest of Mogadishu-like disasters?
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