November 25, 2007: The violence in the south
continues to kill more Moslems. The Islamic terrorists are not happy with the
number of Moslems who are cooperating with the security forces. This month, the
violence level has increased, with 6-7 terrorist attacks a day (in an area
containing about two million people). The Islamic militants are particularly
upset that the police have finally gotten the names of key terrorist leaders.
This has led to more raids on villages where these leaders are hiding out. It's
pretty obvious that someone is talking, and the terrorists are not sure who
they can trust anymore. Islamic death squads are killing known, or suspected,
police informers. There's also an increase in random violence against Moslem civilians.
There appears to be some disagreement among Islamic militants over this shift
in tactics. In other countries (Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan), attacks on
Moslem civilians leads to more hostility towards the Islamic radicals. But the
Islamic radicals are caught in trap created by the religious underpinnings of
their cause. Put simply, radical Islam holds that any Moslem who does not agree
with the radicals is not a true Moslem, and thus can be attacked. Most Moslems
do not believe this, and will grow increasingly hostile to the Islamic
terrorists if attacked. This usually leads to the destruction of the terrorist
organizations. Police are also finding that the primary source of the Islamic
terrorism is religious schools and mosques run by radical clergy. These are
being shut down, which hampers terrorist recruiting.
November 18, 2007: Obeying a court order, the
army released 384 Moslem men it had arrested earlier in the year. The men were
suspected of participating in, or supporting, Islamic terrorism, and themselves
potential terrorists. There was not enough evidence for a formal charge, but
the army wanted to see if holding these men would convince any of them to help
with counter-terrorism efforts, or if their absence reduce the level of terrorist
violence. The army will not discuss any intelligence obtained from the
released men. The Islamic terrorist violence has declined this year, but it's
unclear if that was connected with the imprisonment of those 384 men.
