According to the 2014 Global Terrorism Index, published on Tuesday, the number of deaths caused by terrorism increased by 61 percent between 2012 and 2013.
The report by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), a non-profit research organization, which is based in Sydney, Australia, said there were nearly 10,000 terrorist attacks in 2013, a 44 percent increase on the previous year.
Defined by the Index as "the threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence by a non-state actor to attain a political, economic, religious or social goal through fear, coercion, or intimidation," acts of terror resulted in 17,958 deaths in 2013.
"Not only is the intensity of terrorism increasing, its breadth is increasing as well," the report said.
Iraq hardest hit
Five countries - Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and Syria - accounted for 80 percent of the deaths from terrorism in 2013, but Iraq was the country most affected by terrorism last year. A total of 2,492 terrorist attacks there killed more than 6,300 people.
The report, which examined 162 countries, covering 99.6 percent of the world's population, also found that 66 percent of the deaths were caused by four predominant militant groups: "Islamic State" (IS), al Qaeda, Boko Haram and the Taliban.
Common causes
According to the report, the three main factors behind with terrorism were state sponsored violence, such as extra-judicial killings, "group grievances" and high levels of crime. Levels of school attendance, poverty rates, and most economic factors, however, had no association with terrorism.
"Terrorism doesn't arise on its own; by identifying the factors associated with it, long term policies can be implemented to improve the underlying environment that nurtures terrorism," Steve Killelea, the executive chairman of the IEP said.
"The most significant actions that can be taken are to reduce state-sponsored violence, reduce group grievances and hostilities, and improve effective and community-supported policing,” he added.
Despite the significant rise in deaths as a result of terrorism, the report showed that in comparison to homicide, the number of fatalities is relatively small - 437,000 people were killed as a result of homicide lastyear. In the United States, for example, an individual is 64 times more likely to be victim of a homicide than terrorism.
Following allegations of Muslim students being used to subtly propagate Islam to their non-Muslim peers in secondary schools, fresh claims have surfaced that a Christian student at a primary school in Negri Sembilan was forced to wear a tudung (headscarf) and join a nasyid group.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/christian-student-made-to-wear-headscarf-join-muslim-prayers-at-negri-schoo
Islamisation at national schools?
When Doris R read a report of a Christian student from Sabah who was forced to wear a “tudung” (headscarf) by a primary school in Negri Sembilan and to join a nasyid group, it brought a wry smile to her face and a flood of unwanted memories.
ReplyDelete“Those things are nothing new. Attempts to convert non-Muslim Sabah and Sarawak pupils (here) and those studying in the peninsula have been going on for years,” the 40-year-old Iban mother of one from Kuching, Sarawak, said.
Reading The Malaysian Insider report yesterday of the 12-year-old Sabah student who was also forced to join a Muslim prayer session reminded Doris of her own experience as a student at SK Dato Haron in Tanjong Karang, Selangor, from 1985 to 1989.
She was there as part of a student exchange programme under the Sarawak Foundation.
Doris, who hails from the rural town of Lubok Antu some 150km from Kuching, was one of seven students – five Dayaks and two Malays – who were sent to the peninsula to continue their secondary school education.
The exchange programme had noble aims – to expose bright, young Sarawak students to the culture and life of their peers in the Peninsular.
“It was an exposure all right, but not what we were made to understand.
“For those placed in the wrong school like the seven of us who were sent to SM Dato Haron, they’ll have experienced what the young Sabah girl (in Negri Sembilan) experienced,” she told The Malaysian Insider.
“When we, the Sarawak students, reported for school, on the very first day, one of the Dayak girls in another class was told in no uncertain terms that she could not wear the pinafore and she must wear the baju kurung.
“When she protested, the female teacher banged her hand on the table and pointed a finger to her face threateningly and told her to do as she was told,” said Doris.
She said it was especially bad during the fasting month.
“The few of us who are non-Muslims also had to wake up before dawn and join in the ‘sahur’, the last meal before dawn.
“We were not forced. But if we didn’t do that, then we would have no food to eat until the breaking of fast.
“The school made no allowance to cater to non-Muslims. So for us, it’s either eat at sahur or go hungry the whole day,” she recalled.
But what made Doris seethe with anger in her five years of secondary school was the fact that she was forced to attend the “agama” or Islamic religious class.