Indonesian authorities informed the Philippine government there are at least 1,200 Islamic State terrorists operating in the country. These terrorists are in fact all over the world committing murder and mayhem without any regard for the lives of innocent civilians.
In their twisted minds, these terrorists are killing machines. Suicide bombers detonate themselves in crowded places, exacting heavy toll. Collateral casualties often include women and children. In their perverse thinking, their action and their death would bring them to the kingdom of Allah with seven virgins waiting to give them pleasure as reward.
In the most recent cases of terrorist attack, 23 people were killed in a crowded Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England. Less than two weeks later, when three terrorists in a van rammed down civilians in London bridge and then stabbed those who were able to evade the vehicle. The death toll: Seven killed and dozens wounded.
Why is London the favorite killing ground of terrorists? Several years back, the London Underground trains were bombed by terrorists who simultaneously carried out bombings on street buses. Paris, Nice, Brussels and Frankfurt have also not been spared. The iconic World Trade Center in New York took the heaviest blow from terrorists who hijacked four jumbo jetliners and crashed two of them into the twin towers, killing more than 5,000 people and reducing the buildings to rubble and ashes.
The Taliban, Al Qaeda and now the more vicious ISIS are all over the planet. The killing of Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden by a US commando team who raided his hideout in Pakistan did not stop global terrorism from morphing into another dreaded monster. Global terrorism is like a many-headed Hydra. It reinvents itself, getting more vicious.
We have to take the Indonesians’ word that there are some 1,200 IS terrorists operating in the Philippines even if our own officials say the report is unconfirmed. Do we have to wait for IS terrorists to attack Metro Manila’s shopping malls before the government confirms their presence?
Yet, our military and police forces fighting the Mautes for control of Marawi City claim there are foreign terrorists embedded in the enemy’s ranks (a few from Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia ) which should explain why government troops are still unable to dislodge them. Aside from using snipers and turning their hostages into human shields, the Mautes are also using, as refuge, places of worship like mosques which government planes so far have not bombed out of respect for the Islamic religion.
President Rodrigo Duterte, meanwhile, has raised the bounty, dead or alive, on the head of Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon to P17.4 million, Hapilon is reportedly leading the Mautes in the siege of Malawi. He also carries a $5 million price on his head put up the US government.
The fear of the ISIS scourge has raised the concern among Middle East countries. Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt have severed diplomatic relations with Qatar because of allegations it is supporting terrorist groups .
US President Donald Trump wants to ban Muslim immigrants and visitors to America. Maybe there is some method to his madness after all. Aside from the attack on the Twin Towers, the bombing at the finish line of the Boston marathon was done by Islamist extremists—two brothers granted US citizenship.
But Trump’s idea of building a wall along the US-Mexico border and making the Mexicans pay for it is absurd. Mexico is a friendly neighbor and the US benefits from the many Mexicans working as domestics and farm workers, whether they are documented or not.
Like Duterte, Trump seems to have a penchant for doing the unorthodox and upsetting a whole range of world order. He wants to pull out the US from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization saying it’s a waste of government money. The US is a vital cog in Nato’s defense of the West and its shared values with the rest of Europe. Trump’s latest decision not to sign the Paris accord on climate change has unsettled environmentalists worldwide.
