Targeting Other Muslims and Children

From your understanding of Islam and terror ideology, your readings and what other research you have done, comment on the fact that many terror attacks accept the deaths of innocent Muslims in furtherance of their goals. It is, of course, recognized that on 9/11 approximately 23 Muslims died in the attacks (or three-quarters of one percent of all victims). While these can, perhaps, be understood to be acceptable collateral damage in terrorist planning, in other countries Muslims, and even Muslim children, have been specifically targeted. For instance, in the first six months of 2006, fully 204 schools were attacked in Afghanistan. Numbers have been rising, with many girls’ schools attacked and countless Afghan girls having now been the victims of acid attacks. Numbers in Pakistan, Iraq and other places have been rising. All schools in southern Thailand were closed for years (there have been recent efforts to reopen them).

CASE STUDY 4: How do you account for this? Moreover, how can you explain the extreme number of attacks against Muslim females, particularly young girls in such Muslim countries as Iraq, Afghanistan and Indonesia? Also, from a targeting perspective, how would you explain the large number of children, especially children in schools (both Muslim and non-Muslim), targeted by numerous terror groups? From what you know of terrorists’ ultimate, long term strategic goals, plans to achieve those goals, and dependence on support from many other groups and citizens to achieve those goals, try to explain how these attacks actually work in their favor.