
Multiple terrorist attacks in Brussels – Latest Updates - abhi3
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-35869266
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abhi3
In addition to the lives lost in these attacks, what makes me just as sad is
that this is probably going to push more people towards leaders like Donald
Trump who'll take advantage of the fear/anger this creates.

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laichzeit0
Why are Muslims not taking to the streets in protest against these attacks in
the same manner they do when people draw cartoon drawings of their prophet?
This is a problem the Muslim community needs to solve.

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spdy
Why do Christian not protest on the street when "one of their guys" commits
terrorist attacks? Breivik for example as he is in the media right now.

Religion has no part in this its only a vehicle as is Christianity. The real
picture is much bigger and more complex.

And please look behind the media curtain as other have pointed out you have
the internet on your hands you can get all the sources you need.

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welanes
Breivik's motivation were not sourced from Christian literature, whereas
suicide bomber's are (from Koran and Hadith). Young Christians are not leaving
home to join the Christian State of Iraq and Syria.

You can see the distinction, surely? Islam creates space and justification for
these actions in a way that Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity does not. It's
a difficult to swallow pill yet it's true.

Source: Am an ex-muslim and generally interested in this phenomenon.

~~~
spdy
If you look at the history of Europe the bible was a center piece in many
wars. You can use any of the religious books to rally people up to fight
against the non-believer.

But my point is the current terrorist attacks in Paris are committed by people
who got discarded by society with no purpose in life and they found a group
who gave them a place where they felt needed and respected.

Brevik is a Nazi and he is not Christian

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welanes
> You can use any of the religious books to rally people up to fight against
> the non-believer.

Some books are much better at this than others. And while I don't believe the
bible was that prevalent in the wars of the past, even if it was, that was
centuries ago. We've cast aside such foolish things yet live in a world where
many people have not.

And that's our problem.

On your second paragraph - that's exactly why an ideology that can transform a
person from a citizen into a terrorist because they feel marginalized needs to
be addressed. There's a whole lot of marginalized people across our globe.

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abhi3
What we know so far

There were two explosions at around 08:00 (07:00 GMT) at Zaventem airport as
people queued to check in

Belgian broadcaster VRT says at least 13 people were killed and 35 were
wounded at the airport

Shots were heard before the explosions, which appear to have struck near the
American Airlines and Brussels Airline check in desk

Some time later there was also a blast at Maalbeek metro station, very close
to the city's main European Union buildings

The Belgian government has raised the terror alert level to 4 across the
country, the highest level

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jzwinck
What use is raising the terrorism alert level after an attack has occurred?
Doesn't it sort of fulfill the terrorists' wishes by inflicting economic
damage well beyond the physical attack?

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ekianjo
Because we don't know if it's the end of the attacks yet.

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masklinn
Though I've been a number of people hypothesise this was a "rushed job"
following the earlier arrests as the noose was tightening around the cell and
they didn't want to be caught having done nothing.

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ekianjo
Hypothesis is the right word.

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Pyxl101
Previous discussion in
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11334908](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11334908)

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ekianjo
Heavily flagged, it disappeared quickly from the front page.

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k-mcgrady
This thread has also now disappeared from the front page.

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oneeyedpigeon
Yup, despite the fact that on this thread, there have been several relevant
topics of discussion (encryption, the alert response, etc.)

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Kiro
Why are people flagging these threads?

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jacquesm
Because they are preserving the 'purity of essence' of hacker news in the most
misguided way possible. I'm totally disgusted by this.

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viraptor
From the transport security point of view, this will be interesting to follow.
As I understand it, all explosions happened in public areas. While metro
stations have always been exposed, the airport-related security mostly
involves not getting dangerous materials to the gates. Attacking the publicly
accessible areas is not new, but can't be easily prevented.

~~~
jacquesm
I don't think it can be prevented at all. Every prevention mechanism you would
come up with would create a new concentration of people a little bit further
upstream, which automatically presents a new target in an unsecured area.

~~~
viraptor
We did get big bollards and no car access to terminals after (if I remember
correctly) decades ago someone drove a van into the airport entrance. I
wouldn't be surprised by more sniffing dogs in by the entrance now.

Of course you can't prevent these attacks. But some ideas are not bad and I
doubt there's no discussion about new options after today.

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pka
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11334908](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11334908)

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duncan_bayne
Seems it was a suicide bomber. To quote Billy Connolly, "every time there's a
'bang', the world's a wanker short".

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dagw
I'm sure that's a great comfort to everybody who just lost loved ones.

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madez
I wonder, when will politics and media finally give in to ask the real
questions.

Behaviour is determined by what you start with into life and what you learn
during your life, that is genes and socialization.

Now, if you take a birds eye view on the situation it comes clear to me that
on both axis there are strong correlations among these terrorists.

Realizing facts helps solving problems.

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TazeTSchnitzel
You're right. People who grow up in a society feeling outcast are more likely
to try and destroy it, unsurprisingly. Look at history's revolutionaries and
troublemakers.

Oh, wait, I think you were trying to say that we should use racial profiling
without spelling it out. Oh.

~~~
madez
What I ask for is to study the reasons and solutions to the problem of
terrorism in a scientific manner, that is not fearing inconvenient answers.

It's sad that one even has to ask for such an approach. In most cases it's
undisputedly the only senseable one.

You can't work scientifically if your fear of being labeled racist guides and
censors you.

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TazeTSchnitzel
That you think fear of appearing racist is stopping people telling the truth
here is telling.

We know why terrorism happens. We've known this for an awfully long time. We
don't need unscientific nonsense about how brown people are magically
terrorists.

Science frequently comes up with inconvenient answers. But you might find that
the science here is inconvenient towards your position, not others'.

~~~
madez
> That you think fear of appearing racist is stopping people telling the truth
> here is telling.

I don't get this. My impression that the fear of being labeled racists makes
people censor themselves is not something I only hear others saying but also
the press specifically censors the ethnicity of wrongdoers because it might
appear to be justification for racism.

> We know why terrorism happens. We've known this for an awfully long time.

I'm not so sure about that one. In any case, the fact that we still suffer
from terrorism speaks its own language.

> We don't need unscientific nonsense about how brown people are magically
> terrorists.

I totally agree on that we don't need unscientific explanations. I call for
the opposite. Ridiculing a point I never made doesn't help.

> Science frequently comes up with inconvenient answers. But you might find
> that the science here is inconvenient towards your position, not others'.

My position on this topic is in many parts neutral, because I'm happy to admit
that I don't know all the facts nor do I understand the whole picture
thoroughly. Thats why I wish for more investigation.

Your last sentence baffles me.

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TazeTSchnitzel
> In any case, the fact that we still suffer from terrorism speaks its own
> language.

Knowing why something happens doesn't mean it stops happening. First, some
problems aren't easily solved. Second, there is not the will to solve some of
them. Climate change is an example of this.

