Is Religious Affiliation linked to Terrorism?

It is not a ridiculous claim to say that the extreme concentration of terror attacks are in majority-Muslim countries. After the Charlie Hebdo attack, a Paris imam visited the scene and condemned the murders. He said; "These victims are martyrs, and I shall pray for them with all my heart." The imam, named as Hassen Chalghoumi, then went on to say that 95% of victims of terrorism are in fact Muslim.

His statement is not the first time that someone has voiced this opinion. In 2011, a report by the US government's National Counter-Terrorism Center, said; "In cases where the religious affiliation of terrorism casualties could be determined, Muslims suffered between 82 and 97% of terrorism-related fatalities over the past five years."

However, this report did not determine in what proportion of cases it had been possible to ascertain this information nor whether these cases were representative of the others. US based team, the Global Terrorism Database, compiles terrorism statistics also but does not determine religions of people killed or injured. GTD's Erin Miller said that between 2004 and 2013 about half of all the terrorist attacks, and 60% of fatalities due to terrorist attacks , took place in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan - all of which host a majority Muslim population.

95% of terrorism victims being Muslim can be doubted, however Miller says that "it's not out of the realm of possibility." 

Terrorism is not a scorecard. Most people think of terrorist attacks such as the recent incident in Paris with Charlie Hebdo, 9/11, the 7/7 London tube and bus bombs or the Madrid train bombs. The overall number of deadly terrorist attacks in France, the US, UK and Spain is incredibly low by international standards.

Between 2004-2013, the UK suffered 400 terrorist attacks, mostly in Northern Ireland and mostly non-lethal. The US came under 131 attacks, fewer than 20 of which were lethal. France suffered 47. Whilst not belittling the devastation these attacks have had on these countries, when compared to Iraq which suffered 12,000 attacks, 8,000 of which were lethal, it does seem that Chalghoumi may have a point.

Miller says; "It's tempting for many people to try and turn it into almost a scorecard, trying to figure out which religious groups are more violent than others, and boil it down to this grossly oversimplified keeping of score, like it's a football game...This is a mistake. Most terrorist attacks are rooted in geopolitics. Religion is certainly a part of them, but it is not the only part."

Where is the Line Between Fantasy and Reality?

It wasn’t until June, 2014 that Japan banned possession of real images of child sexual abuse. In 2013, Japan’s police agency reported 1,644 offences since the 1999 act that outlawed the production and distribution of images of sexual abuse of children. This shockingly came 21 years after the UK. Also in 2013, the US State Department described Japan as an “international hub for the production and trafficking of child pornography.”

However, despite these acts Japan’s high cultural industry of manga still depicts children engaged in sexually explicit acts. It’s a disturbing thought but one that is not highly condoned. It certainly would be considered controversial at best and potentially illegal in countries such as the UK, Australia or Canada but in Japan it’s no big deal.

In fact, at a recent Sunshine Creation convention there were many stands displaying comics with this kind of disturbing content in them. One of the event organisers, Hide, says;

“Everyone knows that child abuse is not a good thing. But having that kind of emotion is free, enjoying imagining some sexual situation with a child is not prohibited.”

He then introduces the word "Lolicon", short for "Lolita complex" - the name for manga featuring young girls engaged in sexually explicit scenarios. It can involve incest, rape and other taboos, though Hide's tastes lie more with high-school romance.

"I like young-girl sexual creations, Lolicon is just one hobby of my many hobbies," he says. It is not just him however. When speaking of his wife’s opinion of his ‘hobby’; "She probably thinks no problem," he replies. "Because she loves young boys sexually interacting with each other."

Although material like this is not a huge part of Japan’s manga industry, it does attract a lot of attention. At the time of the June 2014 banning of real images of children, there were calls to also outlaw ‘virtual’ sexual images. This included characters in manga, anime and games. There was much debate in the Japanese Parliament but eventually they decided against it.

Sexual material involving adolescents is not uncommon, in fact it is a fairly mainstream interest in Japan. Japan’s legislators were apparently reluctant to put large numbers of manga fans on the wrong side of the law.

Fans like Hide argue they are just enjoying harmless fantasy. No child models or actors are involved, he says, so "there is no child abuse for creating sexual topic mangas".

Tokyo’s Akihabara district is the spiritual home of manga with bookshops lining the streets selling manga on every topic. In their adult sections, it is not difficult to find titles such as ‘Junior Rape’ or ‘Japanese Pre-teen Suite.’

"People get sexually excited by something, then become used to it," says Tomo, who works behind the counter in one of the adult stores. "So they are always looking for something new, and get sexually excited by young, immature women."

What is most worrying about the lackadaisical approach to outlawing virtual child pornography is that even if nobody is harmed in the creation of sexually explicit manga then it might normalise, facilitate, or even lead to an increase in sexual abuse.

Does this make Japan a society that turns a blind eye to extreme pornography; the sexualisation of young people? 

Je Suis Charlie

On Wednesday morning, a black Citreon C3 drove up to a building in Rue Nicolas-Appert. Two gunmen, donned in all black and armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, got out of the car and entered the building.

After bursting into No. 6 the men realised they had got the wrong target. They moved further down the street to No. 10, the Charlie Hebdo offices. The men advanced inside where upon asking maintenance staff the location of the offices, shot caretaker Frederic Boisseau.

Corinne Rey, one of the magazine’s cartoonists, was forced to enter the code for the keypad entry to the newsroom on the second floor. Here a weekly editorial meeting was taking place. After asking for the paper’s editor Stephane Charbonnier, they opened fire, killing the editor and police bodyguard Franck Brinsolaro. Seven other journalists and a guest were also shot dead.

Police arrived at the scene as the gunmen were leaving. A police car blocked the gunmen’s escape and so the gunmen opened fire. After getting past this car, the gunmen headed south before doubling back on the northern carriageway. Here they stopped the car and video footage shows the gunmen get out of the car and shoot police officer Ahmed Merabet. One of the men then walked up to Merabet and shot him dead at close range.

The gunmen abandoned their car and shortly before midday today police lost track of them. Paris has been put on maximum alert with an extra 500 police deployed on the streets of the capital.

Twelve people were killed in the attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices: eight journalists, two police officers, a caretaker and a visitor.

From left: Economist Bernard Maris, cartoonists Georges Wolinski, Jean "Cabu" Cabut, Stephane "Charb" Charbonnier, Bernard "Tignous" Verlhac and Philippe Honore and Michel Renaud.

·        

     Charlie Hebdo editor and cartoonist Stephane "Charb" Charbonnier, 47, who had been living under police protection since receiving death threats

Cartoonists Jean "Cabu" Cabut, 76, Bernard "Tignous" Verlhac, 57, Georges Wolinski, 80, and Philippe Honore, 73

·         Economist and regular magazine columnist Bernard Maris, 68, known to readers as Uncle Bernar

·         Mustapha Ourrad, proof-reader

·         Elsa Cayat, psychoanalyst and columnist, the only woman killed

·         Michel Renaud, who was visiting from the city of Clermont-Ferrand

·         Frederic Boisseau, 42, caretaker, who was in the reception area at the time of the attack

·         Police officers Franck Brinsolaro, who acted as Charb's bodyguard, and Ahmed Merabet, 42, who was shot dead while on the ground

·         BBC Special Correspondent Fergal Keane has filed a report from the banlieue, or suburb, where one of the Charlie Hebdo gunman lived.

·         He says that for many in France, the word banlieue is "often loaded with negative association".

·         "In the minds of some French, these estates can be breeding grounds for radicalism," he adds.

·         "France is outraged but not yet polarised between Muslims and the rest. That isn't to underestimate the potential for a much wider crisis.

·         "Muslim elders say the key to tackling the problem is breaking the power of radical Islam among the alienated young."

• Al-Qaeda group 'praises attack'

Al-Qaeda's branch in North Africa has praised the attack on the office of Charlie Hebdo, according to an organisation which monitors jihadi activity.

Site Intelligence Group said that al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) had also issued a reminder that Osama Bin Laden, al-Qaeda's founder, had threatened those who mocked the Prophet Muhammad

Arab ambassadors in Paris have denounced the Charlie Hebdo attack as a "barbaric terrorist act" and assured that their countries were engaged in the fight against terrorism.

In a press statement they said "the member countries of the Arab League are engaged, alongside other members of the international community in the struggle against terrorism, intolerance and extremism".

The two main suspects in the Islamist attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris are said to have robbed a service station in the north of France.

They stole food and petrol, firing shots as they struck at the roadside stop near Villers-Cotterets in the Aisne region, French media report.

The gunmen have now been named as Said and Cherif Kouachi. French media say Cherif, 32, was jailed in 2008 and had long been known to police for militant Islamist activities.

Cherif, who also went by the name Abu Issen, was part of the "Buttes-Chaumont network" that helped send would-be jihadists to fight for al-Qaeda in Iraq after the US-UK invasion in 2003.

He had grown up in an orphanage in Rennes, north-west France, and had trained as a fitness coach before joining his brother in Paris, Liberation newspaper reports. In the capital he worked as a pizza delivery man.

Police detained him in 2005 just as he was about to board a plane for Syria - at the time the gateway for jihadists hoping to fight US troops in Iraq.

n 2008 he was jailed for three years, for his role in sending militants to Iraq, but 18 months of the sentence was suspended, Liberation reports.

The brothers had allegedly frequented a mosque in the Stalingrad district of Paris, where they came under the influence of a radical imam called Farid Benyettou. He reportedly encouraged them to study Islam at his home and at a Muslim centre in their neighbourhood.

A key figure in the Buttes-Chaumont network was Boubaker al-Hakim, a militant linked to al-Qaeda resistance against US forces in Iraq, a French expert on Islamists says.

Jean-Pierre Filiu, an expert at Sciences-Po University in Paris, says a French court jailed Hakim for seven years in 2008, at the same time as Cherif, along with Farid Benyettou, who got six years. That action broke up the jihadist network they had created.

In 2010 Cherif Kouachi was named in connection with a plot to spring another Islamist, Smain Ait Ali Belkacem, from jail. Belkacem used to be in the outlawed Algerian Islamic Armed Group (GIA) and was jailed for life in 2002 for a Paris metro station bombing in 1995 which injured 30 people.

At 7pm tonight, the Eiffel Tower went dark as a sign of mourning for the twelve victims.