Transcript plus: I believe we should all be in mourning for the one hundred and thirty-seven dead of the Crocus City concert hall massacre on Friday twenty-second of March twenty-twenty-four in Moscow.
It is almost a copy-cat of the Bataclan massacre in Paris nine years ago, but more of that later as we remind ourselves of various recent Islamic attacks then pray for the men of war to lay down their arms in Ukraine and concentrate on the real enemy.
Islamic State responsible
Here is what we know:
ISIS-K, an Islamic State offshoot claiming to be from Khorasan, an ancient Province extending across Iran, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, claimed responsibility for the Crocus atrocity.
It boasted that its fighters attacked “a large gathering of Christians”. ISIS-K is also at war with the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Four suspects, citizens of Tajikistan, have now appeared in court in Moscow charged over the attack. Tass state news agency identified them as Saidakrami Murodali Rachabalizoda, Dalerdzhon Barotovich Mirzoyev, Shamsidin Fariduni and Muhammadsobir Fayzov. All four pleaded guilty.
’Have no mercy’
On Sunday 24th March 2024, Islamic State released new footage of the attack, corroborating the terror group’s claim to have masterminded the slaughter. Bodycam footage, captured by one of the six gunmen, shows the murderers walking towards the Crocus City Hall music venue with automatic guns.
“Bring the machine gun. Kill them and have no mercy,” one of the attackers is heard saying. Another says: “The infidels will be defeated, if Allah wills. he signs off with the all-too-familiar Muslim chant for ‘Allah is the greatest’, which, of course, he isn’t.
Apparently, the United States had prior info of the attacks and tried to warn their citizens in Moscow and their intelligence counterparts.
“The Embassy is monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts, and US citizens should be advised to avoid large gatherings over the next 48 hours,” the US mission in Moscow wrote on X.
Who to blame?
Al Jazeera says Russia thought the warnings were propaganda and ignored them, while Russia has sought illogically to blame Ukraine for the massacre, which Kyiv denies.
In one sense the accusation of Ukrainian, or by extension NATO, involvement is correct. The Wilson Center report how when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979 to support its socialist regime, the US CIA set up and nurtured Al-Qaeda. A bit of Islamic terrorism was seen as a clever move against the Soviets. That turned out well in 2001.
Furthermore, Sage Journals report how Islamic State arose as a result of the US/UK invasion of Iraq in 2003.
But the accusation shows how ridiculous geo-politics has now become. Both sides, Russia and NATO, warring over Ukraine, should be acknowledging and collaborating to defeat the real enemy of Islam. Both have tragic history confirming that’s where the threat is coming from.
Atrocities in Russia
In September 1999, Islamic separatist terrorists from the mainly Muslim republic of Chechnya bombed five apartment buildings over a two-week period in Moscow and southern Russia, leaving a total of 293 people dead. More details
On 23rd October 2002, Muslim Chechen terrorists seized the crowded Dubrovka Theater in Moscow taking of 912 hostages. Russian security services released sleeping gas into the building, and subsequentally stormed it, killing all 40 hostage takers, but 132 hostages died, largely due to the gas.
On 5th July 2003, two female suicide bombers, identified by Russia as Chechen separatists, blow themselves up during a rock concert at the Tushino airfield near Moscow, killing 15 people and injuring around 50 others.
Moscow Metro suicide attacks
On 6th February 2004, another Chechen group detonated a bomb in a packed Moscow Metro subway during morning rush hour, killing 41 people.
On 29th March 29, 2010, another two female suicide bombers blew themselves up on the Moscow Metro, killing 40 people at Lubyanka station, ironically beside the headquarters of the FSB. The two bombers were from the volatile North Caucasus region of Dagestan.
On 24th January 2011, a suicide bomber from the Caucasus Emirate group killed 37 people in the arrivals hall of Moscow Domodedovo international airport.
Nairobi, Brussels and London
It’s not just in Russia. On 21st September 2013, four masked gunmen from Islamic terrorist group Al Shabaab attacked the Westgate shopping mall, an upmarket mall in Nairobi, Kenya. The attack resulted in 71 total deaths, including 62 civilians, five Kenyan soldiers, and all four gunmen. Approximately 200 people were wounded in the massacre.
On 22nd March 2016, Islamic State carried out two coordinated terrorist attacks at Brussels Zaventem Airport and Maelbeek metro station in Brussels. Thirty-two people were killed and more than 300 were injured.
On 22nd May 2017, Islamic extremist Salman Abedi, aided by his brother Hashem, carried out a terrorist suicide bombing of the Manchester Arena, during a concert by American pop singer Ariana Grande, killing 22 people beside himself. Here is our report at the time.
Eight people were killed and many more were injured when three Muslim attackers ploughed a van into pedestrians on London Bridge before launching a knife attack in nearby Borough Market on Saturday 3 June 2017. BBC Report here.
Bataclan copy-cat
The Crocus City Hall massacre was itself almost a copy-cat of the Bataclan massacre on 13th November 2015. 20 men, all suspected Islamic State terrorists, killed 130 people and injured hundreds more in a series of coordinated attacks in Paris. Once again, it was concert-goers attending a music festival, totally haram, or forbidden, in Muslim eyes. Here’s our video about the atrocity and the spiritual implications of ‘Eagles of Death Metal’, who were performing:
On Saturday 7th October 2023 Hamas terrorists killed 1,139 people at numerous Kibbutzim in Israel close to Gaza. They included 260 dead at the open-air Tribe of Nova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im. The terrorists took around 250 Israeli civilians and soldiers as hostages into the Gaza Strip.
And let us not forget the Twin Towers or 9/11 attack, carried out in 2001 by the Salafi-jihadist Al-Qaeda in New York causing the deaths of 2,996 people, that’s 2,977 actual victims and the 19 hijackers who committed murder–suicide.
Pray for our leaders
Given all this, let us pray that the men of war in NATO, Ukraine and Russia will wake up to the threat of Islam and stop fighting each other. They have diverted their energies away from their real responsibility of keeping their citizens safe within their borders.
And every Christian must follow the advice of the prophet Jeremiah:
Jer 29:7 And seek the peace of the city …, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.
Another reason why? Because all our security services, whether in London, New York, Paris or Moscow need the Lord’s blessing for success and for the bad guys to make a mistake.
As it is written:
Psa 127:1b except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
To maintain security, peace between them is essential. Pray for them to collaborate and trust each other as much as they can with shared information.
The Bible says:
Rom 12:18 If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.
Jihadists love death
It is well known that Islamic jhadists love death while Christians love life. So when the dear Apostle Peter writes to ‘he that will love life’ in the same Bible we all know, he is speaking to every Christian and to the leaders of every Christian nation.
1Pet 3:10 For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: 11 Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it.
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