Spot the Common Theme

With the focus in the US media on Israel and Iraq, one loses focus on what the bloody Islamists are doing elsewhere in the world. A small sampling:

From the Phillipines today::


Police in the Zamboanga Peninsula in Mindanao are now on alert after receiving an intelligence report that terrorists are planning to bomb buses and attack the transport sector there…

Meanwhile, South Korea has warned its citizens not to travel to Mindanao because of possible bombings by the Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terrorist groups.


From Thailand on Friday:

Suspected insurgents shot a village head in a mosque during Friday prayers in Thai southernmost province of Pattani, while eight rangers and police officers were wounded in two bomb blasts in Yala.

From Indonesia on Saturday:

Security forces are on highest alert in Indonesia’s restive Central Sulawesi province following warnings that militants may be planning attacks, the region’s police chief said on Friday…

Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, has in recent years been hit by a series of bomb blasts blamed on Islamic militants.

From Eritrea today:

Hundreds of Islamist fighters were flown, with Eritrean assistance, from Somalia to Syria and Libya for military training. Others were taken to Lebanon to fight with Hezbollah, the report to the UN security council has revealed.

The common theme isn't Israel or Iraq, but Islamists who are spreading their violence and misery to the four corners of the planet. Those countries that are backing Islamists are exporting the violence to other regions. Safe havens become terrorist incubators. Jihad is exported. The violence multiplies, and thinking that it all began in 2003 or even 1948 is not only myopic, but shows the fundamental disregard for history.

UPDATE:
Still more bombings in Thailand today. Three dead and 70 injured.

UPDATE:
Make that nine dead and the body count continues to rise. The targets? Buddhists and ethnic Chinese.

At least nine people were confirmed dead and several others wounded as insurgents launched a total of 49 bombings, shooting and arson attacks in four southern provinces in Thailand Sunday. Authorities said insurgents launched series of attacks in the provinces of Songkhla, Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala.

General Montri Sangkasap said Islamic separatists who have been waging a war against the government since 2004 in the Muslim-majority provinces of southern Thailand, could launch new attacks in the coming Buddhist holidays.

Montri said, "The violence may increase, and it will be the same kind of terrorist tactics."

Thailand's junta chief, General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, and Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont had summoned military and security chiefs over the attacks that killed nine and wounded 44.

The attacks on Sunday and early Monday targeted mostly residential and business establishments owned by Buddhists or ethnic Chinese.

The Thai government is having an extremely difficult time trying to keep things under control, and the violence threatens to spread to other parts of the country because the Thai government is unwilling to crush the insurgency. Instead, it is hoping for a hearts and minds approach that only emboldens the terrorists to do even more violence.