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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 13-Jan-2013
13-Jan-13 World View -- Shia families in Quetta Pakistan refuse to bury bombing victims

Web Log - January, 2013

13-Jan-13 World View -- Shia families in Quetta Pakistan refuse to bury bombing victims

Pollution spikes to 'dangerous' levels in eastern China

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

Shia families in Quetta Pakistan refuse to bury bombing victims
Tension grows between Egypt's al-Nour party and Muslim Brotherhood
Pollution spikes to 'dangerous' levels in eastern China
Security experts recommend disabling Java on computers

Shia families in Quetta Pakistan refuse to bury bombing victims

Shia protesters in Karachi on Saturday (AFP)

Shia protesters in Karachi on Saturday (AFP)

Shia Muslims across Pakistan are conducting a remarkable demonstration and are lashing out at the government and the army for taking no steps to protect Shia Muslims for sectarian attacks by Sunni Muslim terrorists who target Shias. In Quetta, Shias are refusing to bury the coffins of the 100+ victims of Thursday's horrific suicide bombing that we reported two days ago, even though the bodies are decomposing. Instead, they're using the coffins to blockade the roads in protest, and they claim that they blockade won't end "until we get an assurance that the Pakistan army will take over security and administrative control in Quetta," according to a protest organizer.

The year 2012 was the bloodiest year ever for Shia Muslims targeted by Sunni Muslim terrorists, and with Thursday's horrific attack it seems likely that 2013 will be even worse. Mainstream politicians do nothing to protect Shias from these attacks, possibly because they're afraid of the Sunni terrorists, or because they support the Sunni terrorists, or because they simply don't care how many Shias are slaughtered.

From the point of view of Generational Dynamics, Pakistan and India are headed for a major war re-fighting the bloody 1947 war between Hindus and Muslims that followed Partition, the partitioning of the Indian subcontinent into Pakistan and India. For centuries, almost since the time of Mohammed, Hindus and Shia Muslims have been allied against Sunni Muslims in huge genocidal wars. Thus, the increasing bloody terrorist attacks by Sunnis targeting Shias moves Pakistan along the trend line towards that new war. Furthermore, the epicenter of the 1947 was Kashmir, and as we've been reporting, there have been new flare-ups of violence between Muslims and Hindus in Kashmir across the international Line of Control (LoC).

The al-Qaeda linked terror group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has claimed credit for Thursday's bombing in Quetta. We've written about Lashkar-e-Jhangvi several times in the past -- a terrorist group that targets Shia and Sufi shrines in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and who has been responsible for hundreds of deaths of worshipers. (See "7-Dec-11 World View -- Afghanistan shocked by coordinated suicide attacks targeting Shias") In addition. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is connected to Jundullah, a terrorist group that has perpetrated major attacks on Shia mosques and Revolutionary Guard stations in southeastern Iran. Express Tribune (Pakistan)

Tension grows between Egypt's al-Nour party and Muslim Brotherhood

In last year's parliamentary elections in Egypt, two Islamist parties, the more moderate Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) and the more religiously conservative Salafist al-Nour party together came away with almost 75 per cent of the vote.

Although the two parties are collectively referred to as "Islamist," there are sharp differences between the two. The two parties cooperated brilliantly during the elections to decisively defeat the completely disorganized secular and liberal opposition, but now that the FJP is firmly in control of the government, tensions are growing, and the al-Nour party has announced that it plans to oppose the FJP in future elections. However, the secular and liberal parties have also learned some very hard lessons from the elections, and they're looking for ways to leverage the favorable attitudes of Western nations towards them into greater political power. However, the real battle will be between the Brotherhood and the extreme Salafists, some of whom consider the new constitution, written largely by the Brotherhood, to be in violation of God's laws. Bloomberg and Hudson Institute

Pollution spikes to 'dangerous' levels in eastern China

High pollution in Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Friday (china.org.cn)

High pollution in Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Friday (china.org.cn)

Air pollution in Beijing, China, has spiked past hazardous levels, and air smells like coal dust and car fumes, according to people interviewed. Normal breathable air should contain no more than 100 micrograms per cubic meter of pollution particles. Official China reports put the pollution levels to over 400. But a popular web app provided by the U.S. Embassy in Beijing reports levels above 800. Most of China's increasing energy needs are satisfied by burning coal, with resulting pollution. Last year, the Chinese government demanded that the U.S. Embassy stop publicizing air pollution readings, but they've continued anyway.

All of eastern China is affected by the spike in pollution levels, because the weather has turned cold, and so a lot more coal is being burned. To make matters worse in Beijing, the streets are choked with cars, and pollution emissions are poorly regulated. In 2008, when the Olympics games were held in Beijing, China actually had to shut down all traffic around Beijing, because some of the Olympics teams were threatening not to compete because of the high pollution levels. china.org.cn and BBC

Security experts recommend disabling Java on computers

Computer security experts are recommending that users disable Java on their business and personal computers, because of a new surge of hacker attacks that take advantage of a "zero-day vulnerability" in Java software. Java (which is different from Javascript) is one of the tools used by browsers to run complex visual applications, though relatively few web sites actually use it. A "zero-day vulnerability" is one that's been in the Java software for a long time, but was only recently discovered by hackers, and is now being aggressively exploited to hack people's computers. This warning applies to all browsers that run on Windows systems, MAC systems and Linux systems. The recommendation comes because of a surge of exploitations that were discovered only four days ago, on Thursday. It's now expected that the number of exploitations will grow dramatically, since over 400 million computers are subject to the vulnerability. Oracle, the developer of Java, has not announced if or when a patch will be available to repair the vulnerability. Information Week

(Comments: For reader comments, questions and discussion, see the 13-Jan-13 World View -- Shia families in Quetta Pakistan refuse to bury bombing victims thread of the Generational Dynamics forum. Comments may be posted anonymously.) (13-Jan-2013) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 13-Jan-2013 13-Jan-13 World View -- Shia families in Quetta Pakistan refuse to bury bombing victims

Shia families in Quetta Pakistan refuse to bury bombing victims

Tension grows between Egypt's al-Nour party and Muslim Brotherhood

Pollution spikes to 'dangerous' levels in eastern China

Security experts recommend disabling Java on computers

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 13-Jan-2013
13-Jan-13 World View -- Shia families in Quetta Pakistan refuse to bury bombing victims