What are your thoughts about the mass shooting in Moscow?

FSB did it. Would not be the first time.
And watch Putin try to blame Ukraine for it, so he can order a full mobilization.

ISIS almost certainly carried out the attack.

My guess regarding the primary motivation is the Russian involvement in Syria. Russia has been cracking down on Islamic extremism, and there’s argument that his has turned into a more general oppression of Muslims which is also cited as a motivation for the attack.

“Do you believe Muslims have a history of imperialism and it is ingrained in their culture to want to take over territories and convert, and doing it with violence is acceptable among those who buy into this?”

I’ve personally never met a Muslim who wanted to take over territories and convert anyone.

The last empires in history were all European, and yet this supposed bloodthirst to conquer and assimilate hasn’t been engrained in my psyche or anyone else’s I know.

I think the motivations of ordinary people have very little to do with those of statesmen, kings, emperors, and other so-called Great Men. And conflating them can inadvertently lead to invoking racist cliches.

“A woman I know was talking about this, and saying Muslim Imperialism in the Middle East is easily observed by how they have systematically driven our Christians and Jews”

This is not correct. The last Muslim Empire was the Ottoman Empire, which ended in 1922. Empires, because of their huge geographical extent and diverse population, have to be more tolerant of religious groups in order to maintain stability. The Ottoman Empire had significant Christian and Jewish populations.

It was only with the rise of Nationalism after the Ottoman Empire collapsed, and the British started portioning out different territories, that the populations of new countries became more homogeneous and minority groups migrated or were displaced. This rise in nationalism was not exclusive to Muslim majority states and not some engrained facet of Islamic culture.

I’ve honestly no idea how to stop extremism. We know what the variables are that contribute it, but then you’d have to convince all our politicians that fostering peace and prosperity for all on Earth have merit and are things worth pursuing with rational policy decisions. An impossible task.

The Moscow attack is likely to be a response to Russia’s involvement in Chechnya and Syria, both Muslim countries and not much, if anything, to do with “Muslim imperialism”.

JL . I think you have shown in your details one of the biggest problems with this topic.

“How can we combat Muslim extremism?”

This statement insinuates that ALL Muslim extremists are terrorists. Which is not the case.

Religios extremists often desire to follow the most radical interpretations of their faith.
Anything else, is against their beliefs.
However. In the Muslim world, as with other religions, there are many different types of extremists.
Most actually believe the same thing, but have minor differences.
The ME is without question, a Muslim world. But that is their only commonality.
They are divided into dozens of groups. Each group has resorted to violence, at one time or another, to defend, expand, or even have a country.
The Kurds don’t have a “Kurdistan.”
They actually were one of the few groups to successfully fight ISIS. They carved out a sort of unofficial caliphate in Northern Syria. They even had some functional civil services. They gained that territory by beating ISIS back. But. Things didn’t work out for the Kurds, like they did for Israel. Because the international community did not support them, like America supports Israel.

As mentioned, the attack likely stems from Russian involvement in Syria and their actions against Muslims living in Russian territory.

I said it in another post. It has all the normal calling cards for a terrorist attack by a Muslim extremist group.
So. If ISIS says that they did it, I believe that.

There are definitely parallel issues in the Israeli/Palestinian relationship.
And the same people who don’t seem to grasp the role Israel played in their latest attack, seem to view Muslims similarly.

I will follow the wishes of the op, and refrain from putting other religions through scrutiny. But, it’s a relevant part to this thread.

As we must understand, to some WE are the “terrorists.”

Russia, with it’s recent behavior is daring the world to hit them back.
Well. As we, and the Russians, should know by now, some people do not fear retaliation.

I am VERY sorry for the suffering this attack caused.
But. I am not surprised.

The bottom line is, actions have consequences.

Unfortunately. Not everyone is opposed to holding civilians accountable for the actions of their government.
These groups cannot possibly fight the west, or any powerful Asian countries on a level playing field.
Hitting soft civilian targets, gets people’s attention.

It seems likely it was Muslim extremists that perpetrated this. They claimed credit for it which is something they would not do if they hadn’t done it.

Yes, I believe Muslim extremists have a very distinct slant towards imperialism. They are interpreting their religious texts as giving them not just the right to attack infidels, but an Allah-given duty to do so.

There are only a couple ways to battle the extremism. The first is to just go on a killing rampage, killing every Muslim you see for no other reason than they are Muslim. Eradicate the religion. This is being very extreme as well and has about a zero percent chance of working. You could likely not kill every Muslim and the ones that survived would likely be the extremists anyway.

Another option is to have all the major governments band together with a common plan and common support to get rid of all extremists groups. We have a ton of intelligence that shows where and who they are. Share this now and don’t wait for these groups to actually do something horrific like this.

But the biggest problem, as I see it, is all the apologists that blindly support these terrorist groups. @MrGrimm888 says WE are the terrorists. He is partly right on this but also terribly wrong. He points to Russia supporting the Syrian government back in 2012 during the rebel uprising. But he forgets where and when ISIS actually became a thing. Back in that same 2012 time frame, Barack Obama ordered a secret effort to provide training and weapons to the rebels. Those same rebels, after they were armed and trained, went on to form the first of the ISIS groups that have plagued the world since. That was not the intent, but when you are dealing with fanatics, they rarely do what you want.

^I mean, yeah. Guess who armed the mujahideen in Afghanistan that eventually became the Taliban? Guess who destabilized Iraq by toppling its secular leader leaving a power vacuum that could be filled by ISIS? Guess who continues to be close allies with Saudi Arabia, the main exporter of Islamic fundamentalism (as well as Pakistan, whose government actively supports the Taliban)? The U.S. has a long history of supporting Islamic fundamentalism, particularly during the Cold War, as Islamic fundamentalists were violently opposed to communism. Enemy of my enemy and all that.

As for this attack, I do think it’s believable that ISIS carried out the attack, though it is interesting that the U.S. seems to have warned about it beforehand. Russia is an enemy of ISIS due to its support for Assad in Syria and its subjugation of Chechnya, as @flutherother said (though you’d be hard-pressed to find a nation or a group that is not an enemy of ISIS).

I don’t think Islamic terrorism can be blamed on some kind of psycho-religious tendency in Muslims, though.

I am going to agree with @raginglolli Putin without a doubt will try and blame Ukraine for it to step up military action.

You can also assume that ISIS used some of the weapons Biden gave them when he pulled out of Afghanistan.

Yes, we know, this attack was all the Demmycrats’ fault. I’m sure the Russians mourning the victims in Moscow today were holding up “Let’s Go Brandon” signs. ;)

Read my answer to the similar question asked yesterday. On a large geopolitical scale, this is bad for Russia and especially bad for Putin.

Extremist obviously can be defined many ways, so I think it was wrong of me to use the word carelessly. Someone who is very religious and tries to follow the tenets of their religion closely I do not consider to be extremist, I would call them religious or observant. Extremists I think of as a negative term, and it being people willing to be violent, lie, manipulate, and ignore the rights of others in the world.

I absolutely do not think all Muslims are extremists nor imperialists, but was more talking about leadership and a percentage of the population that might be in alignment with them.

My personal experience with Muslims has always been positive, I don’t have a negative stereotype in my head of Muslims. I have never had a Muslim friend, coworker, or new person I am introduced to try to push their religion on me or even wear their faith on their sleeve in any way that has ever made me uncomfortable. Christians sometimes do this, but it has never been my experience with Muslims.

I do admit to having a negative outlook of some of the Muslim governments when they are theocracies, think their religion is right, rule people under their religious beliefs (I realize I am being redundant) which includes in at least some of the countries oppressing women, jailing LGBT, and other things I just don’t agree with. I think in more than one ME country over the last 50 years it wasn’t/isn’t very welcoming or safe for Christians or Jews, so to say there is no problems, and problems were only way back during the Ottoman Empire I think is inaccurate

Again, I am talking about governments and radicals, not everyday people. I think most people want peace and safety.

My thoughts are gut sympathy for the victims and their families & friends.

I don’t understand physical aggression, murderous intent and the desire to hurt people.

Wulf. My opinions in regards to some of the matters you addressed, would not be the etiquette for a General question.
We see things differently. Got it.
Thank you, for your opinions.

I’ll bet Putin believed the US intelligence about it but decided to let it play out so as to blame Ukraine for it. That way he could galvanize public opinion against Ukraine and further justify his invasion.

So predictable:
https://www.newsweek.com/putin-suggests-kyiv-ordered-isis-commit-moscow-terror-attack-1883337