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Discussion » Questions » Death and Dying » For those of you with teenagers. Are you less apt to allow them to attend concerts held in huge arenas due to terrorists? Why?
RosieG

For those of you with teenagers. Are you less apt to allow them to attend concerts held in huge arenas due to terrorists? Why?

Any large gathering of people is a perfect target for suicide bombers. The more people they can kill/maim  the greater the glory for them I expect. Yet we aren't supposed allow Terrorists to change how we live our lives or "they win". I dunno. I don't have that problem. When my son was a teen suicide bombers didn't exist. What do you do now that it does?

Posted - May 24, 2017
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Responses


  • 22891
    i dont have kids but if i did id be careful about what concerts they went to
      May 24, 2017 4:46 PM MDT
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  • 3719
    The problem is that no-one can say where or when one of these types would attack, nor how. 

    You can't be "careful" about choice of concerts, short of refusing to attend any at all, because you can't know which if any are under threat by whom and when.

    In fact,by extension, you'd never leave the house - the last such attacks in the UK were on buses, the World Trade Center was two office-blocks, many such bombings in the Middle East and elsewhere are in markets - and such retreat is among the things these psychotic types hope for.
      May 24, 2017 5:34 PM MDT
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  • 113301
    So your answer is no. You wouldn't be less apt to give permission or go along with their decision (depending upon how old they are of course). You'd let them live their lives as if there were no potential threats.  Our "kids" are middleaged so we don't have that particular problem. I doubt that I would have forbidden them from attending a concert but I know I would be a nervous wreck more than usual until they came home. Either way you pay. Thank you for your reply Durdle and Happy Thursday!  :)
      May 25, 2017 1:47 PM MDT
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  • 3719
    Thank you Rosie. Yes, I realise it would be very worrying - but to put it in perspective, your chances of becoming murdered in cold blood at a concert is nor more or less than that of it happening in any public gathering, including simply using public transport.
      May 27, 2017 2:17 PM MDT
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  • 113301
    You're welcome Durdle. I dunno m'dear. Certainly decades ago there were no such things as suicide bombers were there? If there were I was unaware of it. Also mass murderers using guns in theaters or schools or elsewhere to take out as many people as possible. It seems to me that life is getting progressively more dangerous because there are so many nutjobs out there. Religious reasons, political reasons or personal reasons. It is more than "the heat of the moment". It's planned/premeditated. In some cases  the plan takes years to materialize. I heard that the most recent attack in Manchester took 18 months. Now I don't know if that is really true but what if it were? Can you imagine living with that goal in mind and working toward achieving it? And worst of all being considered a hero/heroine because of it? Thank you for your reply and Happy Sunday! :)
      May 28, 2017 5:03 AM MDT
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  • 3719
    Thank you Rosie.

    A Muslim scholar explained on BBC Radio 4 yesterday morning the tactics used by people like ISIS. They put out propaganda aimed at impressionable young Muslims, to convince them that the worlds is divided into Islam and sinful non, or anti-Islam; and that it is the aim of good and right Muslims all over to fight for a supposed caliphate under Sharia Law.

    They frighten such people into believing they are not true Muslims if they do not heed this call, which the speaker said is not true Islam at all.

    Their aims in using indiscriminate murder is not only to make people afraid of being direct victims, as your original questions says,  but also to inflame anti-Islamic feeling so they create their own, twisted rationale for accusing all non-Muslims of being enemies of Islam.


    Terrorist outrages like the most recent in Manchester are not all that new. We saw enough of it during the Irish "Troubles" in the 1970s; but the Gunpowder Plot in the 17C was much the same sort of thing, albeit an attack on Parliament specifically, not the public at large. Whether the attack on the Ariane Grande concert took 18 months actually to plan I've no idea, nor how much real planning it entailed, but I can believe it taking that long to turn a gullible young man into a psychotic mass-murderer by slow, steady persuasion over the Internet. 
       

    Lone, random, mass-shootings for no obvious motive, are another matter, and often go unexplained because either the murderer commits suicide, or is shot dead by the Police. It would be better to shoot to disable temporarily so he can be brought to justice properly. If nothing else having to account for himself in an open court may help society understand the motives so give at least some, slim chance of heading off future attacks by others. 
      May 28, 2017 9:16 AM MDT
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  • 1326
    I would be very apprehensive if a child of mine were to attend such a public event. Especially since they (the terrorists) are now targeting the young and most vulnerable.
      June 5, 2017 11:59 PM MDT
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