Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Baffler]

Filipino Islamists loyal to a group called Maute have staged a large-scale attack in the city of Marawi. A group of at least 15 gunmen raised an Islamic State flag over a local hospital and have been moving through the streets. A later attack was staged on the local prison with the intention of releasing detainees, and appears to have been successful. The national guard has moved into the area and will probably not have much trouble exterminating them (there are between 500 and 1000 in total), but they've so far caused quite a lot of damage.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/philippines-isis-gunmen-soldiers-army-marawi-city-street-battle-terrorist-jihadi-a7751406.html
http://cnnphilippines.com/news/2017/05/23/marawi-city-clash.html#.WSRNGGvTwos.twitter
https://twitter.com/geopolitiquee/status/867097836147675138

[martinuzz]

Dang, that's bad.
While the West is focussing on the Middle East and Africa, militant islamism is a growing (and underestimated) problem in Asia as well. People tend to forget that more than half of the world's muslim population lives in just Indonesia, and that's just one country in Asia. Technically the arab world is a minority of the world's muslim population, it's just that they stand out in spreading the violent interpretations of islam. Which has slowly but steadily been spreading it's influence amongst the traditionally moderate and generally tolerant Asian muslims, sadly, reaching a recent climax in the metaphorical lynching of Jakarta's governor.

Now muslim insurgence isn't new to the Philippines either, but this is an attack on worrisome scale, if you ask me (or at least worrisome level of organistation, if they really managed to bust a prison). I hope Duterte can handle it without creating even more opression in his country.

[Flying Dice]

Yeah, just heard about this. Shit's looking bad in the photos that've been posted. From what I heard they've burned a police station as well as attacking the prison.

[Reelya]

more than half of the world's muslim population lives in just Indonesia

I don't think you got that quite right. There are 1.8 billion Muslims, and Indonesia isn't quite that large. It's large, just not that large. However, articles state there are 900 million Muslims in Asia, which is half. So maybe you mixed up that detail from an article.

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/01/31/worlds-muslim-population-more-widespread-than-you-might-think/

this Pew Research article says 986 million muslims in asia-pacific region. It took some googling to discover what Pew research even consider to be Asia-Pacific. Every research group has their own definition:

http://www.pewforum.org/2011/01/27/future-of-the-global-muslim-population-regional-asia/

The number of Muslims in the Asia-Pacific region – which, for purposes of this report, includes not only East Asian countries such as China but also countries as far west as Turkey

This is where report headlines can be misleading. Turkey is Asia-Pacific.

[Baffler]

Militants have been cleared from the city itself, but most of them apparently left the city before being captured or killed. The military is moving more units into the area, and intends to wait until they arrive before searching the surrounding countryside for the rest of them. At least three soldiers and a dozen were wounded, as well as an unknown number of militants. Property damage is extensive, with numerous fires having been started by sympathetic citizens as well as the militants themselves, and the whole city is without power. Martial law has, unsurprisingly, been declared. Local media speculates this is a retaliation for a planned raid against some "high value targets," probably leaders of the group, and started very shortly after the raid was launched.

http://cnnphilippines.com/news/2017/05/24/Duterte-martial-law-Id-be-harsh.html
http://www.rappler.com/nation/170744-timeline-marawi-city-martial-law
http://www.rappler.com/nation/170705-clashes-marawi-city-terrorist-groups

[Flying Dice]

more than half of the world's muslim population lives in just Indonesia

I don't think you got that quite right. There are 1.8 billion Muslims, and Indonesia isn't quite that large. It's large, just not that large. However, articles state there are 900 million Muslims in Asia, which is half. So maybe you mixed up that detail from an article.

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/01/31/worlds-muslim-population-more-widespread-than-you-might-think/

this Pew Research article says 986 million muslims in asia-pacific region. It took some googling to discover what Pew research even consider to be Asia-Pacific. Every research group has their own definition:

http://www.pewforum.org/2011/01/27/future-of-the-global-muslim-population-regional-asia/

The number of Muslims in the Asia-Pacific region – which, for purposes of this report, includes not only East Asian countries such as China but also countries as far west as Turkey

This is where report headlines can be misleading. Turkey is Asia-Pacific.

Probably also mingled with (IIRC) the fact that Indonesia is the country with the largest Muslim population. Just not half of the world population.

[martinuzz]

more than half of the world's muslim population lives in just Indonesia

I don't think you got that quite right. There are 1.8 billion Muslims, and Indonesia isn't quite that large. It's large, just not that large. However, articles state there are 900 million Muslims in Asia, which is half. So maybe you mixed up that detail from an article.

Oh you're right. Indonesia has the largest muslim population in the world (203 million, 87.2% of the country's population), but indeed not half of the total muslim population. I must indeed have mixed it up.

[Descan]

They did mean East Asia (though the number is closer to 1 billion.

Middle East and N. Africa is about 300-400 million.

[Reelya]

East Asia denotes a far more specific area than that. This is all about definitions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Asia


^ i.e. they didn't mean that. Saying a region such as "east asia" isn't helpful because you obviously are referring to a different set of countries when you say it than a demographer is.

Pew Research has actually made a map showing which countries they include when they say there are 1 billion Muslims in Asia-Pacific, so you can check that out without any sort of guesswork about what the region includes:
http://www.pewforum.org/2011/01/27/future-of-the-global-muslim-population-regional-asia/

For more close up detail, see this interactive graphic (needs flash)
http://www.pewforum.org/interactives/muslim-population-graphic/#/Asia-Pacific

By Asia-Pacific they're including everything spanning the distance from Turkey to Indonesia.

[martinuzz]

The fighting in the Philippines still is not over. Army forces have been battling door to door in Marawi, and some parts of the city are still being held by enemy snipers. According to the photo with the article, they even managed to take down an army helicopter.
Duterte has declared a state of emergency for the entire island of Mindanao for 60 days, the maximum term allowed by the Constitution. During the state of emergency, all civil laws are suspended, the army is authorized to order curfews, and arrest people without trial. He has said that, if nescessary, he will not care about the Constitution and uphold the state of emergency for as long as it takes to have 'cured the island of all it's plagues'.
Duterte himself cancelled the remainder of his visit to Russia to return to the Philippines and personally oversee the fighting in Marawi.
"The state of emergency will be the same as it was under Marcos", Duterte said. Referencing to Marcos like that is a rather sensitive and unpleasant matter to many Philippinos. Ferdinand Marcos, former dictator of the Philippines, used the state of emergency in the 70s and 80s to reinforce his own position and ruthlessly kill his political opponents.

The fighting in Marawi started when government forces stormed the residence of Isnilon Hapilon, the alleged leader of IS fighters in the Philippines, and high ranking member of the infamous Abu Sayyaf terrorist organistation. When the government forces started their assault, they were suddenly met by about 100 heavily armed forces, who then spread out across the town.
They occupied a hospital and a prison, put up roadblocks and barricades, and set fire to some schools and a church. From the church they took the priest and his parochians hostage.

The government army responded by sending a few thousand troops, and spreading them out over the town, but everywhere they went, they were met with snipers fanatically holding their positions.
According to the latest reports they are still holding some of the town's bridges, and districts.
It's unclear if they actually intended to capture the town, which has about 200 thousand inhabitants.

According to the army, the insurgents are part of the 'Maute group', an organisation closely linked to Abu Sayyef. Both the Maute group and Abu Sayyef have formally sworn allegiance to IS.

The original target of the government raid, Isnilon Hapilon, is called 'emir', meaning he is the highest ranking leader of IS in the Philippines, and is known to have changed his name to Abu Abdullah al Filipini.
Both groups are infamous for fighting for IS, and for many kidnappings for ransom in the Philippines. Since 1990, Abu Sayyef has kidnapped hundreds of Philippinos and tourists for ransom.
The Maute group is held responsible for recent attacks on Mindanao, and for a series of brutal attacks on army posts and villages.
Both groups are based in the West of Mindanao, and on the many many small islands between the Philippines and Borneo.

Mindanao is the largest southern island of the Philippines, and makes up about one third of the country. It has 20 million inhabitants, of whom the majority are muslim. Ever since the 1960s, there have been small, and large civil wars with islamic seperatist movements, like the Moro National Liberation Front, and the Moro Islam Liberation Front.

Peace talks have mostly ended hostilities, but radical splinter groups have kept fighting. The Maute group, and Abu Sayyef have splintered from MILF.
Abu Sayyef used to be tied to Al Qaida, but currently seems to have completely severed those ties and joined IS.
http://www.volkskrant.nl/buitenland/filipijns-stadje-belegerd-door-is-strijders-president-roept-staat-van-beleg-uit~a4496889/

[Descan]

I mean, turkic peoples came from Central Asia.

I mean, that happened a long time ago, and it does seem a little odd. But there *could* be a reason!

[Flying Dice]

East Asia denotes a far more specific area than that. This is all about definitions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Asia


^ i.e. they didn't mean that. Saying a region such as "east asia" isn't helpful because you obviously are referring to a different set of countries when you say it than a demographer is.

Pew Research has actually made a map showing which countries they include when they say there are 1 billion Muslims in Asia-Pacific, so you can check that out without any sort of guesswork about what the region includes:
http://www.pewforum.org/2011/01/27/future-of-the-global-muslim-population-regional-asia/

For more close up detail, see this interactive graphic (needs flash)
http://www.pewforum.org/interactives/muslim-population-graphic/#/Asia-Pacific

By Asia-Pacific they're including everything spanning the distance from Turkey to Indonesia.

A curious distinction. It would seem their specific "Asia-Pacific" region means Asia minus the Levant. An odd choice, and I can't say I necessarily agree with the division, since it feels rather arbitrary (Turkey but not Iraq?).

IIRC much of the reason surrounding the tripartite division of Asia is down to historical provenance re: international politics and cultural/imperial control. East Asia is Chinese-derived, culturally. SEA is essentially the same landmass and island chains as formerly composed the East Indies and Indochina. South Asia is predominantly defined by the old borders of British control (with some exceptions). The Middle East is distinct enough culturally, politically, and geographically to merit independent classification; eastern Russia the same. It's pretty commonly used among scholars in relevant fields. Even cut up there are still enough differences to make it difficult to discuss generalities about the regions (particularly SEA), but an effort can at least be reasonably made.

Notably, when geopolitics and culture are less of a concern than geographic relations, Oceania and SEA tend to be muddled--that distinction only exists because of the cultural differences between SEA and anglophone NZ/Oz, and because Australia is technically a continent rather than a very large member of the SEAn archipelago.
 
Basically, Asia is too large and too disparate on various fronts to reliably discuss as a single entity all the time, so arbitrary geographic divisions were drawn up based on cultural groups and historical administrative divisions. Similar deal as with the typical divisions of Europe.

[martinuzz]

- terrorist attack happens in EU. EU thread talks about the attacks
- terrorists attack happens in US. US thread talks about attacks.
- terrorist attack happens in Asia. Asia thread argues about East maybe not being west sometimes pacific with or without waves

[scriver]

It's because we have so few people living there.

I hope all our Filipinos are safe and sound though.

[Reelya]

The thing is we don't have a lot of news links to report. We can say "huh that's bad" and stuff, but without fresh information there's not much to discuss. The other part is that this isn't getting huge amounts of media coverage compared to the other attacks.

EDIT: Meanwhile we get almost no news on Asia at all. Googling it, the top hit was that Taiwan legalized same-sex marriage, the first country in Asia to do so.