hcmme‘hotNJPN North West Justice & Peace E-Bulletin – December 2015 The monthly e-bulletin for the North West, linked to the National Justice and Peace Network (NJPN), is produced jointly by the dioceses of Lancaster, Liverpool, Salford, Shrewsbury and Wrexham. Please send diary dates to
[email protected] THE PARIS ATTACKS The attacks in Paris on 13 November have generated enormous media coverage and outrage and sadness among so many people. In a spirit of encouraging people to look under the surface of the problems, here are a couple of places to start: Paul Rogers, Professor in the Peace Studies Dept. at Bradford University, and speaker at this year’s NJPN Annual Conference, describes the attacks as a ‘blowback war’. Read the full article on the Open Democracy website: https://www.opendemocracy.net/paris-atrocity-and-after and in the Guardian on 16 November there was a thoughtful piece by Scott Atran – which raises some question marks about the more hysterical rhetoric coming from some quarters of the media. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/15/terrorists-isis It’s also important to get these tragic events in perspective. An infographic from the Independent of a year ago gives a very different impression to what we see and read normally: http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/the-10-countries-where-terrorist- attacks-kill-the-most-people--ekK-zVZl_g The 2015 Global Terrorism Index highlights the fact that terrorism continues to rise. The total number of deaths from terrorism in 2014 reached 32,685, constituting an 80 per cent increase from the previous year.