@lukres voted no and they made the question originally 🤔

any more examples, keep them coming in the comments

@strutheo It seems that the resolution is completely dependent on how one defines terrorism and attributes the religious affiliation. I admit I did not consider all the implications during the 30 seconds it took me to come up with the question. Ben Shindel is correct that the questions was meant to refer to fundamentalist terrorism, which is what I am basing my vote on. Since this was not stated explicitly (though sort of implied), other interpretations seem plausible as well.

@strutheo Not surprising, given their profile. I’m glad we’re doing a poll instead of a mod fiesta.

@lukres its ok - i'm down to just NA this if you also like that idea

@lukres i also considered it fundamentalist until people started to read it more literally, so it is impossible to know who interpreted it which way

@strutheo It's fine with me, up to you really

But more fun to just resolve to the result of the poll

Other people are welcome to submit their own evidence too

2) Congo Rebel Group

The M23 rebel group killed 19 people, and they are primarily ethnic Tutsi. The Tutsi are majority Christian.

Link: https://apnews.com/article/congo-mweso-m23-rebels-killings-e90a3da973b746f630b7ef3621f2ed58

@strutheo I would say this is more rebel violence and less explicitly "terrorism", these are mortar shells which are military weaponry more than a terrorist "bombing" so to speak

@benshindel Mortar shells used on primarily civilians to win political concessioms and dominance are no less terroristic than IEDs. Do you have a link to a formal definition of terrorism that says only certain low-tech weapons count?

@Panfilo There is the government claim that the rebels "indiscriminately dropped mortar bombs". Exactly the same wording was used by both Russians and Ukrainians on multiple occasions, regardless of what the actual targets were. So this would require much more evidence to confirm even if we accept this very broad definition of terrorism.

@strutheo I think this is more a part of an ongoing civil war than a terrorist act. As far as I can find, this group has no religious agenda. It's about ethno-politics and resources.

1) Gang Terrorism in Ecuador

Cartels have carried out a bombing campaign in Ecuador that has been called terrorism by the current government. Men stormed a TV station, and hours earlier the government confirmed bombings and kidnappings of officers across the country. One of the gangs involved, Los Choneros has ties to Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, according to authorities. The Sinaloa cartel is known for folk-catholic rituals and other religious imagery.

Link: https://apnews.com/article/ecuador-violence-attacks-emergency-gangs-prison-12f01b66f3fd523fcdca04e729aa27af

Link: https://whyy.org/articles/ecuador-state-of-emergency/

@strutheo okay but there was no "bombing", ie, no bombs went off... they just claimed to have explosives with them

@benshindel if you read down, there were other bombings across the country

@benshindel also hey im not ready yet!!

@strutheo oh oops sorry!

@benshindel

i thought i hid it oops..

@benshindel A pity you can’t change your vote!

@Panfilo if he renegs publicly ill subtract one

@Panfilo I saw both comments! I still don't think it counts as a "christian doing a terrorist bombing" because I bet on the question assuming that it referred to fundamentalists doing the attacks, not just someone who happened to be a christian doing it

@benshindel I have lost a few bets to editorial assumptions myself. But the question doesn’t say anything about fundamentalist motives.

@Panfilo @benshindel yeah its confusingly worded.... because it implies 'non muslim' , which indirectly counters it to muslim extremism. but it doesnt talk about extremism directly, just the religion of the terrorist in question. SO i can see how both interpretations could be had.

@Panfilo tbh I've sold out of my position on the January market, so I don't think I'm particularly biased here

@strutheo Anyway to add to this, here is a wikipedia excerpt to affirm that Los Choneros are synonymous with the Sinaloa cartel:

And here is the article on Jesus Malverde (note the folk catholic link): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesús_Malverde

@Panfilo my uncertainty on this one is that they seem christian in name only - they do adopt the symbols, but i doubt they follow the teachings. so it becomes a 'cultural christianity' vs 'practicing christianity' question. Also i did not see any direct religious or church affiliation for either cartel. CTRL+F either wiki page is sparse, and they kill priests.

@strutheo I don’t follow the cultural/practicing distinction, given numerous liberal Muslims for example who would say that suicide bombing is contradictory to Islam. You and I may not consider gang members good Christians, but general identification is the standard used in most attributions.

As for religious affiliation, it is not controversial to say that cartel saints are part of cartel culture; that’s why they’re called as much. You can see other articles like the NY Post one I sent you for a general overview.

These groups are folk catholic. One could make the equivalent of a “Mormons aren’t Christian” argument but I think that would be rather weak.

@strutheo As they're not doing this in the name of Christianity or to spread Christianity, which I interpret the question to imply, it's a NO for me. Whether this is terrorism or just criminal activity against the government is also debatable. The word terrorism is often used willy-nilly by governments to garner support.