Are incessant bombings here to stay? Is it just one of those occurrences that will die naturally? Is what we are witnessing nothing compared to historical events?

These are some of the questions running through my mind as I write this post. Initially I dismissed the thoughts of writing about bombings since there's been a fair amount of bombings reported on this blog since its inception.

However, I just couldn't wrap my head around how there's been so much news about bombings and religious violence in the past couple of years. Some might argue that there have been worst bombings in history, but the frequency of violence in our present day is alarming (in my opinion).

Just in the past month, there's been a plethora of bombings reported in places like Boston, Afghanistan, Somalia, Nigeria, Libya, Iraq, and lots of other countries around the world. Just this past weekend, there were reports of bomb blasts in Tanzania and Pakistan. You can be rest assured that there will be more to come. World leaders are trying to curtail this rise in tide but it's been a very challenging effort.

I was taken aback by a comment on an article I posted on a forum regarding the response of the Nigerian government to recent bombings compared with the U.S. response to the Boston bomb blast. The reader ended his comment by saying "quit complaining, Nigerians are not. We are indeed the happiest people on earth." At that moment, it dawned on me that people are beginning to get used to this happenings, we are indeed becoming desensitized to the magnitude of these senseless killings. I'm sure there are several others who share the same sentiments as this reader.

I remember attending a church service and one of the ministers, in his prayers said "there's something in us that is about to explode." I immediately opened my eyes and looked around for any suspicious person waiting to explode. After the prayer, I jokingly told the person next to me that "this prayer is so 1999, you wouldn't want to pray this at the airport." In this era of political correctness, every "wrong" word could potentially escalate into a conflict. This is a testament to how much things have changed over the last few years. Words that were used innocently in past have become taboo words due to these horrific events.

A lot of the bombings can be traced to radical religious intolerance. This is not necessarily a case of Islamist extremists versus Christians, or any other religion. If so, how do we explain the violence between the Shiite and the Sunni Muslims in Iraq? Last week there were reports of violence between Buddhists and Muslims in Burma. Similarly, a Muslim - Coptic Christian violence was reported in Egypt last month. When people cannot look at other people of different faith and accept them just for who they are but rather, we turn to violence at a means of subduing each other.

In subsequent posts, we will be exploring possible solutions (if any) to this menace of bombings and violence in general.

Meanwhile, what can we do to protect ourselves and our loved ones? What precautions should be taken to reduce the chances of being a victim of these happenings.

Share your thoughts and be sure to share this post with as many as possible.

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