Tracking Terrorism
Bringing Gospel Light to people who don’t know God loves them is not for the timid. Evil will touch us. Not only do we have His Power in us, we also have the Holy Spirit helping us discern what’s happening and know how to respond.
-Anna Hampton
For those involved in Gospel advancement of any type and whether full time or short term, it is crucial to track the terrorism and war-related events in the primary area of ministry.
Even if the place of ministry and focus is calm and not "known" as a war zone, due to the globalism of terrorism and the speed information travels, tracking the terrorism group - where they are known or eported to be located helps you plan and mitigate risk better.
This website, TRAC, has an amazing amount of information available for free. TRAC is “one of the world’s largest databases of terrorists, terrorists groups, lone wolves, hate groups, and abettors of political violence.” Check out this page listing all the known terrorist groups. Clicking on any of the groups leads to partial information. From there, open another page and research that group some more on your own. It's possible to piece together quite a bit of current information from free open source news sites, blogs, Instagram, and Youtube.
1. Identify the groups known to be operating and all their various names.
2. Identify all the terror events on a timeline. Decide how long to track in the past (whatever is relevant to the current risks). 3. 3. Analyze the terror events. Was there consistency of when they occurred? Did attacks happen on the same day each year, or on the anniverary of an important event. Look for patterns.
4. Learn the general cycle of when attacks happen. Typically, Christmas and Easter are higher risk days. Also, Shia Muslim holy days are often more dangerous in Sunni-dominant countries.
Certain timings are fairly predictable - like more attacks after the last winter thaw and Spring on the way. Also, it is common to have attacks during the Holy Month - Ramadan (Ramazan). There are almost always Sunni attack on Shiites, but plenty of other attacks during that month.
5. Pay attention to the time of day attacks tend to happen - often in the busiest time of day. Suicide bombers often are high on drugs, so it seems more reasonable that 6am is a safer time of travel when terrorists haven't recovered yet from last night's hangover and haven't yet taken drugs. However, my husband once was stopped at a "check point" by a "police" high on drugs at around 5am on his way to work, so it's not "fool proof" to go early in the morning.
6. Watch the frequency of attacks, as well as geographic location. How do terrorists adjust to changing security measures? ...This shows their ability to be flexible and agile, two primary characteristics crucial to any mission team's response, too.
7. Finally, look at who they are targeting. When it is your group's demographic, and moving closer, it'‘s a good time to make sure the Crisis Response Team (CMT) is ready and that the team has done all they can to be prepared and mitigation measures are in place.
As you build a foundation of knowing the history, religion, culture, and current terror groups in the area you serve, you are building situational awareness and will more quickly be able to respond to a changing baseline environment. A shrewd response is also stewardship.
Our goal is to serve with joy despite the danger, having analyzed the risks, applied appropriate mitigation, and move forward as He leads.
