Al Qaeda has dominated the narrative surrounding terrorism for the majority of the post 9/11
era.
Recently, that narrative has expanded to include groups like ISIS and Boko Haram.
But even that is just a fraction of the story.
Terrorism is an enormous and pervasive problem worldwide.
So to illustrate that point, here are a few terrorist groups that have been active this
year, that the general public may not even be aware of.
Al Shabaab (shah-bob).
Last month this Somalian terrorist group killed 50 people in a single attack on a Kenyan resort
town.
Some of the people killed were watching the World Cup at the time, so the story did make
it onto a few US news feeds.
But the group has existed since the mid-2000's, they've been affiliated with Al Qaeda since
2010, and is the target of on-going US drone strikes.
But still, the general public is largely unaware of this group.
Another recently active terrorist group is The League Of The Righteous in Iraq.
They're an extremist Shia group that killed between 27 and 34 people in a brothel in Baghdad
last month, reportedly scrawling "this is the fate of any prostitute" on a door of the
building.
This made some headlines in the US, because of the brothel angle, but the general public
continues to be largely unaware of this group.
Finally, a group called the East Turkestan Islamic Party in the Xinjiang (shin-jung)
region of China, this past April killed 4 people and injured another 79 in one organized
attack, involving knifings and bombing.
This group is recognized by the US and UN as a terrorist group, but they aren't new.
Some reports claim that they've committed well over 200 terrorist attacks in the 1990's
alone.
So, why haven't we heard of these terrorist groups or the hundreds of others out there?
The sad truth is, we don't generally hear about terrorist groups from poor or war-torn
nations.
We also don't hear about the smaller groups in places like Iraq, that already have bigger,
more well-known terrorist groups.
And we don't generally hear about those from world powers with tight media restrictions,
like China or Russia - which by the way was hit with at least 31 terror attacks in 2013.
Terrorism is a huge global problem, and it's gotten so big that we're not even able to
keep up with all of it.
To see our episode on an issue closer to home, click now to find out how Chicago ended up
with so much gang violence.
Or click the other box to see our episode on the conflict in Palestine.
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