Manchester

It is hard to get my head around the terror attack in Manchester. At this stage the attacker is unknown, and so are his motives, but what we do know is that his home made powerful explosive device killed at least 22 people and injured many others, They were young people attending a rock concert. It is unlikely that any of them knew much about ISIS or the cause it was fighting for. We don't know what motivated the killer, or what he had hoped to achieve. The explosion and the murder of these people would not hasten the fall of Assad and the Syrian government, the enemies of ISIS. What was in the mind of the killer? Was he gullible, easily persuaded by some fire breathing Iman to sacrifice his life? Was he unhinged, suffering from mental disorder? There is no simple explanation for such an act of random murder. But looking back on history, there were the Nizaris, the second largest largest sect of Shiite Muslims in the eleventh century. They posed a threat to the Sunni Seljuk Empire. With the unrest in the Holy Land caused by the First Crusade the Nizaris found themselves fighting not only other Muslims, but also the invading Christian Crusaders. Not having the military forces to wage such a double war, they turned to the assassination of prominent enemies or prominent leaders perceived as enemies. These random killings went on for some 300 years, until the Nizari declined internally and eventually succumbed to Mongol conquest. Can we perceive parallels between infighting among Shiites and Sunnis, invading Christian Crusaders and aimless random murder? Does history provide answers, or do we just have to sit back and accept that this is a cruel, senseless world and terrible unjust things happen?