# Any active shooting wars that do not involve Muslims ? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 10, 2014, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-active-shooting-wars-that-do-not-involve-muslims/692759 "2014-07-10T12:34:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-active-shooting-wars-that-do-not-involve-muslims/692759/21 "2014-07-10T15:39:56Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Here’s a list of the ongoing armed conflicts at the moment: > > [List of ongoing armed conflicts - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ongoing_armed_conflicts) > > The clearest example of what you want is the Mexican drug wars. That was an enlightening link. Thank you for posting it. (And thank you, wikipedia, for having an article on everything!) ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-active-shooting-wars-that-do-not-involve-muslims/692759/22 "2014-07-10T20:15:18Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Sri Lanka has a sizeable (~10%) Muslim minority. Not sure if you are counting them. From what little I know, the presence of a Moslem minority was irrelevant to the actions of either side; just as the presence of Moslems, Jews, Orthodox Christians, Buddhists etc. in England or Northern Ireland was irrelevant to the war with the IRA. The Sri Lanka conflict was essentially between a Hindu government and a Hindu ethnic minority. ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-active-shooting-wars-that-do-not-involve-muslims/692759/23 "2014-07-10T20:37:29Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > From what little I know, the presence of a Moslem minority was irrelevant to the actions of either side; just as the presence of Moslems, Jews, Orthodox Christians, Buddhists etc. in England or Northern Ireland was irrelevant to the war with the IRA. The Sri Lanka conflict was essentially between a Hindu government and a Hindu ethnic minority. Sri Lanka’s majority ethnic group was Buddhist, not Hindu. And the government (well, the more right-wing elements of it, anyway) was influenced by Buddhism to a certain extent. The Sri Lankan Tamils were mostly Hindu with significant Christian and Muslim minorities, but the actual Tamil insurgency was led by strongly secular Marxists and other leftists. Hinduism played just about zero part in the Sri Lanka civil war. ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-active-shooting-wars-that-do-not-involve-muslims/692759/24 "2014-07-10T20:41:17Z")
The current Colombian civil war doesn’t involve any Muslims, as far as I know, and if Venezuela devolves into civil war it won’t involve any Muslims either. India has some longstanding low-intensity insurgencies, the one in Kashmir is obviously Muslim, but the other ones involve either separatists in the northeast who are Christians or animists, or else secular neo-Maoists. Also Russia vs. Ukraine, as someone mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-active-shooting-wars-that-do-not-involve-muslims/692759/25 "2014-07-10T20:52:28Z")
> [@Hector\_St\_Clare](#): > > Sri Lanka’s majority ethnic group was Buddhist, not Hindu. And the government (well, the more right-wing elements of it, anyway) was influenced by Buddhism to a certain extent. The Sri Lankan Tamils were mostly Hindu with significant Christian and Muslim minorities, but the actual Tamil insurgency was led by strongly secular Marxists and other leftists. Hinduism played just about zero part in the Sri Lanka civil war. Thank you. I can never keep clear the difference between the Hindus and Buddhists. But that goes to my earlier point, that most wars are ethnic and/or political, and where religion is involved, it is mainly a side effect of different ethnic groups having different religions due to ethnicity - religion is rarely a driving force in the cause of the war. Occasionally (Taliban or ISIS, Palestinian resistance) one side or the other embraces their religious difference as an integral part of their motivational effort and distinction from the enemy. ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-active-shooting-wars-that-do-not-involve-muslims/692759/26 "2014-07-10T21:58:44Z")
Currently, the various armed groups in the Eastern Congo / Great Lakes region are taking a short break from their apocalyptic bouts of bloodletting. The wiki list of conflicts doesn’t mention it, which seems to me to be wishful thinking, peace treaty with M23 aside. God knows the people there have suffered enough. Anyway, Islam has had little or nothing to do with this conflict, and at 5-6 million, it is comfortably larger in death toll than pretty much every other conflict mentioned in the thread so far. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-active-shooting-wars-that-do-not-involve-muslims/692759/27 "2014-07-12T17:33:04Z")
There are separate Wikipedia entries for wars that are no longer ongoing. The wars in the African Great Lakes area mostly ended ten to twenty years ago. The entry for ongoing armed conflicts specifically says that it doesn’t include ones that aren’t significantly in progress: > **[List of conflicts in Africa | African Great Lakes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conflicts_in_Africa#African_Great_Lakes)** > > 1.1972 Burundi genocide | > 2.October 21, 1993 – August 2005 Burundi Civil War > December 28, 2000 Titanic Express Massacre > September 9, 2002 Itaba Massacre > August 13, 2004 Gatumba Massacre | > 3.December 28, 2000 Titanic Express Massacre | > 4.September 9, 2002 Itaba Massacre | > 5.August 13, 2004 Gatumba Massacre | > 6.April 26, 2015 – 17 May 2018 Burundian unrest ---
**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-active-shooting-wars-that-do-not-involve-muslims/692759/28 "2014-07-12T17:55:42Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > There are separate Wikipedia entries for wars that are no longer ongoing. The wars in the African Great Lakes area mostly ended ten to twenty years ago. The entry for ongoing armed conflicts specifically says that it doesn’t include ones that aren’t significantly in progress: > > [List of conflicts in Africa - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conflicts_in_Africa#African_Great_Lakes) The entries in the wiki lack in accuracy, they are listing as an active conflict a supposed ‘insurgency in the Maghreb’ which is some strange fiction that American security company consultants have created, to rename the Sahel, and for the DRC Lakes region it is certainly the case [there is hot fighting](http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2014/06/heavy-fighting-resumes-rwanda-drc-border-2014611134650993769.html)and in fact my friends who are working for UN there had to be evacuated in armour. > [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > Currently, the various armed groups in the Eastern Congo / Great Lakes region are taking a short break from their apocalyptic bouts of bloodletting. The wiki list of conflicts doesn’t mention it, which seems to me to be wishful thinking, peace treaty with M23 aside. God knows the people there have suffered enough. Yes it is inaccurate as severe fighting is now going on in some rural districts. > [@Hector\_St\_Clare](#): > > Hinduism played just about zero part in the Sri Lanka civil war. This is not true, the Hindu identity of the Tamils was important in the ideology of Sinhalese reaction and Bhuddist supremacism, which now is hitting at the [Sinhal and Tamil speaking Muslims](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27864716) even. The Tamil speaking Muslims had kept away from Tamil separatism mostly. > [@Terr](#): > > One of the major forces in the region (Vostok batallion) is almost 100% muslim - Chechen/Ingush. These are russian associated forces, and mercenaries and secularists, having nothing to do with Islamic tendencies (it is also not the case that all Chechan and Ingush residents are Muslims), so it has nothing to do with such. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-active-shooting-wars-that-do-not-involve-muslims/692759/29 "2014-07-12T18:24:14Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > But the USA has a large contingent of troops deployed to that theater, which includes a small number of Muslims. > So that war involves Muslims. I rolled my eyes so hard that they’re now rolling across the room and out the door. ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-active-shooting-wars-that-do-not-involve-muslims/692759/30 "2014-07-12T18:28:02Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > There are separate Wikipedia entries for wars that are no longer ongoing. The wars in the African Great Lakes area mostly ended ten to twenty years ago. The entry for ongoing armed conflicts specifically says that it doesn’t include ones that aren’t significantly in progress: > > [List of conflicts in Africa - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_conflicts_in_Africa#African_Great_Lakes) Weird, considering Goma, on the shore of Lake Kivu, was the site of pretty intense fighting in 2012-2013. Couple hundred dead combatants, God knows how many civvies. Is Lake Kivu not considered part of the African Great Lakes region? ---
**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-active-shooting-wars-that-do-not-involve-muslims/692759/31 "2014-07-12T21:45:52Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > Weird, considering Goma, on the shore of Lake Kivu, was the site of pretty intense fighting in 2012-2013. Couple hundred dead combatants, God knows how many civvies. Is Lake Kivu not considered part of the African Great Lakes region? It is. The Wikipedia is just not very reliable in things African nor North African, particularly for current events. The body of the active editors do not know much of this area, and there are pages that are fictions, like the Maghreb insurgency which has no reality (against the reality of Algeria or in the Sahel). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-active-shooting-wars-that-do-not-involve-muslims/692759.md?page=1)