It's as well to recognise that when anger about these bombings wells over into anger at Muslims in general, that is a victory for the bombers.

By erecting barriers of hate and distrust between Muslims and non-Muslims they can hope to bring about a situation in which their perverted version of Islam can start to become credible to an increasing number of co-religionists.

Ideally they would hope to bring about repression and persecution of minority Muslim communities, which would pay rich dividends elsewhere by winning support and power.