MUSLIM HATE FOR
MUSLIMS!
Iran state news agency says at least 15 killed in "terrorist attack" on Shiraz shrine
DUBAI,
Oct 26, 2022 (Reuters) - At least 15 people were killed and ten others
injured on Wednesday following an attack in the Shah Cheragh Shrine of
Shiraz, Iranian state news agency IRNA said.
A
media outlet affiliated to Iran's judiciary said three armed men had
entered the shrine at 5:45pm local time (1415 GMT)located in Iran's
southern city of Shiraz.
IRNA said the attackers acted as "Takfiri terrorists" - a reference to Sunni extremists such as Islamic State militants.
IS claims Pakistan bombing that kills 56 at Shiite mosque
By KATHY GANNON and RIAZ KHAN
March 4, 2022
PESHAWAR,
Pakistan (AP) — The Islamic State says a lone Afghan suicide bomber
struck inside a Shiite Muslim mosque in Pakistan’s northwestern city of
Peshawar during Friday prayers, killing at least 56 worshippers and
wounding 194 people.
The
Islamic State affiliate in the region known as Islamic State in
Khorasan province and headquartered in Afghanistan claimed Friday’s
devastating attack in a statement translated by the SITE Intelligence
group.
The
statement was posted on the group’s Amaq News Agency. The statement
identified the attacker as Afghan, posted his picture and said “Islamic
State fighters are constantly targeting Shi’ites living in Pakistan and
Afghanistan despite the intense security measures adopted by the
Taliban militia and the Pakistani police to secure Shi’a temples and
centers.”
The carnage at the mosque buried deep inside the narrow streets of Peshawar’s old city was horrific.
According
to the spokesman at Peshawar’s Lady Reading Hospital, Asim Khan, many
of the wounded were in critical condition. Scores of victims were
peppered with shrapnel, several had limbs amputated and others were
injured by flying debris.
Peshawar
Police Chief Muhammed Ejaz Khan said the violence started when an armed
attacker opened fire on police outside the mosque in Peshawar’s old
city. One policeman was killed in the gunfight, and another police
officer was wounded. The attacker then ran inside the mosque and
detonated his suicide vest.
The
suicide bomber had strapped a powerful explosive device to his body,
packed with 5 kilograms (12 pounds) of explosives, said Moazzam Jah
Ansari, the top police official for Khyber Pukhtunkhwa province where
Peshawar is the capital.
The
device was hidden beneath a large black shawl that covered much of the
attacker’s body, according to CCTV footage seen by The Associated
Press. The footage showed the bomber moving quickly up a narrow street
toward the mosque entrance. He fired at the police protecting the
mosque before entering inside.
Within
seconds, a powerful explosion occurred and the camera lens was obscured
with dust and debris. Ansari said the crudely made device was packed
with ball bearings, a deadly method of constructing a bomb to inflict
the most carnage spraying a larger area with deadly projectiles. The
ball bearings caused the high death toll, Ansari said.
Local
police official Waheed Khan said the explosion occurred as worshippers
had gathered in the Kucha Risaldar Mosque for Friday prayers. There are
fears the death toll could still rise further, he added.
Ambulances
rushed through congested narrow streets carrying the wounded to Lady
Reading Hospital, where doctors worked feverishly.
Shayan
Haider, a witness, had been preparing to enter the mosque when a
powerful explosion threw him to the ground. “I opened my eyes and there
was dust and bodies everywhere,” he said.
At
the Lady Reading Hospital Emergency department, there was chaos as
doctors struggled to move the many wounded into operating theaters.
Hundreds of relatives gathered outside the emergency department, many
of them wailing and beating their chests, pleading for information
about their loved ones.
Outside
the mosque, Shiites pressed through the cordoned-off streets. Kucha
Risaldar Mosque is one of the oldest in the area, predating the
creation of Pakistan in 1947 as a separate homeland for the Muslims of
the Indian subcontinent.
The
prayer leader, Allama Irshad Hussein Khalil, a prominent up and coming
young Shiite leader, was among the dead. Throughout the city, ambulance
sirens could be heard.
Prime
Minister Imran Khan condemned the bombing. His national security
adviser, Moeed Yusuf, said the bombing was a “heinous terrorist attack”
and promised that those behind the carnage would “be brought to justice.
“We will not allow our gains against terrorism & our internal security to be compromised at any cost,” Yusuf tweeted.
Retired
army officer Sher Ali who had been inside the mosque at the time of the
explosion was injured by flying shrapnel. He made a impassioned plea to
the Pakistani government for better protection of the country’s
minority Shiites.
“What
is our sin? What have we done? Aren’t we citizens of this country?” he
said from inside the emergency department, his white clothes splattered
with blood.
Iran’s
Foreign Ministry condemned the attack, saying the perpetrators were
intent on “sowing discord among Muslims.” In a statement on the
ministry’s website, spokesman Saeed Khatizadeh expressed his hope that
Pakistan’s government would put an end to such attacks with “firm
actions,” without elaborating.
In
majority Sunni Pakistan, minority Shiites have come under repeated
attacks. Also, in recent months, the country has experienced a
significant increase of violence and dozens of military personnel have
been killed in scores of attacks on army outposts along the border with
Afghanistan.
Many
attacks have been claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, who analysts say
have been emboldened by the Afghan Taliban seizing power last August in
Afghanistan.
Pakistan
has urged Afghanistan’s new rulers to handover Pakistani Taliban
militants who have been staging their attacks from Afghanistan. The
Afghan Taliban have said their territory will not be used to stage
attacks against anyone, but until now have not handed over any wanted
Pakistani militants.
Blast at
Shi'ite mosque in Afghan city of Kandahar kills dozens
By Gibran
Naiyyar Peshimam
Attack follows
blast at Shi'ite mosque in Kunduz a week ago
At least 35
killed, 68 wounded
Imam says four
suicide bombers carried out attack
Oct 15, 2021
(Reuters) - Sardar Mohammad Zaidi, imam of the Fatima mosque
in the Afghan city of Kandahar, had almost reached the end of Friday prayers
when gunfire and explosions signalled the start of
the second attack on a Shi'ite mosque in a week.
The mosque,
also known as the Imam Bargah mosque, is the largest
of around 40 Shi'ite mosques in Kandahar, the second-largest city in
Afghanistan in the south of the country near the border with Pakistan.
"We were
almost done with the prayer, at the end of the prayer, I heard the sound of
firing," Zaidi, who has been imam of the mosque for 20 years, told Reuters
by telephone.
Four suicide
bombers tried to get into the mosque packed with some 3,000 worshippers but two
were shot by guards at the entrance before managing to detonate their
explosives, he said.
In the
confusion, the two others were able to enter before blowing themselves up,
killing at least 35 worshippers and wounding 68. Zaidi said the toll could have
been much worse.
"If all
four had managed to get inside, it would have been devastating, and you can
imagine what would happen," he said.
Following last
week's Islamic State attack on a Shi'ite mosque in the northern city of Kunduz
that killed as many as 80 people, the Shi'ite community, estimated to make up some
10-15% of the country's population, has been shaken.
Although there
has been no public claim of responsibility so far, Zaidi said he has no doubt
Islamic State was behind the attack. But the fact they had struck in Kandahar,
heartland of the Taliban movement now ruling Afghanistan, was a shock.
"When the
Taliban came, we did not think that such incidents would happen in
Kandahar," he said. "Incidents had happened in Kabul, Kunar, but we never thought it would happen in Kandahar. No
one warned us about any threat."
'Insults to
Prophet's Wife' Spark Sunni-Shiite Unrest in Lebanon
by Naharnet Newsdesk
06 June 2020
naharnet
Sunni and Shiite
leaderships and parties called for calm late Saturday after insults against
Prophet Mohammed's wife Aisha by young counter-demonstrators sparked angry
protests and Sunni-Shiite tensions.
Protesters
blocked roads in Beirut's Corniche al-Mazraa and Qasqas areas, in the cities of Sidon and Tripoli and on the
coastal highway that links Beirut to the South.
Heavy gunfire
was also heard in Beirut's Tariq al-Jedideh area as
videos of gunmen shooting in the air circulated on social media. The National
News Agency said two people were wounded in the area -- one lightly and one in
the eye.
The insults
were condemned by Sunni and Shiite religious leaderships as well as political
parties.
Dar al-Fatwa,
the country's highest Sunni religious authority, warned all Muslims against
"falling into the trap of sectarian strife."
"The
cursing of Sayyida Aisha can only come from an
ignorant person who should be enlightened," Dar al-Fatwa said in a
statement.
The head of
the Higher Islamic Shiite Council Sheikh Abdul Amir Qabalan
for his part warned of "suspicious attempts to stir sectarian strife"
and condemned the insults against the Prophet's wife.
Shiite mufti
Sheikh Ahmed Qabalan meanwhile urged authorities to
protect the country and its people and slammed those whom he called
"mercenaries and agents" who are trying to "ignite national and
sectarian strife."
Hizbullah, the AMAL Movement, al-Mustaqbal
Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri, ex-PM Najib Miqati
and the Jamaa Islamiya also
warned against sectarian strife and comdemned the
insults.
"The
insults and chants that were voiced by some individuals are rejected and
condemned and do not at all reflect the moral and religious values of the
faithful Muslims," Hizbullah said in a
statement.
It also strongly
cautioned against "those who stir strife, those who benefit from it and
all those promoting it and calling for it."
Hariri for his
part urged supporters and residents to heed Dar al-Fatwa's warning against
sectarian strife and noted that Shiite religious and political leaders have
also condemned the insults against the Prophet's wife.
The insults
were reportedly hurled during or after the confrontations in downtown Beirut on
Saturday between protesters and counter-demonstrators.
Iran says Saudi Arabia will 'pay a high price'
for execution of Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr
ABC News
1-2-2016
Iran has warned Saudi Arabia it will pay
"a high price" for executing prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr.
Key points:
• Saudi Arabia executes 47 "terrorists", mostly
suspected Al Qaeda members
• Iran accuses Saudi Arabia of aiding extremists and
silencing critics by execution
• Nimr al-Nimr's
brother calls for calm
• Reports of police clashing with Sheikh Nimr
supporters in Bahrain
Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry said 47
people, mostly suspected Al Qaeda members but also Sheikh Nimr,
were executed after being convicted of adopting the radical "takfiri"
ideology, joining "terrorist organisations"
and implementing various "criminal plots".
The conservative Islamic kingdom, which usually
executes people by public beheading, detained thousands of militant Islamists
after a series of Al Qaeda attacks from 2003 to 2006 that killed hundreds, and
has convicted hundreds of them.
However, it also detained hundreds of members
of its Shiite minority after protests from 2011 to 2013, during which several
policemen were killed in shooting and petrol bomb attacks.
Sheikh Nimr, a
56-year-old cleric, was a driving force of the protests that broke out in 2011
in the Sunni-ruled kingdom's east, where the Shiite minority complains of marginalisation.
The list of those killed does not include
Sheikh Nimr's nephew, Ali al-Nimr,
who was 17 when he was arrested following the protests.
The Interior Ministry statement began with
Koranic verses justifying the use of execution and state television showed
footage of the aftermath of Al Qaeda attacks in the last decade.
We hope that any reactions would be confined to
a peaceful framework. No-one should have any reaction outside this peaceful
framework. Enough bloodshed.
Mohammed al-Nimr
Saudi Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz
Al al-Sheikh appeared on television soon after to describe the executions as
just.
The execution has angered Saudi Arabia's main
regional rival, Shiite Iran, with the country's Foreign Ministry spokesman
Hossein Jaber Ansari threatening retaliation.
"The Saudi Government supports terrorist
movements and extremists, but confronts domestic critics with oppression and
execution ... the Saudi Government will pay a high price for following these
policies," Mr Ansari said.
The comments came after prominent Iranian
cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami — who has close links to Iran's ruling
establishment — denounced the execution and predicted the repercussions would
bring down the Saudi ruling family.
"I have no doubt that this pure blood will
stain the collar of the House of Saud and wipe them from the pages of
history," Ayatollah Khatami, a member of the Assembly of Experts and a
Friday prayer leader, told the Mehr news agency.
"The crime of executing Sheikh Nimr is part of a criminal pattern by this treacherous
family... the Islamic world is expected to cry out and denounce this infamous
regime as much as it can."
Iraq's former prime minister and a prominent
politician with ties to Iran, Nuri al-Maliki, said the execution will mark the
end of Saudi Arabia's government.
"We strongly condemn these detestable
sectarian practices and affirm that the crime of executing Sheikh al-Nimr will topple the Saudi regime as the crime of executing
the martyr (Mohammed Baqir) al-Sadr did to Saddam
(Hussein)," said Mr Maliki, referring to another
prominent Shiite cleric killed in 1980.
Family calls for calm amid reports of violence
in Bahrain
Sheikh Nimr's brother
Mohammed al-Nimr said the family was shocked by the
execution but hoped any reaction would be peaceful.
"Sheikh Nimr
enjoyed high esteem in his community and within Muslim society in general and
no doubt there will be reaction," he said.
"We hope that any reactions would be
confined to a peaceful framework. No-one should have any reaction outside this
peaceful framework. Enough bloodshed."
Seminary students marched through the Iranian holy
city of Qom to protest against the execution of Sheikh Nimr,
the Iranian Mehr news agency said hours after news of
the execution was released.
Earlier Bahrain police fired tear gas at
several dozen people holding pictures of the cleric gathered to protest against
his death in a village west of the capital, an eyewitness said.
Lebanon's Supreme Islamic Shiite Council also
condemned Sheikh Nimr's execution, saying it was a
"grave mistake".
"The execution of Sheikh Nimr was an execution of reason, moderation and
dialogue," the council's vice president Sheikh Abdel Amir Qabalan said in a statement.
Those executed include an Egyptian and a
Chadian. The rest are all Saudis.
The executions are Saudi Arabia's first in
2016. At least 157 people were put to death last year, a large increase from
the 90 people killed in 2014.
Islam's sectarian divide has turned from
mistrust to bitter violence
My childhood ignorance of differing Shia and Sunni prayer customs once caused
humiliation where today it might risk death
Nushin Arbabzadah
guardian.co.uk, Friday 12 October 2012
In the Kabul of the 1980s, my teacher asked an apparently harmless question:
"Which one of you knows how to pray and can demonstrate it to the
class?" I raised my hand before anyone else and was soon marching towards
the front of the classroom. I put my headscarf in order and made sure my arms
were hanging down straight on either side of my body and that my hands were
open. This gesture, arms down and hands open, was the first thing I had been
taught about praying. There was emphasis during the instruction that the arms
be down and the hands open so that it is clear that you have nothing to hide
from God.
I remembered this point of caution and followed it. But just then, when I
started to say "in the name of Allah", there was turmoil in the
classroom. Horrified shrieks turned the silent afternoon into a hysterical
cacophony. "What you are doing is wrong!", the girls screeched. Some
of them were standing up in protest. I shot back, "How can it be wrong
when this is how my grandma prays?"
I had appealed to the taboo that no young girl ever had the right to contradict
an old woman. But the taboo failed and if anything, the screaming became
louder. This time it was about my arms. "Quick, hold your arms folded over
your chest!"
My teacher used a typically Afghan method of problem solving. Without a word,
she sent me back to my seat and turned to an eager shouter. "Are you a
Sunni?" The girl nodded. "Hanafi?" Again, there was a nod. The
teacher took a breath and started the act anew. This time around, everyone was
happy – the girl held her arms folded over her chest. The theological disaster,
innocently personified by me, soon disappeared as if by magic and order was
restored in the universe. In Afghan Sufi tales, such scenarios typically end
with: "And the believers shed tears of joy for a catastrophe was prevented
and no one was harmed in the process."
I had not intended to traumatise my Sunni classmates.
After all, the mystery of folded versus straight arms had never been explained
to me. Nothing was explained in Afghan society. Everything was a given. We were
all-knowing in our ignorance.
Later I learned that the folded arms had to do with Shia paranoia about Sunnis.
Hardcore Shia assumed that Sunnis held their arms over their chests to secretly
pray to an imaginary idol. In other words, in such people's suspicion, Sunnis
were assumed to be crypto-idol worshippers, carrying on with the old,
pre-Islamic faith while pretending to be Muslims. I realised
that back in Kabul we had all been victims of an inherited inter-Muslim
historical conflict, complete with the terror of the straight arms and the
hallucination of imaginary idols.
The Shia faith that I knew was contemplative and melancholic, with a taste for
philosophy, classical poetry and silent suffering. It somewhat resembled
Catholicism but without the Catholics' glitter, gold and candles. Black, the colour of mourning, was the favourite
shade. Only the Messiah could lift the mood and he, alas, was yet to come.
By contrast to this passive suffering, the active militant Shia notorious today
was historically new and directly linked to Ayatollah Khomeini's politics. Like
all other regional transformations, this change, too, spilled over the borders
into Afghanistan, via immigrants exposed to political Shiism in Iran.
In 2001, when the Taliban's monopoly over faith was lifted, Afghan Shia
returned, armed with a new self-confidence gained in Qom, Tehran and Mashhad.
They started to "out" themselves, doing public mourning marches and
adding the stamp of their distinct identity on the diverse mosaic of the
post-Taliban society.
But their temerity ended in tragedy in 2011, with the first violent sectarian
attack in Kabul. The problem that my teacher had made disappear as if by magic
had returned full force, complete with 55 deaths in a suicide attack. Young
Afghan photographer Massoud Hossaini
captured its essence in a shot of a screaming girl surrounded by corpses. It
was Karbala all over again, only this time in Kabul itself.
Hossaini won the Pulitzer prize for news photography
and was quoted as saying: "I was born in a wrong place, Afghanistan, grew
up in a wrong place, Iran, [and am] living in a wrong place, Kabul." His
sense of alienation resonated with me. After all, all our wars had their
origins elsewhere, in faraway places and long ago
pasts. We were trapped in the Muslim history of unresolved conflicts – a host
of superstitions and paranoia that was handed down to us as if they were our own.
If I got away with it, with humiliation in front of my classroom, those who
came after me paid with their lives.
Muslims Killing Muslims in the Name of Jihad
By Norman Berdichevsky
June 02, 2010
American Thinker
A few days ago, one of the most violent incidents involving the slaughter of
innocent civilians took place in Lahore and several kilometers away in Garhi Shahu, Pakistan. There has
been essentially no media interest, such as on-the-spot coverage or interviews
with survivors. The victims were all Ahmadis, a "deviant" sect within
Islam. Ahmadis comprise the sect that is distinguished as being the most
peaceful; they have always lived in peace with their neighbors, both Muslim and
non-Muslim.
The Ahmadis were attacked by those "mainstream" Muslims who are
sympathizers of the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Pakistan. These Muslims attacked
the two Ahmadi mosques packed with hundreds of worshipers. At least eighty
people were killed. The assaults in Lahore were carried out by at least seven
men, including three suicide bombers. Some of the attackers acted as snipers
from an adjacent mosque to kill their fellow Muslims.
Ahmadis are reviled as heretics by mainstream Muslims for their belief that
their sect's founder was a savior foretold by the Quran, Islam's holy book. The
group has experienced years of state-sanctioned discrimination and occasional
attacks in Pakistan, but never before in such a large and coordinated fashion.
Not one reputable, representative, acknowledged Muslim religious leader
anywhere has seen fit so far to issue a condemnation of the attack. Not one
media commentary anywhere (except in Israel) saw fit to mention that the only
place within the Middle East where Ahmadis live in peace and harmony with their
neighbors and enjoy full civil and religious rights is Israel.
The Kababir neighborhood in Haifa was established in
1928. The neighborhood's first mosque on Mount Carmel was built in 1931, and a
larger grand mosque was built in the 1970s. The grand mosque has two white
minarets standing one hundred feet tall. They dominate the low-rise skyline of
the residential neighborhoods on the ridges nearby. The mosque is subsidized
entirely by the members of the local Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.
As noted authority Bernard Lewis has so cogently
argued, although a majority of Muslims at any given time may not be motivated
by considerations of jihad, the phrase "Islamic terrorism" is apt,
because Islam has had an essentially political character ... from its very foundation
... to the present day. An intimate association between religion and politics,
between power and cult, marks a principal distinction between Islam and other
religions. ... In traditional Islam and therefore also in resurgent
fundamentalist Islam, God is the sole source of sovereignty. God is the head of
the state. The state is God's state. The "army is God's army. The treasury
is God's treasury, and the enemy, of course, is God's enemy."
Jihad is directed not "just" against the unbelievers (the kaffirs,
i.e., non-Mulsims), but all those who have
"deviated" -- the Shi'ites, the Alawites,
the Ahmadis, the Druze, Bahais, Yazidis, etc. It is holy war by armed
resistance to all those who do not accept Muhammad's message as interpreted by
the sacred traditions hallowed by all the schools of Sunni jurisprudence across
fourteen hundred years of history. But for our president and Assistant to the
President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism John Brennan, there is the
unshakable but blind, deaf, and dumb conviction that as they interpret it,
Islam is a peaceful and noble religion that has been distorted by a "tiny
minority," and jihad means a peaceful striving with oneself to overcome
evil tendencies, notwithstanding the facts of:
1. The eight-year-long war between Iraq and Iran resulting in almost a million
killed.
2. The First Gulf War; Invasion of Kuwait (Aug. 1990-Feb.1991), Operation
Desert Storm, the Second Gulf War, and Operation Iraqi Freedom.
3. Massive violence between Muslims and Hindus in India following partition and
three India-Pakistan wars, terrorism in Kashmir and India resulting in several
million killed and at least fifteen million people displaced.
4. Pakistan-Bangladesh conflict, 1971 (following civil war and secession). This
war saw the highest number of casualties in any of the India-Pakistan
conflicts. It is believed that from one to three million Bangladeshis were
killed as a result of this war. Very little media coverage.
5. Ongoing Yemeni and Somali Civil Wars. Thousands killed. No media coverage.
6. Inter-sectarian Muslim violence between Shias and Sunnis in Syria, Lebanon
and Iraq.
7. Border disputes between Syria and Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
8. Jordan's crackdown on "Black September," 1970. PLO crushed by
Jordanian Legion under command of King Hussein (at least 25,000 killed).
9. Syria's suppression of the Muslim Brothers and opponents of the Assad
regime; destruction of the city of Hama (at least 20,000 killed) to wipe out
Muslim Brotherhood. Media barred from entering the city. Uprising in Hama by
Muslim Brotherhood crushed by Assad regime in Syria Feb. 1982.
10. Al-Qaeda and Taliban violence in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
11. Inter-Palestinian factionalism in Gaza; dozens killed.
12. Decade-long mass violence between Muslim religious extremists (Salafist
movement) and Algerian government beginning in 1991 estimated to have cost
between 150,000 and 200,000 lives.
13. Sixteen-year-long civil war in Lebanon. The war lasted from 1975 to 1990
and resulted in an estimated 130,000 to 250,000 civilian fatalities. Another
one million people (one-third of the population) were wounded, half of whom
were left with lifetime disabilities.
14. Iraqi, Iranian, and Turkish suppression of Kurdish autonomy; approximately
180,000 Kurds killed, mostly civilians in Iraq, by Saddam Hussein's forces via
poison gas attacks.
15. Muslim terror against civilians in Chechnya, and additional hundreds killed
in Moscow and other Russian cities including children at primary school.
Russia's two biggest terrorist attacks both came from Muslim groups. The
Chechnyan separatist "Special Purpose Islamic Regiment" took an
estimated 850 people hostage in Moscow in October 2002 at a theater. At least
129 hostages died during the rescue, all but one killed by the chemicals used
to subdue the attackers.
In the September 2004, 1,200 schoolchildren and adults were taken hostage at a
secondary school in Beslan, North Ossetia-Alania, which was overrun by an
Islamic terror group. About 500 people, including 186 children, died in the
attempt to free the hostages. According to the only surviving attacker, Nur-Pashi Kulayev, the choice of a
school and the targeting of mothers and young children by the attackers was
carried out in order to generate the maximum outrage possible and ignite a
wider war in the Caucasus with the ultimate goal of establishing an Islamic
Emirate across the whole of the North Caucasus.
16. Muslim secessionist activity and terrorism in the Philippines (with almost
monthly reports by American media that do not mention the words
"Muslim" or "jihad").
17. Darfur in the Sudan; genocidal attacks against non-Muslim Black Sudanese.
On July 13, 2008, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court filed ten
charges of war crimes against Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir, charges that
included three counts of genocide, five crimes against humanity, and two of
murder. The ICC's prosecutors have claimed that al-Bashir "masterminded
and implemented a plan to destroy in substantial part" three tribal groups
in Darfur because of their ethnicity.
18. Muslim grievances and violence in Thailand.
19. Terrorist activity against the Han Chinese in Western China. More than a
hundred fatalities.
20. Division of Cyprus to satisfy Turkish Muslim minority.
21. Muslim unrest and violence against Christians in Nigeria and Ghana; several
thousand killed. No media interest.
22. Muslim terrorist attacks against the U.S. in New York and Washington.
Almost 3,000 civilians killed.
23. Terrorist attacks throughout Europe -- London Underground, Atocha Train
Station in Madrid; in Africa at American embassy in Kenya; in Bali nightclub
where most victims were Australian tourists; foiled attempts in the U.S. and
elsewhere.
24. Jihadi-inspired sniper and terror attacks by deranged lone Muslims in the
United States against military bases (Ft. Hood), synagogues, and airports, and
at Times Square.
25. Continued terrorist attacks against the State of Israel and Jews throughout
the world.
26.Widespread piracy on a scale not seen for 150 years along the Somali coast
of East Africa preying upon international shipping.
27. Indonesian Muslim suppression of East Timor population's (98%) desire for
independence. Tens of thousands of civilians killed or died from malnutrition,
imprisonment (1974-1998).
28. Continued civil war in West Sahara between the Polisario
Movement and Moroccan authorities, low-level guerrilla attacks and hundreds of
thousands of displaced refuges.
In the above-mentioned conflicts, wars, massacres, and atrocities, the primary
and majority of victims have been Muslims killed by other Muslims in the name
of Islam and "jihad." Where Muslims have been at risk of displacement
and under attack in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Kuwait, their rescue was made possible
only by the efforts of the United States.
50 dead as Baghdad bombings stoke fears of warfare
By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA (AP)
April 6, 2010
BAGHDAD — Bombs ripped through apartment buildings and a market in mostly
Shiite areas of Baghdad on Tuesday, killing 50 people in postelection bloodshed
that threatens to rekindle sectarian warfare that nearly destroyed the country
three years ago.
The attacks appeared to be an attempt by al-Qaida in Iraq or other extremists
to exploit a power vacuum during what promises to be lengthy negotiations to
form a new government. About 120 people have been killed in and around the
capital over the past five days — some of the most brutal strikes on civilians
in months.
For two terrifying hours on a warm, sunny Tuesday morning, at least seven bombs
rocked a broad swath of Baghdad. In a new tactic, several bombs were planted inside
empty apartments after renters offered high prices for the properties, the
government said.
The explosions reduced one building to rubble, knocked out windows and doors
and ripped off facades. People rushed to the blast sites, digging through the
rubble with their hands to find loved ones.
"Cars began to collide with one another in the street," said Ali
Hussein, a 22-year-old college student who was riding the bus to school when
one of the bombs went off. "We saw a cloud of fire and black smoke."
With militants singling out entire families of both Muslim sects for slaughter,
the recent violence is reminiscent of the far more widespread fighting that
tore Iraq apart from 2005 to 2007 and prompted the United States to send tens
of thousands more troops to this country.
U.S. officials sought to downplay the possibility that Iraq is sliding toward
major sectarian fighting and insisted there were no plans to slow the
withdrawal of American troops.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S.
military official in Iraq, does not believe the violence threatens the ability
of the U.S. military to draw down its forces this year.
The U.S. military plans to reduce troop levels from 90,000 to 50,000 by Aug.
31, when it will end combat operations. As part of an agreement with Iraq, the
U.S. will withdraw all forces by the end of 2011.
"We're obviously concerned but we don't see the parallels with what
happened a few years ago," U.S. Embassy spokesman Philip Frayne said.
"We don't see a sectarian war breaking out again."
While there was no claim of responsibility, the latest spike in attacks suggest
to some analysts that al-Qaida or other extremists wish to provoke mayhem or
otherwise sabotage negotiations to form a stable government after the March 7
parliamentary election that failed to produce a clear winner.
"These attacks indicate a hopeless effort to mix cards and provoke
sectarian dispute among people and turn Iraq again back to square one,"
said Dr. Hassan Kamil, a political analyst at Baghdad University.
A secular bloc is currently holding talks with religious Shiite parties, a
threatening prospect for insurgents whose stock-in-trade is rage, not peace.
Such attacks might inflame sectarian tensions and make Shiite parties less
likely to join former prime minister Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite backed by
Sunnis.
Allawi's political coalition, Iraqiya, came out ahead in the vote, narrowly
edging Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's bloc by just two seats. Allawi raised
the prospect that terror attacks will only increase if the negotiations drag on
for months to form a new government.
"This is blamed on the power vacuum, of course," Allawi told The
Associated Press in an interview Tuesday. "Terrorists and al-Qaida are on
the go. ... I think their operations will increase in Iraq."
Allawi said the government was failing to secure the capital — a notion
challenged by al-Maliki adviser Sadiq al-Rikabi, who
suggested that Allawi was exploiting the attacks for political purposes.
"It is true that terrorism and attacks are attributed to the political
situation the country is experiencing, and we have faced terrorism before
elections as well," al-Rikabi said.
No matter who ends up in charge, the resurgent violence underscores that the
next government will have a difficult time governing an unwieldy society of
disparate tribes, ethnic groups and religious sects which Saddam Hussein ruled
for decades by punishing or killing those who opposed him.
Tuesday's attacks killed at least 50 people and wounded 187, including women
and children — a toll the AP reached after talking with police and medical
officials in different parts of the capital. All spoke on condition of
anonymity because they were not allowed to release information publicly.
The attackers detonated homemade bombs and, in one case, a car packed with
explosives, according to Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi,
an Iraqi military spokesman for Baghdad's operations command center. He said
there were at least seven blasts. The U.S. military in Baghdad said there were
eight.
The first blasts targeted the Shula area of northwest Baghdad, striking a residential
building and an intersection about a mile away. Minutes later, at 9:45 a.m., a
bomb left in a plastic bag exploded at a restaurant on the ground floor of an
apartment building in the Allawi district downtown, near the Culture Ministry.
Some two hours after that, a parked car bomb exploded in a market, killing six
civilians.
The bombings were the fourth set of attacks with multiple casualties across
Iraq in five days.
On Monday, a Shiite couple and four of their children were gunned down in their
home outside Baghdad, while more than 40 were killed Sunday in triple suicide
car bomb attacks near embassies in Baghdad. On Friday, gunmen went
house-to-house in a Sunni area south of Baghdad, killing 24 villagers
execution-style.
Associated Press Writers Lara Jakes, Hamid Ahmed, David Rising and Sinan Salaheddin contributed to this report.
Outrage in Egypt after cleric speaks out on Sunni-Shiite strife
September 28, 2008
CAIRO (AFP) — Egyptian writers have expressed
outrage after a controversial cleric accused Iran of neo-colonialism by seeking
to spread Shiism in Sunni Muslim states, sparking fears of sectarian strife.
Speaking during the holy fasting month of
Ramadan, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who hosts a
religious programme on the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera
satellite channel, last week accused Iranians of having "imperial
dreams" of taking over the Sunni world.
In comments reported by the Egyptian
independent daily Al-Masry al-Yom, Qaradawi said: "I don't accept that any Arab or
foreign country attack Iran, but I don't accept that Iran attack any Arab
country, especially seeing as some Iranians have imperial dreams, which is
wrong and dangerous."
"What is happening is organised,
an invasion... It is not a religious invasion but a political one. Iran is
trying to impose itself on those around it and we refuse to follow a new form
of neo-colonialism, be it Iranian or any other," said Qaradawi,
himself an Egyptian.
His comments sparked outrage in some circles
which consider Qaradawi's remarks dangerous,
particularly as fears of sectarian conflict rose after the explosion of such
violence in Iraq in 2006.
In some Gulf states, particularly those with
Shiite minorities such as Saudi Arabia, Iran's support for Shiites in Iraq is
seen as reinforcing those fears.
Moderate Islamic thinker Tareq
al-Bishri slammed Qaradawi's
comments, saying his attack against Shiism was inflammatory.
"This fascism in the name of the Sunni
majority against Shiites is the most dangerous thing for the Islamic nation
because it pits Muslims against each other instead of against the invaders of
their lands," Bishri wrote in the Egyptian
opposition daily Al-Dustur on Saturday.
Islamist columnist Fahmy Huweidi
said Qaradawi's comments revealed two parallel trends
in the Islamic world, "one that is busy defending the sect, the other busy
defending the Islamic nation."
He warned that further attacks on Shiism will
"lead to splits in the ranks and will only weaken all parties in the face
of the current challenges which do not spare Sunni or Shiite."
Al-Azhar University in Cairo, the world's
oldest Islamic seat of learning, acknowledges Shiism as a legitimate branch of
Islam.
In 1959, the then Grand Imam of Al-Azhar,
Mahmud Shaltut, issued a religious edict or fatwa recognising Shiism as "religiously correct."
But the rise of Iraq's long-downtrodden Shiites
and of Lebanon's Hezbollah movement alongside Iran's growing influence have
left many Sunni Arab regimes feeling insecure.
In Egypt, the press has increasingly reported
on what it calls a covert Shiite invasion.
"We won't allow the existence of a Shiite
tide in Egyptian mosques," Minister of Waqf (religious endowments) Mahmud
Hamdi Zaqzuq told Al-Masri
al-Yom in July.
Former Al-Azhar professor Adbel
Moneim al-Berri said that Egyptian Shiite experts,
including himself, have been asked to educate state security officers about
"Shiite ideology and plans to break through the Sunni countries."
"When I left Egypt 47 years ago, it had
not a single Shiite and now there are many... who took them to Shiism? Egypt is
the cradle of Sunnism and the country of Al-Azhar," Qaradawi
said.
There are no reliable figures for Egypt’s
Shiite population. The US State Department’s 2008 report on religious freedom
says that Egyptian Shiites account for less than one percent of its
80-million-strong population.
Muslim cleric calls for ban
Richard Kerbaj
October 05, 2006
AUSTRALIA'S most senior Islamic cleric has
called for a Muslim leader to be ostracised over comments
about the prophet Mohammed that he likened to Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses.
Taj Din al-Hilali
yesterday accused the chairman of John Howard's Islamic reference board, Ameer
Ali, of selling out his religion to gain the support and financial backing of
Muslim critics.
Dr Ali said in The Australian yesterday that
Mohammed had flaws, and criticised Muslims who
blindly followed the faith and failed to question the veracity of the Koran.
Sheik Hilali, the
head of Lakemba Mosque in Sydney's southwest, said Dr Ali's
"defamatory" remarks were akin to those that in 1989 earned Rushdie a
fatwa from Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini.
While Sheik Hilali backed
Dr Ali's call for a reinterpretation of the Koran to fit modern times, he
condemned his "dangerous" and "ignorant" comments about the
prophet.
"We forbid such statements, from both
Ameer Ali and anyone who has encouraged him to say what he said," Sheik Hilali said in an interview conducted in Arabic.
"We refuse to have him stand with us at
any religious ceremony from now on, unless he revokes what he said about the
faith and the prophet."
But the Howard Government yesterday strongly
backed Dr Ali's comments, with Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration Andrew
Robb saying Dr Ali should be congratulated.
"I do think that Ameer Ali seems to be
encouraging the teaching and the practice of Islam in an Australian context,
and I think that's to be warmly applauded," Mr
Robb said.
"I think it's critical that Islam is
presented to Australian Muslims in an Australian context."
Islamic Friendship Association president Keysar Trad said the Koran recorded that Mohammed was
"rebuked" on a few occasions by God. "(But) that different
outlook is not to suggest that his human judgment was fallible," he said.
"On the balance of human judgment, it was a perfect judgment in the
circumstances, but God's judgment is greater, God's judgment always has more
wisdom."
Young Muslim leader Moustapha
Kara-Ali attacked Dr Ali, accusing him of conduct akin to the Danish cartoons
about the prophet and the comments last month from Pope Benedict XVI about
Mohammed spreading the faith by the sword.
Mr Kara-Ali, who recently
won a government grant to combat Islamic radicalisation,
said Dr Ali's comments were at odds with those of Australian Muslims.
"Prophethood is a station that is chosen
for some men by God," he said. "And to put flaw in the character of
the chosen man is to put flaw in the wisdom of the God who chose."
He said the interpretation of the Koran was an
ongoing scholarly project, but that didn't mean the text's veracity should be
questioned.
Asked if he agreed with Dr Ali that the Koran
should be interpreted metaphorically not literally, Mr
Kara-Ali said: "If that means we question the veracity then no, definitely
not."
50 Killed at Religious Festival in Iraq
By STEPHEN FARRELL
New York Times
August 28, 2007
BAGHDAD, Aug. 28 — A power struggle between
rival Shiite groups erupted during a religious festival in Karbala today, as
gunmen with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades fought street battles
amid crowds of pilgrims, killing 50 people and wounding 200, Iraqi officials
said.
Witnesses said members of the Mahdi Army, the
militia of cleric Moktada
al-Sadr, traded fire with security forces loyal to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s
government.
Amid hours of fighting, several vehicles and a
hotel for pilgrims were set ablaze, and terrified pilgrims who had been praying
at two shrines were trapped inside as clashes erupted nearby. Witnesses said
buses that had been used to bring pilgrims to the city were bullet-shattered
and bloodstained.
The government forces in Karbala and other
towns in southern Iraq are dominated by the religious party the Supreme Islamic
Iraqi Council and its armed wing, the Badr
organization.
Many of Badr’s
fighters are veterans trained by Iran during two decades when they lived as
exiles there under Saddam Hussein’s regime.
Tensions between the Mahdi Army and the Badr group have been simmering for months. Both are vying
for control of the overwhelmingly Shiite regions of central and southern Iraq.
This political and military rivalry is also fueled by competing loyalties to
two of the most prominent Shiite religious families in Iraq: the
Hakims and the Sadrs.
Mr. Sadr’s credentials as a religious leader
are boosted enormously by the prestige of his late father and cousin, both
revered Shiite leaders who were assassinated by Mr. Hussein. The Supreme
Islamic Iraqi Council was founded by Ayatollah Muhammad Bakr al-Hakim, a
well-known politician and cleric who was himself assassinated in 2003 and whose
father was mentor to the founder of the Iranian revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Two provincial governors belonging to the
Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council were assassinated in southern Iraq this month,
although the Sadrists deny involvement.
The showdown will prove embarrassing for Prime
Minister Maliki if his security forces are unable to control the Mahdi Army and
restore order in a holy city that lies in his own Shiite heartland.
Security forces imposed an indefinite curfew on
Karbala by nightfall, fearing that the Sadr-Badr
tensions could escalate as both sides vied for control of the streets. The
violence appeared to spread to other cities, although attacks on mosques and
offices linked to the Badr group were on a much
smaller scale. In Baghdad, the police said five people were killed and 20 were
wounded in clashes between militiamen in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City.
Brig. Gen. Abdul Kareem Khalaf, an Interior
Ministry spokesman in Baghdad, told Iraqi state television that reinforcements
were being rushed to Karbala from Baghdad and surrounding provinces. The
American military did not intervene directly in the fighting, a spokeswoman
said, though it sent jets to fly over Karbala as a “show of force” at the
request of the Iraqi authorities.
Hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims had
descended on Karbala in recent days to celebrate the birth of Mohammad
al-Mahdi, the 9th-century saint and the last of 12 imams revered by Shiites. As
pilgrims gathered in a plaza between the city’s twin golden-domed shrines,
witnesses said Mahdi Army fighters took up positions around the shrines and
traded fire with the police. Pilgrims fled in panic but were unable to get
transportation out of the area as the police set up roadblocks to prevent Mahdi
Army fighters from entering.
A policeman speaking from his position in the
plaza between the city’s two shrines said: “Hundreds of Mahdi Army have
occupied several hotels near the two shrines. The battle is fierce and we are
defending our posts here.”
Amid the narrow, medieval alleyways of Karbala
confusion reigned, with an unconfirmed report that the Mahdi Army had taken
control of the shrines, while the security forces remained in control of their
checkpoints in the center of the city.
One pilgrim reached by telephone at the height of
the fighting said: “I am inside the shrine of Imam Hussein. The shooting is so
heavy outside, and I can’t leave the shrine. I don’t know exactly what is going
on outside, but the clashes seem close to the shrine.” The voices of women
shouting in panic were audible in the background.
The tensions in Karbala began Monday, with
confrontations between Sadr supporters and the Badr-dominated
security forces around the shrines. Those forces are on a constant state of
high alert after suicide bombings by Sunni insurgents at Shiite religious
festivals in previous years.
Sadrists said the police who
carried out body searches and magnetic scans at checkpoints provoked their
followers by beating pilgrims who chanted pro-Sadr slogans. Other reports said
that Mahdi Army followers accompanying pilgrims and claiming to be protecting
them were prohibited from taking their weapons into the shrines.
Iraqi officials said those initial clashes
escalated on Monday night when police attacked the al-Mukhayam
mosque, a Mahdi Army stronghold in Karbala, and arrested around 20 fighters.
The Mahdi Army retaliated this morning, the police said, by attacking security
force positions.
Gunmen also attacked Supreme Islamic Iraqi
Council offices and mosques in Sadr City, Shuala, Jadriya, Husseiniya, Khadimiya, and Diwaniya.
Haydar Abbas, a lecturer in
law at the University of Babil in central Iraq,
believed it was significant that the confrontation took place at a time when
the Sadrists appeared to feel increasingly
marginalized. Mr. Sadr’s followers left the government earlier this year over a
disagreement with Prime Minister Maliki about the continued American troop
presence in Iraq.
In recent days, after widespread criticism, Mr.
Maliki’s government announced measures, however limited, to initiate
reconciliation with the country’s disaffected Sunni minority.
Mr. Abbas noted that the Supreme Islamic Iraq
Council’s influence is growing, especially after that agreement. “They have a
lot of power over Maliki,” he said. “What is going on is a message from the Sadrists that we are here and we will not withdraw easily.”
“If we read the history of the two movements,
the Badrists and the Mahdi Army, we see that both
were military factions turned into political powers. This means that they might
revert at any time to their military nature,” Mr. Abbas said.
Both sides last night sought to blame each
other for the fighting. The Sadr office in Najaf issued a statement from Mr.
Sadr appealing for calm.
“We want to clear up the misunderstanding that
happened in Karbala. This crisis is not connected with the Mahdi Army or Sadr
movement. The incidents that happened were between the pilgrims and the
government forces.”
Prime Minister Maliki’s office issued a
statement calling its opponents “armed criminals and followers of the old
regime” and saying that order had been restored to the streets.
Separately, Abdul Jabar
Al-Waga, the deputy oil minister, was released in
Baghdad today after being kidnapped with four other ministry employees on Aug.
14. The government insisted that no ransom had been paid.