Religion of Peace? (22/03/15)
In the wake of the latest murderous attacks on innocent civilians in Tunisia and Yemen it's difficult to see how Islam lives up to its claim to be a religion of peace.
Because the people behind these killings are not few in number and their willingness to use violence and murder to settle their differences is striking, and they do so in the name of their religion, often referring to holy books and scriptures as justification for their actions.
Just the other day a young woman was beaten to death by an mob of angry men in Kabul, Afghanistan for allegedly burning the Koran although her family claimed this was untrue and that their daughter suffered from a mental illness.
Which counted for nothing with her pious Muslim attackers who were urged on by their religious leaders and you can watch the savagery online if you have the stomach for such things, because lots of young men recorded the murder on their mobile phones.
So, I say again, what kind of religion is it that defends and encourages such behaviour because it certainly doesn't sound like a religion of peace to me and it's high time that the religious leaders of Islam around the world spoke out.
Yemen Isis mosque bombings: 'Blood was running like a river', say survivors after attack kills at least 120
Suicide bombers attack two Zaidi Shia mosques in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, killing at least 120 worshippers and injuring hundreds more
By SAM MASTERS , EMMA GATTEN - The Independent
More than 120 people died and hundreds were injured as four suicide bombers attacked two mosques in Yemen’s capital city. So many people were killed or injured that hospitals in Sanaa struggled to cope with the emergency and public pleas were made for blood donors to come forward.
Many of the worshippers in the mosques were supporters of the Shia Houthi fighters who control the capital, and responsibility for the carnage was claimed by Isis which regards all Shia as heretics – though it was impossible to immediately verify this and some analysts were sceptical. The final death toll was uncertain last night, with sources giving varying accounts, at least one putting it at 137 with a further 350 people injured. But the authorities warned that with so many of the wounded suffering critical injuries the toll is sure to rise.
After the blasts the wounded were loaded on the back of pick-up trucks and were taken to hospitals where, as they waited for treatment, they lay side by side with the dead. Among the dead was, according to Al Jazeera and Houthi-owned television, the imam of the Badr mosque, the prominent Houthi cleric al-Murtada bin Zayd al-Mahatwari.
Two senior Houthi leaders, both members of the Zaidi Shia sect and named as Taha al-Mutawakkil and Khalid Madani, were reported to have been seriously wounded.
“Dozens of people have been injured or killed. We will understand the exact numbers of [the] dead and wounded soon. These are two very central and commonly used mosques,” the editor-in-chief of the Yemen Post newspaper, Hakim Almasmari, told reporters.
Bodies are covered in blankets in the scene of devastation (AP)
Each of the mosques was attacked by two suicide bombers. One bomber at the Badr mosque was caught by militia guards searching worshippers at the entrance and detonated his device at the outside gates. Amid the ensuing panic, a second bomber entered the mosque to detonate his device amidst crowds of worshippers, according to the official news agency Saba.
A second pair of suicide bombers attacked the al-Hashoosh mosque, according to the state news agency. “The heads, legs and arms of the dead people were scattered on the floor of the mosque,” said an eyewitness, Mohammed al-Ansi. “Blood was running like a river.” He described running for the exit and hearing a man scream: “Come back, save the injured.”
A survivor from the Badr mosque, Ahmed al-Gabri, said: “I fell on the ground and when I regained consciousness I found myself sleeping on a lake of blood.”
Another, Sadek al-Harithi, described the scene to the Associated Press as “an earthquake where I felt the ground split and swallow everyone”.
The Shia Houthis are sworn enemies of Yemen’s al-Qaeda branch, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, regarded by many to be the most dangerous and active al-Qaeda affiliate and a frequent trainer of jihadists from Europe. An al-Qaeda official denied being involved in the bombings, citing its historical refusal to target mosques.
The hitherto little-known Yemeni branch of Isis described the bombings as a “blessed operation” against the “dens of the Shia”.
In Washington, the White House spokesman Josh Earnest said there was no indication Isis had any operational link to the bombings. He stressed that Isis often claims attacks purely for propaganda value.
The Houthis have controlled Sanaa since September and have been battling al-Qaeda fighters in various parts of Yemen. They recently forced President Abd-Rabbu Mounsour Hadi into exile after taking control of Sanaa. The UN-recognised President has set up a rival seat in Aden, in the south of the country, with the backing of Sunni-led Gulf Arab states.
Adam Baron, a visiting fellow on the European Council on Foreign Relations, told The Independent last night: “This threatens to put Yemen on a whole new very disturbing level of sectarian violence. People used to look at Syria and think, ‘That could never be us’. Now they are looking at each other and saying, ‘What the hell?’”
Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthis’ political bureau, blamed al-Qaeda for the attack. Meanwhile, Mohamed Qubaty, a Yemeni political adviser, told Al Jazeera: “What we have seen today is a plot to widen the schism between the Sunnis and Zaidis.”
The Sanaa mosque attacks happened the day after an unidentified warplane attacked the presidential palace in Aden, while yesterday anti-aircraft guns opened fire as planes were again flying high over the presidential compound.
Further signs of the country’s divided and chaotic state came yesterday as al-Qaeda fighters took control of the southern city of al-Houta. Militants driving pick-up trucks and flying black flags swept through the city and took over the main security barracks, the governor’s office, and the intelligence headquarters.
More than 120 people died and hundreds were injured as four suicide bombers attacked two mosques in Yemen’s capital city. So many people were killed or injured that hospitals in Sanaa struggled to cope with the emergency and public pleas were made for blood donors to come forward.
Many of the worshippers in the mosques were supporters of the Shia Houthi fighters who control the capital, and responsibility for the carnage was claimed by Isis which regards all Shia as heretics – though it was impossible to immediately verify this and some analysts were sceptical. The final death toll was uncertain last night, with sources giving varying accounts, at least one putting it at 137 with a further 350 people injured. But the authorities warned that with so many of the wounded suffering critical injuries the toll is sure to rise.
After the blasts the wounded were loaded on the back of pick-up trucks and were taken to hospitals where, as they waited for treatment, they lay side by side with the dead. Among the dead was, according to Al Jazeera and Houthi-owned television, the imam of the Badr mosque, the prominent Houthi cleric al-Murtada bin Zayd al-Mahatwari.
Two senior Houthi leaders, both members of the Zaidi Shia sect and named as Taha al-Mutawakkil and Khalid Madani, were reported to have been seriously wounded.
“Dozens of people have been injured or killed. We will understand the exact numbers of [the] dead and wounded soon. These are two very central and commonly used mosques,” the editor-in-chief of the Yemen Post newspaper, Hakim Almasmari, told reporters.
Bodies are covered in blankets in the scene of devastation (AP)
Each of the mosques was attacked by two suicide bombers. One bomber at the Badr mosque was caught by militia guards searching worshippers at the entrance and detonated his device at the outside gates. Amid the ensuing panic, a second bomber entered the mosque to detonate his device amidst crowds of worshippers, according to the official news agency Saba.
A second pair of suicide bombers attacked the al-Hashoosh mosque, according to the state news agency. “The heads, legs and arms of the dead people were scattered on the floor of the mosque,” said an eyewitness, Mohammed al-Ansi. “Blood was running like a river.” He described running for the exit and hearing a man scream: “Come back, save the injured.”
A survivor from the Badr mosque, Ahmed al-Gabri, said: “I fell on the ground and when I regained consciousness I found myself sleeping on a lake of blood.”
Another, Sadek al-Harithi, described the scene to the Associated Press as “an earthquake where I felt the ground split and swallow everyone”.
The Shia Houthis are sworn enemies of Yemen’s al-Qaeda branch, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, regarded by many to be the most dangerous and active al-Qaeda affiliate and a frequent trainer of jihadists from Europe. An al-Qaeda official denied being involved in the bombings, citing its historical refusal to target mosques.
The hitherto little-known Yemeni branch of Isis described the bombings as a “blessed operation” against the “dens of the Shia”.
In Washington, the White House spokesman Josh Earnest said there was no indication Isis had any operational link to the bombings. He stressed that Isis often claims attacks purely for propaganda value.
The Houthis have controlled Sanaa since September and have been battling al-Qaeda fighters in various parts of Yemen. They recently forced President Abd-Rabbu Mounsour Hadi into exile after taking control of Sanaa. The UN-recognised President has set up a rival seat in Aden, in the south of the country, with the backing of Sunni-led Gulf Arab states.
Adam Baron, a visiting fellow on the European Council on Foreign Relations, told The Independent last night: “This threatens to put Yemen on a whole new very disturbing level of sectarian violence. People used to look at Syria and think, ‘That could never be us’. Now they are looking at each other and saying, ‘What the hell?’”
Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthis’ political bureau, blamed al-Qaeda for the attack. Meanwhile, Mohamed Qubaty, a Yemeni political adviser, told Al Jazeera: “What we have seen today is a plot to widen the schism between the Sunnis and Zaidis.”
The Sanaa mosque attacks happened the day after an unidentified warplane attacked the presidential palace in Aden, while yesterday anti-aircraft guns opened fire as planes were again flying high over the presidential compound.
Further signs of the country’s divided and chaotic state came yesterday as al-Qaeda fighters took control of the southern city of al-Houta. Militants driving pick-up trucks and flying black flags swept through the city and took over the main security barracks, the governor’s office, and the intelligence headquarters.
ITV News
The scene where the woman was allegedly set alight after being beaten to death and lynched. Credit: Reuters
A cleric and a police official in Afghanistan defended the lynching of a woman in central Kabul after a mob was filmed stamping on the woman and smashing a brick on her head after she was accused of burning a Koran, Islam's most holy book.
The woman's body was set on fire and thrown onto the banks of Kabul's main river on Thursday, Reuters report.
It was unclear whether she had actually burned a Koran, but during Friday prayers at a mosque in a smart area of Kabul, a cleric's sermon broadcast by loudspeaker told devotees that the crowd had a right to defend their Muslim beliefs at all costs.
It is claimed that the cleric at the Wazir Akbar Khan mosque said:
"I am warning the government not to arrest those who did this, because it will mean an uprising."
A cleric and a police official in Afghanistan defended the lynching of a woman in central Kabul after a mob was filmed stamping on the woman and smashing a brick on her head after she was accused of burning a Koran, Islam's most holy book.
The woman's body was set on fire and thrown onto the banks of Kabul's main river on Thursday, Reuters report.
It was unclear whether she had actually burned a Koran, but during Friday prayers at a mosque in a smart area of Kabul, a cleric's sermon broadcast by loudspeaker told devotees that the crowd had a right to defend their Muslim beliefs at all costs.
It is claimed that the cleric at the Wazir Akbar Khan mosque said:
"I am warning the government not to arrest those who did this, because it will mean an uprising."
CLERIC AT THE WAZIR AKBAR KHAN MOSQUE
Another Afghan man boasted on Facebook of participating in the lynching, saying that "pious people of Kabul, including myself, killed her and then burnt her. Her place is in hell."
A spokesman in the Kabul police chief's office also appeared to justify the killing, saying the woman had deliberately insulted Islam.
Hashmat Stanekzai wrote on his Facebook page.
"This (person) thought, like several other unbelievers, that this kind of action and insult will get them U.S. or European citizenship. But before reaching their target, lost their life."
Another Afghan man boasted on Facebook of participating in the lynching, saying that "pious people of Kabul, including myself, killed her and then burnt her. Her place is in hell."
A spokesman in the Kabul police chief's office also appeared to justify the killing, saying the woman had deliberately insulted Islam.
Hashmat Stanekzai wrote on his Facebook page.
"This (person) thought, like several other unbelievers, that this kind of action and insult will get them U.S. or European citizenship. But before reaching their target, lost their life."
– HASHMAT STANEKZAI, KABUL POLICE.
President Ashraf Ghani's office said the killing would be investigated by both the Ministry of Interior and a committee of religious scholars.
"No individual is allowed to make oneself a judge and use violence to punish others," Ghani's statement said.
It added that the government "also condemns in strong terms any action that causes disrespect to the Holy Koran and Islamic values".
Anger among Afghans over Koran desecration has boiled over into violence several times. In 2011, riots killed seven U.N. staff after an American pastor broadcast a video of himself burning a Koran.
Foreign donors that have poured billions of dollars into promoting the rule of law and human rights programs did not issue statements on the killing, which took place just a short drive from the diplomatic quarter.
Heather Barr of Human Rights Watch urged foreign embassies, which often swiftly condemn violence linked to the Taliban, to publicly denounce the attack, to "make it clear that this kind of complete lack of rule of law represents a shocking failure".
The United Nations mission in Kabul also condemned the killing "in the strongest terms".
President Ashraf Ghani's office said the killing would be investigated by both the Ministry of Interior and a committee of religious scholars.
"No individual is allowed to make oneself a judge and use violence to punish others," Ghani's statement said.
It added that the government "also condemns in strong terms any action that causes disrespect to the Holy Koran and Islamic values".
Anger among Afghans over Koran desecration has boiled over into violence several times. In 2011, riots killed seven U.N. staff after an American pastor broadcast a video of himself burning a Koran.
Foreign donors that have poured billions of dollars into promoting the rule of law and human rights programs did not issue statements on the killing, which took place just a short drive from the diplomatic quarter.
Heather Barr of Human Rights Watch urged foreign embassies, which often swiftly condemn violence linked to the Taliban, to publicly denounce the attack, to "make it clear that this kind of complete lack of rule of law represents a shocking failure".
The United Nations mission in Kabul also condemned the killing "in the strongest terms".
