A pair of suicide bombers hit a Sufi mausoleum today in Pakistan’s Punjab Province, killing at least 42 people and wounding over 100 others. The dead included nine children and 15 women, according to health officials.
The mausoleum is a shrine to Sufi saint Sakhi Sarwar, and the attack came on the saint’s birthday during an annual commemoration. The attackers were at the entrance to the shrine when they detonated their explosives.
Police say they arrested two other would-be suicide attackers and that one of them was seriously injured. A Taliban faction is said to have taken credit for the attacks.
Attacks against Sufi targets have been common in Pakistan, as many of the Sunni militant factions consider Sufi beliefs unacceptable. Pakistan has historically had a significant Sufi community, though these attacks are clearly taking their toll.
My brothers and sisters in Islam- STOP THIS INSANITY !!! We may be of different schools of thought, be you Sunni, Shi'a, Sufi, or whay have you- but WE ARE ALL MUSLIMS !!! You who are doing this violence are violating a prime teaching of our Glorious Qur'an : There is no compulsion in religion. Period. Allah(swt) didn't tell us there is no compulsion in religion unless you are oppressing Sufis, or if you are forcing women to cover, or demonizing the Shi'a tradition, or any number of other 'excuses' you make to kill one another.
Attacks like this by Muslims against other Muslims only reinforce the view in the West that we are uncivilized barbarians, fit only for cruelty and killing- and in the process, giving them perfect (if incorrect) examples of why Islam should be condemned in the West. How can we EVER hope to make peace with the West when all we do is make ourselves look bad each and every day with violence against our own?
Please, I beg you, my brothers and sisters- stop the violence and be at peace with one another. As Muslims we must stand strong- together- and show the world the beauty and truth of Islam. We must show that while we have our own divisions we are strong as one world community and that we can be at peace in our world among ourselves and with everyone else. Insha'Allah I will live to see this.
These are signs of a major crisis of theological authority – apparently someone is assuming the authority to make the call that 'sufi beliefs' (whatever that may include) are unacceptable, but blowing yourself up in front of a gathering of innocent people is religiously sound. The fact that someone is spouting this nonsense would not be a huge problem except for the fact that enough people are willing to listen and act on it to cause chaos in society.
This has less to do with religion than with a lot of young men angry with the way they see the world and searching for any outlet to 'set things right' as they see them. I wish this tremendous amount of potential energy could be channelled into the right things.
The former top Mufti of Pakistan, Rafi Usmani, said two things about these occurences that bear repeating:
"Islam does not allow killing of innocent civilians and non-combatants under any circumstances."
"The situation in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine is radicalising young people. And an angry young man is in no-one's control."