Yet another sectarian attack took place in Pakistan today, when a remote controlled bomb was detonated against a crowd of Shi’ite mourners in the city of Khanpur, killing at least 18 and wounding 50 others.
The mourners were participating in the Shi’ite commemoration of Chehlum, or Arba’een, which commemorates the Battle of Karbala in 680. Large numbers of pilgrims go to Karbala, Iraq each year for the day, and large marches also take place among Shi’ite communities around the world.
Police initially insisted the major blast was simply “an electrical fault” but later conceded it was a bomb. Protesters clashed with police in the wake of the attack, saying they weren’t protecting the nation’s Shi’ite minority from attacks.
So far no group has claimed credit for the attack, but a number of anti-Shi’ite factions are operating inside Pakistan and such attacks have grown increasingly common over the past few years.
This has GOT to stop. I realize that in other nations the sects are at each other's throats for one reason or another, but killing each other doesn't help the situation one bit.
At the mosque I most often attend, when we pray we don't ask if the man next to us is Sunni, Shi'a, Sufi, or anything- all we care about is that he is a Muslim and that he's praying beside us. There are no sectarian divides, no animosity, no threats or acts of violence- just a Muslim community working together in peace.
Muslim-on-Muslim violence is nothing new, but that doesn't make it right or acceptable in any way. Aside from the loss of life and disruption of society, it only reinforces to the world the least desirable aspects of our divisions.
If any of my brothers or sisters- from any sect- reading this are involved in this sort of un-Islamic nonsense, I call on you to STOP IT. It doesn't have to be like this, and you know in your heart there is a better way.