Stop playing "Whack the Shi'ites," please.

The BBQ Pit
1

23 dead in attacks against Shi’ites: an attack on a mosque (a car bomb in a vegetable truck) and on a bakery. A bakery!

Islamic sectarian violence is not new to me. There would be episodes of sectarian violence every now and then in Pakistan. It seems that when the extremists are bored or have run out of practical targets, they begin attacking Shi’ites. Imambargahs, mosques, homes - it’s terrorism pure and simple.

This is more than disturbing. It is revolting. It is heinous.

Ever since the movement came to being, Shi’ites have been a target of Sunni terrorism. February 20th of this year is the tenth day of the Islamic month of Moharram; this day is known as Ashura. On this day, Shi’ites (many, at least) will commemorate an especially horrid episode of Sunni terrorism: the slaughter of Hussein and his entourage (including his infant child) at Karbalah (in what is now Iraq). The killing never ends, does it?

Even in this enlightened age, Muslims claiming to be Sunnis continue terrorizing Shi’ites. Why can’t they let the Shi’ites live in peace? If they don’t like the Shi’ites, they should leave them alone. Slaughtering them will accomplish nothing (except fuel their fear of and anger at Sunnis).

These are Muslims they’re massacring. Sure, in the extremists’ narrow view they may not be Muslim, but in their narrow view probably 90% of the ummah is non-Muslim or in some way guilty of kufr. What do they plan to do? Institute a holocaust against the 90% of the unfaithful Muslims? Sounds hardly Muslim, if you ask me.

It is instances like these that I wish Islam had a visible, central, universally recognized authority, who could excommunicate these pig-dog extremists and order Muslims to destroy their networks of anti-Muslim terror.

So, extremist Muslims, stop it. Now. In the name of Allah, whom you worship, stop it.

WRS

2

Y’know, I was mildly hoping the OP would have a link to some new Flash/Shockwave game…

3

Appantly, in any religion, there is no reasoning with fundie extremists.

4

Brian, check the Whack A Mohel thread instead.

5

The problem with purity as a goal, whether the arena is ideology or race or anything else, is that the struggle can never end. First, group A defeats group B. Then group A divides into two groups, one of which is more A-like than the other. Once the lesser A’s are eliminated, the superior A’s begin to look within for signs of weakness or non-A characteristics, and those found wanting are purged. Eventually the A’s consist of a pair of near-identical ideologues, each watching the other very carefully.

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I think its worth mentioning that the Kurds are mostly Sunni as well, but they seem to have no problem with the Shiites.

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Persecuted minorities, in this case a minority ethnicity and a minority sect, have often seen fit to band together against their common persecutor - or at least, leave each other alone for a while.

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Tsk tsk. You obviously haven’t read the memo: These Sunnis are not ‘terrorizing’ anyone; they are noble freedom-fighters, trying their hardest to get out from under the yoke of American oppression. (And Shiite baked goods, it seems.)

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Brutus, you know, I never thought anyone could possibly successfully make a humorous comment out of this situation - and then you breeze in. Thanks for making me chuckle. :slight_smile:

Good point, The King of Soup.

WRS

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Yes, it is all about resistance to the Great Satan. There’s not much chance that these happen to be the acts of a group whose religion, culture, and society combines to make groups of people who enjoy killing more likely. Noooooooo.