ATTACK ON SUFI SHRINES October 31, 2010
Posted by wmmbb in South Asia.trackback
In Karachi and other places in Pakistan, Sufi shrines have been attacked including by suicide bombers.
Al Jazeera reports:
http://www.youtube.com/v/7YyvbZwI9jA
Sufism is the mystical practice of Islam, so the puzzle is not so much to figure out why they are been attacked, but rather why suicide bombing is employed, especially given the Robert Pape analysis of the cause of suicide bombing. The presumption is that extremist Muslims are attacking the Sufi shrines, but what would be the advantage gained? I suspect it is part of the violence-induced polarization of the encroaching war from Afghanistan (but I don’t know).
ELSEWHERE:
David Nakamura reports for The Washington Post emphasizing the inability of the Pakistan Government to do anything about the recent string of attacks.
And yet there are some who insist that the 9/11 attacks were some kind of “inside job,” because Muslims wouldn’t do such a thing…
The same way, I suppose, that Christians would not do such a thing.
9/11 is a somewhat of a diversion and what do I know. The claim is made, among others, that aircraft fuel does not explode, but when the video of the first plane hitting the building it looks like an immediate explosion to me, and secondly I think it highly unlikely that high octane fuel is not explosive. I may well be wrong about these things, but nevertheless the evidence is scientific. I find it of note that some people refuse to consider scientific evidence.
Traditional Muslims have always viewed Sufis and Dervishes as heretics and apostates.
The climate of violence in Afghanistan created by almost continual warfare seems to have reinforced extremist religious views and social attitudes in Afghanistan, and this now seems to have spread to Pakistan. So why are the Taliban, the feudal landlords, or whoever attacking Sufi Temples in Karachi and other cities, and not just remote locations?
Thanks as always for your comments Stan.