The Fervour of Religious Conviction
These are the truly faithful. Those whose lives revolve around their faith in the almighty, their spiritual guide, their god. Islam demands no less of its faithful. To be goodly and faithful in emulation of the godly. And Muslims of true faith will place themselves in danger to ensure that they fulfill their obligations to their god who expects no less of them.Might the obstacles to the continuance of their lives placed before them in their determination to do honour to Allah be seen as a test of their faith? In a sense, one has no doubt that these faithful religious feel that to be just so, and so they forge on, through areas whose residents though they worship the same god wish them ill. To put it mildly.
Again yesterday thousands of Shia pilgrims demonstrated the courage of their religious conviction in the face of ongoing sectarian attacks. And again 66 such pilgrims were murdered leading to a reasonable fear that a backlash against Sunnis would result.
A suicide bomber walked into a cafe northeast of Baghdad frequented by Shia Kurds and detonated himself, killing 30 people, wounding 29. Another 24 civilians were killed along with 12 police across Iraq, one day after suicide bombers murdered 117 Shia worshippers in Hilla.
Thousands of Shia pilgrims, undeterred by the previous days' murderous assaults walked the hundreds of kilometres to Karbala's shrines in reverence of their tradition. Marchers pushed through Sunni districts of Baghdad despite sniper attacks, waving flogs and copies of the Koran.
Sunni snipers fired bravely on the worshippers, and then a car bomb exploded, killing 12 police and 10 civilians. But the worst carnage yesterday occurred in Baladruz, 100 kilometres northeast of the capital where a bomber carried with him into eternity 10 young people representing the town's Shia Kurd minority, at a small cafe.
"We had prepared all roads but there are loopholes through which terrorists get in. As you know, those who wear explosive belts can die anywhere," said Brig.-Gen. Qassim al-Mussawi, of the Baghdad security.
Labels: Middle East
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, March 08, 2007
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