Dozens Killed By Taliban in Pakistan Attacks on Mosques

May 31, 2010 7:01 pm |Posted In: International | Written by: Ted Webb +

More Info: , Ahmadiyya, Al Qaeda, Lahore, Pakistan, Taliban

At least 93 people were killed in attacks on 2 mosques in the city of Lahore, according to Energy Publisher. The attacks, carried out by well armed terrorists, were against mosques belonging to the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam, which is considered by many mainstream Muslims to he a heretical offshoot from Islam, Among extremists like the Taliban and Al Qaeda, being labeled a heretic is an open death warrant. The attackers were armed with grenades, AK 47s and bulletproof vests. They appeared to be well trained for the attacks. More than 10 terrorists were involved in the slaughter of unarmed worshippers at services on Friday afternoon on May 28.

In a police counter attack, 2 teenage terrorists were arrested. Others blew themselves up rater than be taken into custody. The attack is described as follows by Energy Publisher.

“They opened fire indiscriminately at the crowd at one mosque and occupied it for several hours while taking the congregation hostage. When the police decided to raid, the terrorists blew themselves up, causing further carnage.”

Many Ahmadi Muslims, fearful for their lives have fled abroad for the peace and freedom so cruelly denied them in their homeland. Samra Habib, who writes for the New York Times describes the reaction in the Toronto Ahmadi Mosque to the news of Friday’s attacks.

“Let’s put our tears into our Sajda and pray that God may give the Taliban hearts,” the leader at my local Toronto Ahmadiyya mosque said during Friday prayer. He was urging the congregation to shed their tears during the critical Sajda step of prayer, while kneeling down and touching their foreheads to the ground.”

For most Americans, it is hard to imagine life without freedom of religion. Some refugees from the communists and the Nazis refreshed our collective memory in the past when they came to our shores. But the Ahmadiya have refreshed this generation’s memory yet again of the beauty of freedom of worship in our republic. A second lesson and an antidote to the prejudice against Islam that has tempted many since 9/11 is this bloody reminder that the Muslim who is our neighbor, the Muslim who we regard as somehow foreign and threatening, may himself be fleeing violence ant terrorism himself.

We celebrate today the ultimate sacrifice of millions of American soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice over our nation’s history. The tragic suffering of the Ahmadiyya is a grim reminder of how precious the freedoms are for which our fallen war dead have given their lives.

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