Last week, only three days after a suicide bomb went off in Lahore, an Islamic State supporter struck a crowd of Sufi dancers celebrating in the great Pakistani shrine of Sehwan Sharif.
The attack, which killed almost 90, showed the ability of radical Islamists to silence moderate and tolerant voices in the Islamic world.
The attack also alarmingly demonstrated the ever-wider reach of Isis and the ease with which it can now strike within Pakistan. Isis now appears to equal the Taliban as a serious threat to this nuclear-armed country.
.... A radical anti-Sufi movement is growing throughout the Islamic world. Until the 20th century, ultra-orthodox strains of Islam tended to be regarded as heretical by most Muslims. But since the 1970s, Saudi oil wealth has been used to spread such intolerant beliefs across the globe. As a result, many contemporary Muslims have been taught a story of Islamic religious tradition from which the tolerance of Sufism is excluded. [193 comments]
[TOP RATED COMMENT 265 votes] As soon as Osama Bin Laden was found living next to an army base, any doubts about Pakistan's collusion with radical Islamic terror went out of the window.
[2ND 197] And to think we allowed another 200,000 Pakistanis into Britain within the last ten years... Thus only increasing the risk of more home grown Islamic terrorists...
[3RD 163] Saudis have a free hand in funding madressahs and mosques in the U.K too.. then we wonder where these extremists come from...
[4TH 159] Terrorism in Pakistan is a conundrum for Left wing commentators. I suspect that's why it gets so little coverage.
Normally the media preach that Islamist attacks are caused by Muslims feeling marginalised. Pakistan is 97% Muslim, so they can hardly feel marginalised there, and the only Islamophobia is on the part of the terrified minorities.
Very sad that more peaceful versions of the religion don't seem to stand a chance.
[5TH 110] Yes. This ideology has done for Pakistan.
As worrying are the connections extending to those UK citizens in Bradford, Birmingham, Leeds, East London. [Guardian Cif] Read more
