Religion
Related: About this forumGunmen kill 43 in bus attack in Pakistan's Karachi
Gunmen on motorcycles boarded a bus and opened fire on commuters in Pakistan's volatile southern city of Karachi on Wednesday, killing at least 43, police said, and militants affiliated with Islamic State claimed responsibility.
The pink bus was pockmarked with bullet holes and blood saturated the seats and dripped out of the doors on to the concrete.
"As the gunmen climbed on to the bus, one of them shouted, 'Kill them all!' Then they started indiscriminately firing at everyone they saw," a wounded woman told a television channel by phone.
Police Superintendent Najib Khan told Reuters there were six gunmen and that all the passengers were Ismailis, a minority Shi'ite Muslim sect. Pakistan is mostly Sunni.
http://in.reuters.com/article/2015/05/13/pakistan-attack-idINKBN0NY0FJ20150513
Karachi bus massacre: Who are the Ismailis?
Dozens of members of Pakistan's Ismaili Shia minority have been killed in an assault by gunmen on their bus in Karachi. The attack came as a shock - even in a city where sectarian violence has been rife. Here is a look at the Ismaili community.
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How are Ismailis different from other Muslims?
Muslims are divided into two major groups, Sunnis and Shias. There are various sub-sects within each. All Shias believe in the Imamat - or spiritual leadership - of Ali, Prophet Muhammad's son-in-law and fourth Caliph.
After him, different sects follow different descendants of Ali as their Imam. Ismailis revere the Imam Ismail who died in 765 AD.
Ismailis interpret the Koran symbolically and allegorically and believe in a religious hierarchy.
In Pakistan, the largest Shia group, the Asna-e-Ashari, has been the main target of armed Sunni extremists.
Ismailis, Bohras and other smaller Shia sects, though occasional targets, have largely stayed unhurt, because of their smaller populations, relative affluence and their tendency to live in close-knit community.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32721136
samsingh
(17,571 posts)trotsky
(49,533 posts)And to think there are people who think Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins are just as bad as these murderers. What an insult to the victims of religious violence.
rug
(82,333 posts)Yorktown
(2,884 posts)If not, your invocation of an atheist ghoul to pin the blame on fails.
rug
(82,333 posts)Yorktown
(2,884 posts)Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)At least Sam Harris isn't a strong contender for the Democratic Presidential nomination.
beam me up scottie
(57,349 posts)The critics of Gnu atheists fall all over themselves trying to equate them with mass murderers.
And let's not forget which religion the architects of the 'war on terror' belong to, it wasn't called the tenth crusade for nothing.
Pathetic.
Act_of_Reparation
(9,116 posts)There's no proof dehumanizing people takes the emotional sting off killing them.
Oh, wait...
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)incited sunni jihadists. By the theories proposed here regarding hedbo and geller, the Ismaili community, baiting sunni jihadists by their mere presence, must take some responsibility for this massacre. That is if those proposing these sorts of fucked up victim blaming theories had any intellectual integrity at all.
trotsky
(49,533 posts)If you know that what you are doing is offensive and might provoke another group to violence, you share some of the blame for that violence.
A disgusting, putrid thought but the precise logical consequence of the people who think Pam Geller and Charlie Hebdo are at least partially responsible for the violence against them.
I wonder just how many will show up to blame these victims?
beam me up scottie
(57,349 posts)Victim blamers only care about the people who were offensive enough to provoke their attackers.
I can only imagine what they would say about Dawkins if he was murdered by religious zealots.
After they were done celebrating, of course.
beam me up scottie
(57,349 posts)Some "creepy" atheist mom was handing out coupons to catholic students in Canada, didn't you hear?