Gunmen kill 3 barbers in Baghdad

[Barrett808]

A group of gunmen have killed three barbers and wounded two people in southwest of Baghdad, Iraq's Defence Ministry said on Thursday.

"A group of armed men in a vehicle gunned down three barbers and wounded two in their shop in Baghdad's district of al-Shurta al- Khamsa on July 5," the ministry said in a statement.

It said the attackers then opened fire randomly at pedestrians in the area.

Such attacks in Baghdad are now common. According to an Interior Ministry official, at least 20 barbers have been assassinated in different areas of Baghdad over the past two months.

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200507/07/eng20050707_194679.html

[RaleighNCDUer]

1. OK, I'll bite. Why barbers?

Because they give shaves?

[lapfog_1]

2. Yup. Fundies (of all stripes) are just nuts.

[Barrett808]

3. Some sects of Islam require that men go unshaven

Similar violence has been dispensed to video stores, movie theaters, and alcohol purveyors. Much of Southern Iraq is now dominated by fundamentalism.

[Igel]

4. Not just southern Iraq.

Western Iraq has a strong Sunni Salafi tendency.

[Barrett808]

6. True enough

If Americans had been told that deposing Saddam would result in Islamic fundamentalists taking over Iraq, I wonder if they would have been so eager to invade?

[RaleighNCDUer]

9. Well, I told everyone I knew.

I guess I just didn't have the juice. We invaded anyway.

[AlCzervik]

5. the beards and the shaving off of them.

that is a very, very bad sign----islamic state.

[daleo]

7. Religious fanatics have strange hangups about hair.

I never could figure out why they think the creator of the universe obsesses so much about how much hair is on a human's head.

[Robb]

8. Yikes! ...from Monday's news cycle:

Barbers fear attacks from religious fanatics



Apparently people were coming to Baghdad from all over Iraq, because barbers in their towns were being threatened.

[tblue37]

10. This line gets me:

"It said the attackers then opened fire randomly at pedestrians in the area."

That's not targeted, purposeful killing. That's just mayhem. The killing of the barbers, as evil and barbaric as it is, at least has a purpose. But firing randomly at people is just butchery for the sake of butchery.