Swamibu
Dark day in Pakistan: empty faith
One of the leading Pakistani religious scholars, Mufti Sarfraz Naeemi who criticised the Taleban for using suicide bombings a few weeks ago, was murdered today by a suicide bomber at a mosque in Lahore after delivering the Friday sermon.
Speaking of the Taleban, Mufti Sarfraz said: "They want people to fight one another, that's why we have kept silent and endured their oppression..We don't want civil war ... But God forbid, if the government fails to stop them, then we will confront them ourselves."
Another of Pakistan's leading figures, Sahibzada Fazal Karim, leader of Jamiat-e-ulema-e-Pakistan, an Islamic political part, said: "We support the army operation in Swat because it is a battle for the survival and defence of Pakistan... What these militants were doing was un-Islamic. Beheading innocent people and kidnapping are in no way condoned in Islam."
There are more than 160 million people in Pakistan, the absolute majority of them everyday Muslims who neither support nor endorse terrorism or acts of violence.
This photo is of the Badshahi mosque in Lahore. The darkness of the arches which lead to the internal prayer halls reflect my sorrow at today's tragic events; another voice of truth and justice silenced by those who neither understand nor represent the true teachings of Islam.
Dark day in Pakistan: empty faith
One of the leading Pakistani religious scholars, Mufti Sarfraz Naeemi who criticised the Taleban for using suicide bombings a few weeks ago, was murdered today by a suicide bomber at a mosque in Lahore after delivering the Friday sermon.
Speaking of the Taleban, Mufti Sarfraz said: "They want people to fight one another, that's why we have kept silent and endured their oppression..We don't want civil war ... But God forbid, if the government fails to stop them, then we will confront them ourselves."
Another of Pakistan's leading figures, Sahibzada Fazal Karim, leader of Jamiat-e-ulema-e-Pakistan, an Islamic political part, said: "We support the army operation in Swat because it is a battle for the survival and defence of Pakistan... What these militants were doing was un-Islamic. Beheading innocent people and kidnapping are in no way condoned in Islam."
There are more than 160 million people in Pakistan, the absolute majority of them everyday Muslims who neither support nor endorse terrorism or acts of violence.
This photo is of the Badshahi mosque in Lahore. The darkness of the arches which lead to the internal prayer halls reflect my sorrow at today's tragic events; another voice of truth and justice silenced by those who neither understand nor represent the true teachings of Islam.