Iraq: Meanwhile, back in the real world…

A STRING of car bombs and shootings killed at least 57 people in Shi’ite and Sunni areas of Iraq last night, escalating fears of a return to widespread sectarian bloodletting.

Pakistan: ‘Systematic genocide’ of Shi’ite Muslims

Facing what they have described as a ”systematic genocide” in Pakistan, more and more [Shi'ite Moslem] Hazaras are trying to leave by any means possible.

Pakistan: Daily life under Islam — Part 3

At least 45 people have been killed by a bomb explosion in the Pakistani city of Karachi, police say.

Iraq: Islam’s daily business, Part 2

Multiple car bombings that exploded within minutes killed at least 37 people and wounded more than 100 in Baghdad on Sunday morning. The blasts hit in mostly Shiite neighborhoods of the capital, targeting outdoor local markets as many were out shopping to start the local workweek. There has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, although the blasts are similar to attacks ordered by Sunni extremists—and al Qaeda’s local affiliate. More than 100 people have been killed so far this month in sectarian violence in Iraq, and 178 were killed in January alone.

The Daily Beast

Pakistan: Business as usual…

A bomb blast targeting Shi’ite Muslims in south-western Pakistan has killed at least 64 people and wounded 180.

Pakistan: Suicide bomber kills 24 at mosque

A SUICIDE bomber has targeted a Shi’ite Muslim mosque in northwest Pakistan, killing 24 people and wounding up to 55 as worshippers poured out of weekly prayers, officials say.

Pakistan: While I was playing billiards…

Religious maniacs were killing people.

A SERIES of bombings has killed 115 people across Pakistan, including 81 who died in twin blasts on a bustling billiards hall in a Shiite area of the southwestern city of Quetta.

Pakistan’s minority Shiite Muslims have increasingly been targeted by radical Sunnis who consider them heretics, and a militant Sunni group claimed responsibility for today’s deadliest attack – sending a suicide bomber into the packed pool hall and then detonating a car bomb five minutes later.

It was one of the deadliest days in recent years for a country that is no stranger to violence from radical Islamists, militant separatists and criminal gangs.

The Australian

What’s new?

Iraq: Minister’s bodyguards on terrorism charges

TEN bodyguards of Iraq’s Sunni Finance Minister, Rafia al-Issawi, have been arrested in a terrorism-related sweep, the first official confirmation in a case that is inflaming the country’s simmering political and sectarian tensions.

Protests broke out in response to the detentions in at least two cities in Sunni-dominated western Anbar province, and the US said in unusually strong terms it was pressing Iraq’s Shiite-led government to uphold its commitment to the law.

SMH

Iraq: At least 70 Shi’ite pilgrims killed in bomb attacks

A co-ordinated wave of car bombs has struck Shi’ite pilgrims in Baghdad and several other cities, killing at least 70 people and wounding more than 200 in one of the deadliest days in Iraq since US troops withdrew from the country.

The bloodshed comes against a backdrop of political divisions that have raised tensions and threatened to provoke a new round of the violence that once pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war.

Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but they bore the hallmarks of Sunni insurgents who frequently target Shi’ites in Iraq.

SMH

Iraq: Religious differences more important than preventing mayhem and death

Co-operation? What’s that mean?

SMH

Sunni Muslim rulers have largely shunned an Arab League summit hosted by Shiite-led Iraq, illustrating how powerfully the sectarian split and the rivalry with Iran define Middle Eastern politics in the era of the Arab Spring.

The crisis in Syria is the epicentre of those divisions. Thursday’s one-day summit closed with a joint call on the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, to stop his bloody crackdown on an uprising seeking his ouster. But the final statement barely papered over the differences among the Arab nations over how to deal with the longest-running regional revolt….

In a snub to Iraq, only 10 heads of state from the Arab League’s 22 members attended, with the rest sending lower-level officials.

Especially notable were the absences of the rulers of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and most other Persian Gulf countries, as well Morocco and Jordan – all of them headed by Sunni monarchs who deeply distrust the close ties between Baghdad’s Shiite-dominated government and their top regional rival, Iran.

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Myself and my cousins against the world!
Myself and my brothers against my cousins!
Myself against my brothers!

— Bedouin Arab saying

Syria: Up to nine deaths in sectarian violence

SMH

Witnesses on both sides of the divide and a medical worker who tracked the violence and collected the bodies said the tensions soared after a crowd of Alawites armed with sticks surrounded a mosque in a Sunni neighbourhood shortly before the midday prayers on Friday and began chanting anti-Sunni slogans.

Sunnis responded by abducting three Alawites and their bullet-ridden bodies were found dumped in a Sunni neighbourhood of the city on Saturday. Alawites went on a rampage, looting and burning Sunni shops.

In the melee, at least three Sunnis were killed, including a 27-year-old woman who was shot when she stepped outside her home in a majority Alawite neighbourhood.

 

Lebanon: Islamic clergy reject law against domestic abuse

AFP

Lebanon’s highest Sunni Muslim authority on Friday rejected a bill aimed at protecting women against domestic violence and marital rape, saying it would lead to the demise “of the family as in the West.”

…

Dar al-Fatwa also slammed as “heresy” a clause in the bill that criminalises marital rape, accusing those behind the draft law of “inventing new types of crimes.”

Because if a man can’t rape his wife, who can he rape?

Pakistan: Sunni suicide bombings kill dozens at shrine

SMH.

Two suicide bomb attacks outside a shrine in the central Pakistani province of Punjab on Sunday killed 41 people, a police officer says.

The bombers struck outside the shrine of the 13th century Sufi saint Ahmed Sultan, popularly known as Sakhi Sarwar, in Dera Ghazi Khan district….

Sufi worshippers, who follow a mystical strain of Islam, have increasingly been the target of bloody attacks by Islamist militants in Pakistan.

No group has immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, but Sunni extremists, including the Taliban, are vehemently opposed to the Sufi strand of Islam and consider their shrines to be idolatrous.