U.N. rights boss calls bombing near Saudi holy mosque an attack on Islam

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

World | Tue Jul 5, 2016 2:29pm EDT

U.N. rights boss calls bombing near Saudi holy mosque an attack on Islam

The U.N. human rights chief on Tuesday called a suicide bombing outside the Prophet Mohammad's Mosque in the Saudi city of Medina an attack on Islam itself and many Muslims expressed shock that their second-holiest site had been targeted.

Three apparently coordinated suicide attacks on Monday targeted Medina, the U.S. consulate in Jeddah and the largely Shi'ite Muslim city of Qatif on Monday. At least four security officers were killed.

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Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and a member of the Jordanian royal family, delivered his remarks via a spokesman in Geneva.

"This is one of the holiest sites in Islam, and for such an attack to take place there, during Ramadan, can be considered a direct attack on Muslims all across the world," he said, referring to the Islamic holy month.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-security-blast-idUSKCN0ZK1RD

[HassleCat]

1. Well, yeah!

By other Muslims, no doubt.

[Lordquinton]

2. Like Christianity, Islam is not a unified group

It's sectarian violence akin to the Catholic/Protestant stuff in Northern Ireland. Suni vs Sh'ia <sp> and I bet the human rights person belongs to the side that was attacked.

I bet they weren't Scottish either...

[trotsky]

3. Surely religion had nothing to do with it.

[Lordquinton]

4. That goes without saying

Religion is never the cause for terrible events that cause the deaths and suffering of untold numbers...

[Cartoonist]

5. Mental illness maybe?

There's a post in GD that says it's about money.

[Lordquinton]

6. In all seriousness it is a complex motive that ties together everything mentioned

Except maybe mental illness. Most crimes are committed by perfectly sane and sober people, as anyone who's even passingly familiar with crime stats knows.

This is, however, an old feud that goes back to the day Muhammad died, and they couldn't agree on who should take his place. All the attacks took place near the big holy sites, kinda like the Napa earthquake, which really happened in American Canyon. It wasn't actually at them, but at nearby Shi'a holy sites (or whichever is which in this case, I keep switching them up in my head).

In any case it's not a simple thing, and there isn't an easy answer to it.

[trotsky]

7. "In any case it's not a simple thing, and there isn't an easy answer to it."

Exactly - it's too bad we have a few DUers who feel obligated to defend religious privilege and promote bigotry against non-believers.

A solution to terrorism has to look at ALL the factors, including religion.

[Lordquinton]

9. It's sad to see how all or nothing some folks are

The ever so common "Religion isn't wholly responsible for it, therefore it bears no responsibility" Far too common out there. Even the Pope is his "apology" to LGBTQIA tossed in that it wasn't a problem with religion, but it's followers.

[trotsky]

10. And yet the wonderpope is on record confirming that if you insult someone's religion,

you should expect to be attacked.

Well, being gay is an insult to some people's religion. So...

[Lordquinton]

11. He also said that Catholics need to evangalize

so the church can grow it's coffers membership.

[Act_of_Reparation]

8. I saw that thread.

The fail is strong with that group.