By Arsalan Iftikhar, Special to CNN
Date Posted: January 5, 2011
Editor’s note: Arsalan Iftikhar is an international human rights lawyer, founder of TheMuslimGuy.com and legal fellow for the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding in Washington.
(CNN) – With the recent deadly attacks on Christian churches, the maniacal terrorists of al Qaeda seem to be aiming at unraveling the neighborliness among Muslims, Jews and Christians throughout the Middle East that has existed for centuries.
In Baghdad, 58 people died in a bomb attack on a church; in Alexandria, Egypt, 21 people were killed and about 80 injured in another bombing.
Of course, al Qaeda has not limited its attacks to Christianity. Before its attacks on churches, al Qaeda was targeting mosques all around the region.
In 2006, for example, Iraqi members of al Qaeda attacked the Al-Askari mosque in Samarra, Iraq, during the morning hours, killing at least 101 Iraqi Muslims at one of the holiest sites in Shia Islam.
In July 2007, hundreds of militants barricaded themselves in the Red Mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan, in a bloody standoff with the Pakistani army, resulting in the deaths of at least 154 people in the nation’s capital.
Al-Azhar University — one of Egypt’s oldest centers of Islamic study and worship — issued a statement on Egyptian television condemning the Alexandria bombing.
“This is a criminal act that can never be justified in any religion. Islam specifically prohibits any attacks on religious places. As a matter of fact, our religion of Islam tasks Muslims with protecting religious places of worship for Muslims and non-Muslims alike.”
Continue Reading Arsalan’s January 2011 CNN Column Here…
