253 Sufis were gunned down on the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt this week
I consider myself to be a "Mystical Christian" and these folks likely would describe themselves as "Mystical Muslims".
Kahlil Gibran which many of you have read some or all of his writings was also influenced heavily by Sufi Masters in his writings too."The Prophet" by Kahlil Gibran was and is considered a useful college text and he is considered to be an amazing poet in California while I was growing up in college to read. Gibran wrote about love in an amazing way in relation to spirit as a religious experience with God. His most famous book is called "The Prophet" and most people I knew who had been to college in California have read it. Gibran wrote about God as one's Beloved which is an amazing way of thinking to begin with.
His most interesting story I heard from my friend during the 1970s when he was a graduate student at UCLA which was that Gibran was around a campfire with Muslims and he suddenly stood up and said, "There is nothing within this cloak but God." That is a fatal statement that is an instantly killing offense among Muslims of his century and for many now this is still something you will be killed on the spot for now. However, when they all drew their scimitars to kill him he had done an Obewan Kenobi and vanished and all that was there was an empty cloak. In fact, Obewan vanishing might have come from this Kahlil Gibran true story.
However, ISIS fundamentalists consider Sufi Muslims Muslim Heretics and blew most of them away at this mosque this week on the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. At least 300 dead plus 128 wounded at this point.
ISMAILIA,
Egypt -- They arrived in five SUVs, took positions across from the
mosque's door and windows, and just as the imam was about to deliver his
…
ISMAILIA, Egypt -- They
arrived in five SUVs, took positions across from the mosque's door and
windows, and just as the imam was about to deliver his Friday sermon
from atop the pulpit, they opened fire and tossed grenades at the
estimated 500 worshippers inside. When the violence finally stopped, more than 300 people, including 27 children, had been killed and 128 injured.
The
blasts shook the mosque, worshippers screamed and cried out in pain. A
stampede broke out in the rush toward a door leading to the washrooms.
Others tried desperately to force their way out of the windows.
Those
who survived spoke of children screaming as they saw parents and older
brothers mowed down by gunfire or shredded by the blasts. Some marveled
at their narrow escape from a certain death. Some families lost all or
most male members in the massacre.
So composed were the militants
that they methodically checked their victims for any sign of life after
the initial round of blazing gunfire. Those still moving or breathing
received a bullet to the head or the chest, the witnesses said. When the
ambulances arrived they shot at them, repelling them as they got back
into their vehicles and fled.
CBS News foreign correspondent
Charlie D'Agata reports that Egypt's response to the massacre came as
quickly as they could fire up their war planes. The Egyptian military
released video Saturday claiming to show fighter jets targeting vehicles
in Friday's attack that they said killed suspected militants inside.
Friday's assault was Egypt's deadliest attack by Islamic
extremists in the country's modern history, a grim milestone in a
long-running fight against an insurgency led by a local affiliate of the
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Al-Rawdah Mosque was in a sleepy village by the same name in Egypt's
troubled northern Sinai, near the small town of Bir al-Abd.
A
statement by the country's chief prosecutor, Nabil Sadeq, said the
attackers, some masked, numbered between 25 and 30. Those with bare
faces sported heavy beards and long hair, it added. Clad in
military-style camouflage pants and black T-shirts, one of them carried a
black banner with the declaration of the Muslim faith -- there is no
God but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet. The banner matched those
carried by ISIS, which has not claimed responsibility for the attack.
They also torched seven cars parked outside the mosque that belonged to worshippers, the statement added.
The
chief prosecutor's statement was the most detailed account given by
authorities and it generally agreed with what witnesses told The
Associated Press on Saturday in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, where
some of the wounded are hospitalized.
"We knew that the mosque was
under attack by (militants)," said witness Ebid Salem Mansour recalling
the intense gunfire. Mansour, a 38-year-old worker in a nearby salt
factory, said he had settled in Bir al-Abd three years ago to escape the
bloodshed and fighting elsewhere in northern Sinai. He suffered two
gunshot wounds to his legs on Friday.
"Everyone lay down on the
floor and kept their heads down. If you raised your head you get shot,"
he said. "The shooting was random and hysterical at the beginning and
then became more deliberate. Whoever they weren't sure was dead or still
breathing was shot dead."
The militants were shouting Allahu
Akbar, or God is great, as they fired at the worshippers and the
children were screaming, Mansour added. "I knew I was injured but I was
in a situation that was much scarier than being wounded. I was only
seconds away from a certain death," he said. Amid the shooting many
worshippers recited their final prayers, he added.
Friday's attack
targeted a mosque frequented by Sufis, members of a mystic movement
within Islam. Islamic militants, including the local ISIS affiliate,
consider Sufis heretics because of their less literal interpretations of
the faith.
President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi vowed that the attack "will
not go unpunished" and that Egypt would persevere with its war on
terrorism. He did not specify what new steps might be taken. On
Saturday, he ordered that a mausoleum be built in memory of the victims
of Friday's attack and canceled a visit to the Gulf Sultanate of Oman
that was scheduled for next week.
The military and security forces
have already been waging a tough and costly campaign against militants
in the towns, villages and desert mountains of northern Sinai, and Egypt
has been in a state of emergency since April. Across the country,
thousands have been arrested in a crackdown on suspected Islamists as
well as against other dissenters and critics, raising concerns about
human rights violations.
Seeking to spread the violence, militants
over the past year have carried out deadly bombings on churches in the
capital of Cairo and other cities, killing dozens of Christians. The
ISIS affiliate is also believed to be behind the 2016 downing of a
Russian passenger jet that killed 224 people over Sinai, an incident
that decimated the country's already ailing tourism industry.
Friday's
assault was the first major militant attack on a Muslim congregation,
and it eclipsed past attacks, even dating back to a previous Islamic
militant insurgency in the 1990s. The death of so many civilians in one
day recalls the killing of at least 600 in August 2013, when Egyptian
security forces broke up two sit-in protests in Cairo by supporters of
Mohammed Morsi, an Islamist president ousted by the military the
previous month.
Another witness to Friday's attack said
worshippers tried to jump out of windows as soon as the militants opened
fire. "The small door that leads to the corridor for the wash rooms was
about the only one where worshippers rushed to escape," said a
38-year-old government employee who did not want to be named for fear of
retaliation.
"There was a stampede. I fell down and then bodies piled up on top of me," he said.
The local ISIS group affiliate has targeted Sufis in the past.
Last
year, the militants beheaded a leading local Sufi religious figure, the
blind sheikh Suleiman Abu Heraz, and posted photos of the killing
online. ISIS propaganda often denounces Sufis. In the January edition of
an ISIS online magazine, a figure purporting to be a high level
official in the Sinai affiliate of the group vowed to target Sufis,
accusing them of idolatry and heretical "innovation" in religion and
warning that the group will "not permit (their) presence" in Sinai or
Egypt.
Millions of Egyptians belong to Sufi orders, which hold
sessions of ritual chanting and dancing to draw the faithful closer to
God. Sufis also hold shrines containing the tombs of holy men in
particular reverence.
Islamic militants stepped up their campaign
of violence in northern Sinai after the military ousted the elected but
divisive Morsi. Authorities followed up with a fierce crackdown on his
Muslim Brotherhood group, jailing thousands.
The result has been a
long, grinding conflict centered on el-Arish and nearby villages and
towns in north Sinai. The militants have been unable to control
territory, but the military and security forces have also been unable to
bring security, as the extremists continuously carry out surprise
attacks, mostly targeting outposts and convoys.
The attacks have
largely focused on military and police and, more recently, Christians.
Hundreds have been killed, although exact numbers are unclear. The
militants have also assassinated individuals the group considers to be
spies for the government or religious heretics. Egypt has also faced
attacks by militants in its Western Desert.
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