Aug. 29 -- This is truly horrendous: a hospital is saying that at least 75 people have died as a result of the massive car bombing outside the Imam Ali Mosque including the Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim. Read the report; I haven't the heart to quote from it.

There is something so repugnant about targeting people in their places of worship be they in mosques, synagogues, churches or temples. There is something especially evil and twisted about killing people while they are at worship which forces me to pause and know that shaking my head in disbelief just doesn't really cut it and words are inadequate to express the outrage and pain.

I know that targeting innocent people no matter what they are doing or where they are is evil, it's just that an extra degree of evil is added when holy sites are defiled by bloodletting. Maybe it reflects my Western values, but I doubt it. I suspect many Muslims right now are feeling that this latest bombing was an act of pure evil, but somehow I doubt the CBC will be able to locate any of them.

Could we at least take time to grieve before the games commence? No?

The blame game began as soon as the bombing was broadcast early this morning. Props to the CNN desk commentator [I'll enter his name when my brain returns to active duty; he's the other conservative-sounding one] who asked in a very sarcastic voice how this could be blamed on America; that there was a ready answer made me do something I haven't done in awhile: my jaw dropped. Then I realized that, of course, the question was set up so this correspondence could prattle off an answer. Sigh.

UPDATE: Here is the first installment of the blame game but if memory serves me weren't offers of security turned down? Of course, there is something distinctly profane about stationing troops of non-believers (using the term in its pure form) and concrete barricades around a place of worship.

Posted by: Debbye at 01:37 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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