Suicide bomber kills over 50 at religious event in Kabul

This will continue until these people start policing themselves.

I have zero emotional response to this news story.

crimea again

I'm guessing this means that Trump won't soon be visiting the troops near Kabul.

commemorate the anniversary of the Prophet Mohammad's birth,"

Many Wahhabis and Sunni extremists believe it's forbidden to celebrate the Prophet's birthday because from what I've been told it's an 'innovation', and the Prophet forbade innovations on Islam.

called Tuesday's attack "un-Islamic"

Given how many interpretations of Islam are possible and that there's no single 'pope' type figure to lead, it could be some thought it was 'Islamic'.

who have decreed that suicide attacks are forbidden by Islam.

An interpretation obviously not heeded by all.

President Ashraf Ghani called Tuesday's attack "un-Islamic"

An awful lot of what Jihadis do is described as “un-Islamic”.

They must be getting these ideas from somewhere. It can’t be the scriptures. We are told that these scriptures are all about love and tolerance.

Sunni vs. Shiite.... just put up a wall around the country and let them decide the victor. The problem is its hard for other Nations to stay out of the fight.... especially when a group like the Taliban festers there and they attack foreign countries.

Another NATO triumph.  The carnage across the middle East and the Stans will never end.

This has little to do with NATO or anybody other than Sunni's and Shia's.... they've been battling each other since Muhammad dies in 632 AD. Don't go blaming this all on the West.... we're just idiots for getting involved but we didn't start this originally. The minute these two lose a common enemy, they're back at each other's throats. Take away the West or another enemy.... and its back to to square one.

If the Taliban are moving closer to Russia, (and Russia are wanting to get involved in Afghanistan once more), then it would be in their interest to deny such an attack as this.

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/game-russia-playing-afghanistan-181113160715311.html

 The carnage across the middle East and the Stans will never end.

Let them get on with it. When the west gets involved, they get killed too without making things any better.

They may finally tire of blowing each other to pieces over religious schisms, but it won’t happen in our lifetimes.

https://www.calendarlabs.com/holidays/india/milad-un-nabi.php

 Is it the Muslim version of Christmas, I wonder?

I can see what PTownsend above is saying, that extremist Wahabis (think ISIS/ISIL, I am guessing) might make a public display of disapproval of this festival, which does seem to be for all Muslims around the world, regardless of the Sunni/Shiite split.

I can see what PTownsend above is saying, that extremist Wahabis (think ISIS/ISIL, I am guessing) might make a public display of disapproval of this festival, which does seem to be for all Muslims around the world, regardless of the Sunni/Shiite split.

Even in many Sunni countries this festival is made into a public holiday

Toasted, agreed, but this is not ‘senseless’ from the perp’s point of view. It is a cold harsh deliberate political calculation which makes complete sense to the hidden organizers.

It also shows a total lack of any deep understanding of the beautiful spiritual world and human nature that we all share in common. So sad that some people can be 100% sure of their blinkered and thus extremely limited view of the world.

I have zero emotional response to this news story.

Yeah, I blame it entirely on the people who dared to leave their houses, and got themselves ripped apart at the atomic level as a result. Absolutely pathetic.

So sad that some people can be 100% sure of their blinkered and thus extremely limited view of the world.

Aye. And getting sadder each day.

A religious event, for crying out loud :-(

Toasted, agreed, but this is not ‘senseless’ from the perp’s point of view. It is a cold harsh deliberate political calculation which makes complete sense to the hidden organizers.

I agree that it isn’t senseless for some of the devout. For Islamists, their religion informs the politics. There is no reason to believe this wasn’t carried out by deep,y ‘spiritual’ people who believed they are doing the work of their god, and they can offer scriptural justification.

The idea that it’s just politics, as if that is separable from religion in Afghanistan, doesn’t really make sense.

Jimizo, it was when I read Giles Foden's book Zanzibar that it became clear that deeply religious people were and are manipulated and blackmailed to perform unthinkable acts in the name of their religion. Those doing the bully work are able to make religion work to their own political devices.