Since Friday, in unrelated incidents in four countries around the world, deadly violence with some connection to religious disputes or religious institutions have captured the headlines. In Iraq, in two separate incidents, Shiite pilgrims were killed on their way to ceremonies honoring imam Mussa Kadhim who died 12 centuries ago. On Sunday, gunmen killed 7 pilgrims in Madin, south of Baghdad. Today in Baghdad, bombs killed 25 pilgrims heading toward a shrine, and wounded 70 others. (AFP).
In Turkey today, two bombs exploded in Istanbul killing 17 and wounding 150. While the bombings appeared to be the work of Kurdish separatists retaliating for a crackdown on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), they came just as Turkey's Constitutional Court was preparing for a key hearing in the lawsuit seeking to ban the country's ruling party for undermining the secular nature of the country. (AFP).
In India, a series of coordinated bombings in Ahmedabad on Saturday killed at least 45 people. A group called the "Indian Mujahideen" claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying they were in retaliation for a 2002 massacre of Muslims by Hindus in Gujarat. The bombings followed others one day earlier in Bangalore killing one woman. (Reuters-Sun. and Reuters-Mon.).
In the United States yesterday, a man carrying a shotgun in a guitar case entered a Knoxville, Tennessee Unitarian Universalist church and opened fire during the performance of a play by a group of children. He killed two people in the audience and wounded seven others. (New York Times). UPDATE: AP reports that the accused shooter, Jim D. Adkisson, left behind a note indicating that he had targeted the Unitarian church because he was upset with its liberal policies, including its acceptance of gays.
