Persecution of Shias by IS | |
---|---|
Location | Afghanistan Iraq Kuwait Lebanon Syria [1] Pakistan Saudi Arabia Yemen |
Date | June 2014 – Present |
Target | Shia Muslims |
Perpetrators | Islamic State |
Defenders | Iraq Iran Syria Hezbollah |
Motive | Anti-Shia sentiment Salafi jihadist extremism |
Shia Muslims have been persecuted by the Islamic State, an Islamic extremist group, since 2014. Persecutions have taken place in Iraq, Syria, and other parts of the world.
Despite being the religious majority in Iraq, Shia Muslims have been killed and otherwise persecuted by IS, which is Sunni. On 12 June 2014, ISIL killed 1,700 unarmed Shia Iraqi Army cadet recruits in the Camp Speicher massacre. [2] [3] [4] ISIL has also targeted Shia prisoners. [5] According to witnesses, after the militant group took the city of Mosul, they divided the Sunni prisoners from the Shia prisoners. [5] Up to 670 [6] Shia prisoners were then taken to another location and executed. [5] Kurdish officials in Erbil reported on the incident of Sunni and Shia prisoners being separated and Shia prisoners being killed after the Mosul prison fell to ISIL. [5]
IS also targeted Christians and Yazidis in northern Iraq on a "historic scale", putting entire communities "at risk of being wiped off the map of Iraq". In a special report released on 2 September 2014, Amnesty International described how ISIL had "systematically targeted non-Sunni Muslim communities, killing or abducting hundreds, possibly thousands, of individuals and forcing more than tens of thousands of Shias, Sunnis, along with other minorities to flee the areas it has captured since 10 June 2014". The most targeted Shia groups in Nineveh Governorate were Shia Turkmens and Shabaks. [7]
In summer 2014, Shia properties in Mosul and other ISIL-held areas were painted with the letter ⟨ر⟩ (rā) for Rafidah , a derogatory term for Shias used by Sunni Muslims. Houses and shops owned by Shias were confiscated by ISIL and given to local ISIL supporters or ISIL foreign fighters. [8] Thousands of Shia Shabaks and Turkmen fled the cities of Mosul, Tal Afar, and the rest of Nineveh Governorate to safer Shia-majority areas further south. [7]
Thousands of Shias from villages in Salahudin and Kirkuk governorates fled to neighbouring villages in Kirkuk after three Shia villages were attacked by ISIL and at least 40 civilians including children were killed near the town of Bashir. [8] [9]
ISIL views Shia Muslims as polytheists and heretics. Therefore, it started a campaign to destroy all Shia shrines, mosques and places of worship in Nineveh and all ISIL-held areas. Reports stated that at least 10 Shia shrines and hussiniyas including historical ones in Mosul and Tal Afar were demolished or blown up by ISIL during this campaign.[ citation needed ] On March 26, 2014, ISIS blew up the Shia shrine of the companion of Muhammad, Uwais al-Qarni. [10] In July 2016, ISIL attacked a Shia shrine during the Muhammad ibn Ali al-Hadi Mausoleum attack, killing anywhere from 56 to at least 100 people.
On 17 March 2016, United States Secretary of State John Kerry declared that the violence initiated by ISIL against Shia Muslims and others in Iraq and Syria amounted to genocide. [11] [12] He said:
"In my judgment, Daesh is responsible for genocide against groups in areas under its control including Yazidis, Christians and Shia Muslims" - John Kerry
Kerry's statement came the same week the US House voted 383–0 in favor of classifying the atrocities committed by ISIL as a genocide against certain ethnic and religious minorities in its territories. [11] [12] [13]
The Islamic State – Khorasan Province has committed bombing attacks against Hazara Shia civilians in Afghanistan. [14] [15]
ISIS has started to conduct operations in Pakistan.
On 7 July 2016, at least 56 people were killed and 75 injured after a group of attackers stormed the Mausoleum of Sayid Mohammed bin Ali al-Hadi, a Shia holy site in Balad, Iraq. The attackers included suicide car bombers, suicide bombers on foot, and several gunmen. They attacked Shia pilgrims celebrating Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. There were three suicide bombers, and one of them was killed by security personnel. There were other attackers too. ISIL also launched several mortars into the area.
On 15 October 2016, four attacks in and around Baghdad, Iraq, resulted in the deaths of at least 60 victims and at least seven attackers, while injuring at least 80 more people. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) are believed to be behind the suicide bombing and two mass shootings.
Events in the year 2017 in Afghanistan.
The December 2017 Kabul suicide bombing occurred on 28 December 2017, when militants attacked a Shiite cultural centre in Kabul, Afghanistan. The attack killed 50 people and injured over 80.
Events in the year 2018 in Afghanistan.
A suicide bombing occurred on 21 March 2018 around 12:00 PM in Kabul near Kart-e Sakhi, a Shia shrine. At least 33 people were killed with more than 65 wounded in the bombing. The militant group ISIL claimed responsibility for the attack.
On 22 April 2018, a suicide bombing killed 70 people and wounded dozens more Sunday at a voter registration center in Koche Mahtab Qala, in the Hazara-majority Dashte Barchi area of western Kabul, Afghanistan. In addition to the fatalities, at least 120 others were injured in the attack.
Two bombings on 5 September 2018 at the Maiwand Wrestling Club in Qala-e-Nazer in Dasht-e-Barchi, a predominantly Hazara neighborhood of western Kabul, left at least 20 people dead and 70 others wounded, the deadliest attack on Kabul's Shia since the 15 August suicide bombing. The responsibility for the attacks was claimed by ISIL.
Islamic State – Bengal Province (IS-BP) is an administrative division of the Islamic State, a Salafi jihadist militant group and former unrecognised Quasi-state. The group was announced by ISIL as its province in 2016. The first emir of Wilayat al-Bengal, Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif, is believed to be Mohammad Saifullah Ozaki a Bangladeshi Japanese economist who went to Syria in 2015 and joined IS. A Hindu convert to Islam, he reportedly led the 2016 Dhaka attack. He was detained in Iraq in 2019 and Abu Muhammed al-Bengali was announced as the new emir of the province.
The Islamic State–Taliban conflict is an ongoing armed conflict between the Islamic State and the Taliban in Afghanistan. The conflict escalated when militants who were affiliated with Islamic State – Khorasan Province killed Abdul Ghani, a senior Taliban commander in Logar province on 2 February 2015. Since then, the Taliban and IS-KP have engaged in clashes over the control of territory, mostly in eastern Afghanistan, but clashes have also occurred between the Taliban and IS-KP cells which are located in the north-west and south-west.
On 8 October 2021, an ISIS-K suicide bombing occurred at the Shia Gozar-e-Sayed Abad Mosque in the Afghan city of Kunduz. Over 50 people were killed, and another 100 were injured, but according to an estimate by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, more than 100 people were killed and wounded.
On 21 April 2022, a powerful bomb rocked the Shia Seh Dokan mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif, Balkh Province, Afghanistan killing at least 31 people and injuring more than 87 others. The Islamic State – Khorasan Province claimed responsibility via Telegram.
On April 21, 2022, several separate explosions rocked different parts of Afghanistan. The first explosion occurred at the biggest Shia Muslim Seh Dokan mosque in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan. Over 31 people were killed and another 87 were injured in the mosque explosion. Another explosion targeted a vehicle exploded near a police station Kunduz city, leaving 4 dead and 18 injured. A mine planted explosion hit a van of the military in Khogiani killing four Taliban members and wounding a fifth. The roadside bomb wounded two children in the Niaz Beyk area of Kabul. Islamic State (ISIL) has claimed several attacks including the bombing of the Seh Dokan mosque.
#StopHazaraGenocide is a social media campaign that aims to raise awareness and demand action against the persecution and violence faced by the Hazara ethnic minority in Afghanistan. The campaign was initiated by Hazaras in response to a series of deadly attacks on the Hazara community, especially students and women, by the Taliban and other extremist groups.
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