Detroit Free Press—A group of metro Detroiters visiting Saudi Arabia for the annual Muslim pilgrimage said they were attacked and threatened with death last week by a group of Sunni men from Australia because they are Shias, a minority sect within Islam.
One of the members of the group was strangled until his face turned blue and women in the group were threatened with rape, according to people who witnessed the attack last week. They allege that authorities in Saudi Arabia did not take their complaints seriously and deleted a video one of them had made of the incident.
A U.S. State Department official told the Free Press on Monday: “We are concerned by reports that a group of U.S. citizens was attacked ... at a campsite for Hajj pilgrims located outside of Mecca. We take these reports seriously and are committed to the protection of U.S. citizens traveling and residing abroad.”
The Embassy of Saudi Arabia did not return a reporter’s calls or an e-mail seeking comment. The State Department official said the hajj and interior ministries in Saudi Arabia “have confirmed that they are investigating” the incident.
The Michigan Shias, led by Imam Hassan Al-Qazwini of Dearborn, the spiritual leader of metro Detroit’s biggest mosque, were in Saudi Arabia on hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage that all observant Muslims are required to take at least once in their life if they’re able to. The group included three women from the Amen family who were featured in the reality TV show “All-American Muslim.”
While Shias from metro Detroit have reported being harassed before on hajj, last week’s incident was much more extreme and frightening, members of the group told the Free Press.
The attack occurred Wednesday evening as some members of the group walked into a tent in Mina, a city in Saudi Arabia where pilgrims are required to spend a night to fulfill the requirements of hajj. The tent was for pilgrims from the U.S., Australia and European countries.
The Shias said they were confronted by a large group of men they later learned were Lebanese-Australians who belong to a Sunni group known as Salafis.
The Salafis asked one of the Shia men if he was Shia, recalled Seyed Mothafar Al-Qazwini, a nephew of Imam Al-Qazwini. “He responded ‘yes.’ He was immediately attacked by three men, one grabbing him in a choke hold, the others punching him in the face.”
Al-Qazwini said the leader of the Salafis then shouted “Kill them all. Kill the Shia.”
Suehaila Amen of Dearborn said the attackers also yelled “Kafir” at the Shias, an insult that means “infidel” or “non-Muslim.”
Some of the Sunnis then ran to the women’s tents, telling them “if they do not leave in 15 minutes, they will rape them all,” Al-Qazwini said. (Continue Reading.)
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Australian Sunnis Threaten to Kill and Rape Dearborn Shias During Hajj
Note that the attackers are not from Afghanistan or Sudan. They were Australian Muslims who were ready to slaughter and rape U.S. Shias during the Hajj. Perhaps President Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron can explain "true" Islam to these violent Sunnis.
5 comments:
Okay this prompts so many questions and yet there's no answers to them.
Here's one of them: why, if your a Shia and a minority, would you put it out there your Shia?
Universl brotherhood???? Well there's nothing that says family quite like having someone else's hands around your throat throttling the life out of you.
Seems like the protected and pampered U.S. Muslims have had a dose of REAL Islam. It doesn't seem that they liked it too well.
Deleting, you raise a truly great question. One of the parts to a complete answer may be that, as taught in the Mosque, Islam is one big love fest among ALL Muslims and if everyone became a Muslim all of mankind could participate in this Kumbaya. However, when in the middle east the ugly reality of Islam meets the sugar coated United States fantasy version and rapidly brings those who have been living in this fools paradise into a confrontation with the truth, if only for a brief moment.
Totally random thought here but has anyone noticed the Shia typically don't behead other Shia? They just cut their own foreheads and that of their kids from time to time..
Anyone notice how even though islamists (maybe Salafi) are cutting off heads of christians in Syria a good deal of those guys have beards so they may not be christian they maybe....
Shia...
The religion of peace welcomes you with open hands....around your throat!! If they were christian they would have never made it out,and we would have never heard about it
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