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| India-Pakistan |
| Mufti urges boycott of suicide bombers' funeral |
| 2007-06-30 |
| Indian-held Kashmir’s top Muslim cleric has called on Muslims to boycott funerals of people who kill themselves in a bid to halt a rise in suicides in the revolt-hit state, a report said on Friday. Sixty suicides have been reported in the first six months of the year according to official figures, compared with a total of 61 in all of 2006. “The grand Mufti of Kashmir, Mufti Bashir-u-Din, has issued a fatwa urging Muslims not to participate in the funeral prayers of a Muslim who commits suicide,” the local Greater Kashmir newspaper reported. “It is a criminal act in our religion to commit suicide. Imams should make people aware about the importance of life,” the cleric told the newspaper. Doctors say the number of psychiatric problems has soared since a separatist insurgency broke out in 1989, resulting in the deaths of over 42,000 in the past 18 years and leaving many more maimed, orphaned or widowed. Leading Kashmiri psychiatrist Mushtaq Margoob has estimated that around one-tenth of Kashmir’s 10 million population suffers from depression. Health practitioners say they see little hope of improvement in the mental health of people living in Indian Kashmir as long as the Islamic revolt continues. During a six-week period ending in mid-June, the region’s leading Shri Maharaja Hari Singh hospital reported 150 cases of self-harm, attempted suicide and suicide. On top of insurgency-related violence that claims two to three lives daily, Kashmiris also face widespread unemployment, which has been worsened by the conflict. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #4 Maybe Mufti Bashir knows that opposing sects are going to boom the funerals. [/extreme cynicism] |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-06-30 18:18 |
| #3 Im not mooselimb but I decided not to go. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2007-06-30 18:15 |
| #2 The Grand Mufti of Kashmir said that? Wow. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-06-30 16:29 |
| #1 "boycott funerals of people who kill themselves in a bid to halt a rise in suicides..." and he said this with a straight face? sounds like a page from the Iranian "let's blow up gas stations since there isn't enough to go around" playbook. |
| Posted by: USN, ret. 2007-06-30 09:52 |