CHINO: Vigil at mosque condemns attack in Pakistan - Press Enterprise

More than 100 Muslims and Christians joined Monday, March 28, in a prayer vigil to condemn a terrorist attack that killed more than 70 people and injured more than 300 others in Pakistan on Easter.

The Chino mosque of a reformist Muslim community organized the interfaith vigil.

"We stand in solidarity with our Christian brothers and sisters, especially in Pakistan," said Amjad Mahmood Khan, national public affairs director for Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA. "We share deeply in their suffering."

 

Blasphemy laws in Pakistan restrict the religious activities of Christians and Ahmadi Muslims in Pakistan, he said. Ahmadi Muslims are a sect of Islam with about 20,000 followers in the United States and 1,500 in Southern California, he said.

 

"These laws have led to the persecution, arrest and imprisonment of hundreds of religious minorities," Khan said at the vigil, held at the Baitul Hameed Mosque. "For us, the laws are the oxygen for terrorists in Pakistan. They're energizing the entire country. The government is unable or unwilling to control extremists like the Pakistani Taliban."

 

While the Easter bombing targeted Christians gathered at a park in Lahore, the attack also killed Muslims. Victims included many women and children, he said.

The official death toll from the attack in Lahore rose to at least 72, with 341 people reported wounded by officials.

 

In a televised address to the nation, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed to fight terrorism “until it is rooted out from our society.” And the country’s powerful military, credited with greatly reducing militant attacks over the past two years, said it was beginning a new round of operations in Punjab province.

Facing heavy criticism on Monday, officials acknowledged that while security measures had been intensified around mosques and, especially, churches on Sunday, little attention had been paid to the public parks.

 

The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack.

 

It was the latest in a string of terrorist attacks committed by the Pakistani Taliban against religious minorities in Pakistan. The group massacred 86 Ahmadi Muslims in twin attacks in 2010, Khan noted.

He read a statement denouncing the attack from Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, the world leader of the Ahmadi Muslim Community.

 

"Never can such attacks be justified in any shape or form," the statement said, "and all forms of terrorism and extremism must be condemned in the strongest possible terms."

A Pakistani government official in the United States said leaders in his country have made strides in combating terrorism, though much work remains.

"We are taking every measure to control this menace," said Malik Qamar Abbas Khokhar, deputy consul general for Pakistan in Los Angeles.

 

The Rev. Khushnud Azariah is the vicar of St. George's Episcopal Church in Riverside. She spoke at the prayer vigil. "We need to respect one another and respect the dignity of all human beings," she said. "Nobody has the right to massacre and to slaughter and to limit others freedom in the name of God."

Kenn Rasmussen, a spokesman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the Chino and Diamond Bar areas, offered a prayer for the victims. He said the Ahmadi Muslims he knows are peaceful and love God.

 

"We're so sorry that these terrorists have hijacked their beautiful message and turned it into a murderous hatred," he said.

 

Jeanette Ellis-Royston, president of the Pomona Valley branch of the NAACP, said people must talk about their differences and understand each other before healing can begin.

 

She pointed to other recent examples of terrorism, including the Dec. 2 mass shooting in San Bernardino that killed 14 people and wounded 22 others. "We really need to call it what it is: wickedness," she said.

 

The New York Times contributed to this report.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9292 or swall@pe.com