Too much to bear

Yesterday a suicide bomb exploded at a sugar factory in Baghlan, a town north of Kabul in Afghanistan. The targets were senior officials from the various ministries who had come up from Kabul to inaugurate the factory. School children had been prepared to meet the local officials, holding flowers and dressed in their nicest clothes. Of the 60 or so people killed, the vast majority were the children. This was the worst attack in the country since 2001. Hamid Karzai declared three days of mourning and in Washington, the incident was called a despicable act of cowardice. No group has taken responsibility for the attack; Taleban and Al Qaeda are being suspected.

What do these people want? What are they after? Where does their ideology come from? As a Muslim, I'm repulsed, saddened and ashamed to share the same religion as these people. Afghanistan has made so many strides since the Taleban were deposed and these 'insurgents' are wiping it all off cavalierly and with no thought to the consequences. And what can we do? We are helpless to watch, wait, and postulate.

I send out a prayer for the families of the victims and hope to God that the people who are responsible recognize the errors of their ways.