UGANDA: MILITANTS CLAIM RESPONSIBILITY FOR BOMBINGS

SOMALI ISLAMIST BOMBINGS TARGETED
FOOTBALL FANS WATCHING WORLD CUP FINAL

(CNN) - A Somali Islamist militant movement on Monday claimed responsibility for a trio of bombings that killed at least 74 people Sunday at two venues in the Ugandan capital where crowds had gathered to watch the World Cup final. “We are behind the attack because we are at war with them,” Al-Shabaab spokesman Ali Mohamoud Rage told reporters at a news conference in Mogadishu, Somalia. “We had given warning to the Ugandans to refrain from their involvement in our country. We spoke to the leaders and we spoke to the people and they never listened to us.” Rage said young suicide bombers carried out the attacks, but did not specify their nationalities. “May Allah accept these martyrs who carried out the blessed operation and exploded themselves in the middle of the infidels,” he said. President Yoweri Museveni declared a week of national mourning for victims of the bombings. Museveni, who on Monday visited a rugby sports center where two of the blasts occurred Sunday, said: “If you want to fight, why don’t you attack soldiers or military installations instead of fighting innocent people watching football?” In addition to the 74 fatalities, police said more than 70 people were injured in the Kampala blasts. The blasts hit in the capital, Kampala, within 50 minutes of each other. The first one struck an Ethiopian restaurant and two others exploded at the rugby center.

A spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, said President Barack Obama is “deeply saddened by the loss of life resulting from these deplorable and cowardly attacks” and that the US is ready to provide assistance to Ugandan officials. Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said “the fact that the victims were enjoying the World Cup reveals the evil and ugly nature of the perpetrators and the need to uproot from (the) region those who do not value the sanctity of human life,” the official statement said.


The attackers speak about "blessed martyrs who exploded themselves in the middle of the infidels”. They should know that Lord Sri Krishna Chaitanya Mahaprabhu propagated the cult of all-embracing Divine Love which brings universal brotherhood on a transcendental plane. If we love Godhead, we cannot have the impetus to injure any of His creatures.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Unless and until the eternal relationship of the people is known to them and they realize that they cannot exist and be happy without the Godhead, Who is All-Bliss, the natural inclination of the people towards the Godhead and diversion of their attention from the material aspects of life cannot be effected. ... Mere belief in the existence of God will be of great benefit to humanity by teaching man to do good to others. ... So long as people do not understand that they are inseparably connected, and until the activities of the people are God-centered, mere sentimentalism or fictitious ideas will not be able to foster real love amongst individuals. If we know that the infliction of harm to other animate beings is detrimental to our own interest and will bring harm in return, we will not be encouraged to harm any individual, nay even any sentient being of the world.

Śrīla Bhakti Dayita Madhava Mahārāja :
“Realistic Solution for Diverse Humanity”
Speech at a ‘Spiritual Summit Conference’ - 1968 Calcutta.
http://www.sreecgmath.org/scgmtimes/scgmsbdm.php