British Muslim Girl First Bombing Victim Laid to Rest
Praying for the deceased victim, imam Abdul-Qayyum branded the London attacks as "a heinous crime". LONDON, July 16, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) Shahara Akhter Islam, a 20-year-old British Muslim woman seen by many as the embodiment of multicultural Britain, became Friday, July 14, the first victim of the grisly London bombings to be laid to rest. "Today our dear daughter -- cause of our joy and light of our eyes, our Shahara -- is returning to her Lord, an innocent and blood- stained martyr," her family said in a statement cited by Agence France-Presse (AFP). "The flame of her life has been cruelly extinguished from this beautiful young woman in her prime, who had the whole world ahead of her." The young Muslim girl, a Co-operative Bank cashier, was on her way to work when she died on the Number 30 bus at Tavistock Square that was one of the four targets of Britain's first-ever suicide bombings on Thursday, July 7. "We are not finding it easy to come to terms to our immeasurable loss, our sorrow, our grief," said the grieving family. "She was a simple girl from a simple family who led a simple life. Unfortunately she was at the wrong place at the wrong time on that unfortunate day." At least 54 people, including for bombers of Pakistani origin, were killed and more than 700 others wounded on three underground trains and a double-decker bus in London. The bomber on the Number 30 bus has been identified by police as Hasib Mir Hussain, 18, from Leeds in the north of England. The Muslim minority in Britain has vehemently condemned the terrorist attacks. London attacks had also drawn condemnation from scholars, officials and individuals from across the Muslim as running counter to the teachings of Islam. True Muslim, Briton The family remembered Shahara as "an Eastender, a Londoner and British, but above all, a true Muslim and proud to be so." Shahara's family maintained that it has been "a painful week, not only for us, but for all those fellow Londoners who, like us, suffered similar loss of their dear ones. Today our thoughts are with them all." Prayers for the deceased British Muslim girl were held early Friday at the East London Mosque in Whitechapel. Imam Shaykh Abdul-Qayyum branded the bombings "a heinous crime" carried out by people with a false understanding of Islam. About 20 senior British Muslim scholars Friday said those who carried out the bombings could not be considered martyrs. "We regard these acts as utterly criminal, totally reprehensible, and absolutely un-Islamic," they said in a statement read by the imam of the central mosque of the English Midlands city of Leicester, Mohammad Shahid Reza, on their behalf. Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] List owner : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
